{"id":143784,"date":"2018-06-20T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-06-20T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/bristol-zoo-male-gorilla-revealed-to-be-a-female\/"},"modified":"2018-06-20T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-06-20T12:00:00","slug":"bristol-zoo-male-gorilla-revealed-to-be-a-female","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/bristol-zoo-male-gorilla-revealed-to-be-a-female\/","title":{"rendered":"Bristol Zoo male gorilla revealed to be a female"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"KukenaImage copyright PA
Image caption Kukena was born at Bristol Zoo in September 2011 <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Zookeepers had a shock when they realised a six-year-old male gorilla was actually a female.<\/p>\n

Kukena was born at Bristol Zoo on 27 September 2011 to mum Salome and the troop's silverback Jock.<\/p>\n

But recently those caring for the western lowland gorilla noticed surprising changes to her sexual organs and behaviour.<\/p>\n

Senior curator of animals at the zoo, John Partridge, said gorillas are known for being difficult to sex.<\/p>\n

"We have a strict hands-off policy with our animals," he added.<\/p>\n

"As gorillas can be difficult to sex, Kukena had been thought to be a male,<\/p>\n

"She is a healthy youngster and there have been no reasons to perform more invasive health checks on her during her lifetime in the zoo."<\/p>\n

Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption Zookeepers thought Kukena was a male for six years <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The zoo said Kukena, nicknamed Kuki, recently had her first oestrus and her genitalia became more pronounced which alerted them to her true gender.<\/p>\n

The surprisingly discovery is positive news for the future of the species, which is critically endangered, as there are currently less female gorillas than males in the world's zoos.<\/p>\n

It means Kukena's future looks dramatically different as she is now likely to be moved to another zoo to continue the breeding programme.<\/p>\n

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    The future of the gorilla is due to be discussed with the gorilla co-ordinator at the European Endangered Species Programme.<\/p>\n

    Mr Partridge added: "This discovery will not change the way we manage our troop of seven gorillas at Bristol Zoo Gardens."<\/p>\n

    Kukena is the aunt of Afia, who was left fighting for her life after being born by a rare emergency caesarean in 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Image copyright PAImage caption Kukena was born at Bristol Zoo in September 2011 Zookeepers had a shock when they realised a six-year-old male gorilla was actually a female. Kukena was<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":143785,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}