Slain Harambe genes to live on, thanks to his frozen sperm

Dayton

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 that Harambe could sire an offspring even in death.

But officials at the main US 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 on Wednesday. “It will be banked and just stored for future use or for research studies.”

That undercuts a weekend statement by Cincinnati Zoo Director Thane Maynard that the death of the 17-year-old young silverback, who had been too  young to breed, was “not the end of his gene pool.” Zoo officials did not respond to calls on Wednesday seeking more detail on their plans for Harambe’s sperm.

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