Gorilla Fine After Rare Surgery

Docs in Hungary look for tumors in ovary of 32-year-old Liesel
By Wesley Oliver,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 16, 2009 2:21 PM CST
Gorilla Fine After Rare Surgery
The surgery became needful due to a progress of tumor, which could cause the death of the ape.   (AP Photo)

A 32-year-old female gorilla underwent a rare gynecological procedure in Hungary yesterday, the AP reports. Doctors operated for three hours on Liesel, who they suspected had a malignant tumor on her right ovary. No tumors were found during the surgery, but the gorilla will be kept under observation and apart from other primates at the Budapest Zoo.

Doctors will perform more tests to determine why Liesel, a mother of three and the oldest gorilla in Hungary, hasn’t given birth since 2000. Most kinds of lowland gorillas like Liesel are critically endangered, the Daily Mail adds, but the populations are doing better than expected. (More gorilla stories.)

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