Overseeing the Gorillas

Wednesday, May 16, 2007 Download  RSS  Short URL  Share

When there's a baby animal at the zoo, you can bet it was not a random act of nature. In captivity, these pregnancies are usually highly planned events. And it can be a bit of a balancing act when it comes to managing the logistics of who mates with whom. That's often determined as much by geography as it is by genetics. Kristen Lukas is Curator of Conservation and Science at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, and she was recently put in charge of the panel that oversees the nation's gorilla population. ideastream's Eric Wellman caught up with her earlier this week outside of the ape house.