Genes of Harambe, gorilla shot at Cincinnati Zoo, stored for research

Harambe

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After shooting dead a gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo to save a 3-year-old boy, zoo officials said they had collected a sample of his sperm, raising hopes among distraught fans that Harambe could sire offspring even in death.

But officials at the main U.S. body that oversees breeding of zoo animals said it was highly unlikely that the Western lowland gorilla’s contribution to the nation’s “frozen zoo” of genetic material of rare and endangered species would be used to breed.

“Currently, it’s not anything we would use for reproduction,” Kristen Lukas, who heads the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Gorilla Species Survival Plan, said. “It will be banked and just stored for future use or for research studies.”

Harambe’s sperm will likely go into a collection of samples taken from gorillas and other animals that are preserved in liquid nitrogen and typically viable for hundreds of years, said the American Association of Zoo Veterinarians Director Robert Hilsenroth.

Read full, original post: Genes of slain Cincinnati gorilla to live on

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