• Question: Does taking the DNA from the monkeys and gorillas hurt them?

    Asked by careyam01 to Richard on 14 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Richard Badge

      Richard Badge answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Hi careyam01

      No it does not hurt the chimpanzees… The keepers at the Zoo have a programme of training to help them look after the chimpanzees – they get grapes as a rewards for letting the keepers check their weight and look in their mouths and ears. This means that the keepers can spot health problems (like broken teeth) early rather than waiting until the chimpanzee is really sick.

      So training them to open then to open their mouth and brush the inside of their mouth with a special plastic swab was a natural extension of the regular training. One chimpanzee (Peter) likes it so much we have dozens of samples from him, although sometimes they are a bit green from the grapes!

      Each swab collects a few thousand cells, from which we can get the DNA to do hundreds of experiments.

      Richard

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