Sperm was removed from Harambe the gorilla after he died - so that he could become a father

Harambe: the gorilla was shot dead after a child fell into his enclosure
Cincinnati Zoo/Reuters
Hannah Al-Othman31 May 2016

Scientists have revealed that they harvested sperm from Harambe the gorilla shortly after he died - meaning he could live on through a son or daughter.

The endangered animal was shot dead on Saturday after a four-year-old boy fell into the Gorilla World enclosure in Cincinnati Zoo, sparking a backlash from animal-lovers around the world.

After he was killed, reproductive biologists from the zoo's Center for Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife collected genetic samples from Harambre - including his semen.

The centre conducts research into artificial insemination and frozen sperm, and zoo staff have suggested that Harambe will live on through his offspring.

The Western lowland gorilla, was aged just 17 when he died, and had not yet reached breeding maturity.

“There’s a future," Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden director Thane Maynard told Cincinatti.com .

"It’s not the end of his gene pool."

The samples are also expected to be used for research purposes.

It has also been revealed that the pair of female gorillas who shared an enclosure with Harambe have been searching for him since his body was taken away.

CBS news station reported the heartbreaking news that the two gorillas had been fruitlessly searching the pen for Harambe.

Cincinnati Zoo has a long history of successfully breeding gorillas, with 50 babies born at the zoo in the last 46 years.

Harambe was born in captivity in Texas but was moved to Cincinnati zoo in 2014, with the intention that he would be part of the breeding programme.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in