{{{vw}}} You're tired. Do you have ginger or mint tea?
News from the Atlanta zoo: [link] (Bugmenot is your friend.)
Highlights:
Taz, a 15-year-old gorilla, recently mated with all four females in the family of legendary zoo mascot Willie B.
Taz's most famous partner, Kudzoo, is the beloved silverback's oldest offspring. It will take a few more weeks before pregnancy testing is complete, but zoo leaders expect that Willie B. soon will become a grandfather for the first time, albeit posthumously. (He died at age 41 in February 2000.)
Taz's performance, researchers say, demonstrates that young lowland gorillas raised in a "bachelor" environment --- a group of male gorillas that never mate --- still can be moved in with females when they reach sexual maturity and lead a successful reproductive life.
Taz has taken to his procreative duties with gusto since joining the females in November: One day last month, he copulated 20 times. ...
What's not so scientifically cutting-edge is the method Zoo Atlanta is using to test its gorillas for pregnancy. Since no gorilla pregnancy test exists, vets are using human tests, which monitor urine samples, that they buy at a local drugstore.
Right now, that process is adding to the zoo's wait.
"Those pregnancy tests are not designed for gorillas," McManamon said, "and it may take a couple [of] months before you will actually see a positive [result]. The hormone the test is looking for is a human hormone. There is some similarity between that human hormone and the gorilla equivalent of that hormone, but it doesn't always cross-react perfectly."
There is one other holdup.
"It's not easy," she said, "to get a gorilla to pee on demand."