The Great Ape Heart Project is a collaborative effort among AZA Zoos-- so that’s the Association
of Zoos and Aquariums-- AZA Zoos in North America looking at ape heart disease.
And ape heart disease is a significant factor of morbidity and mortality in the great apes
in captivity.
We’ve been very fortunate that this is the kind of project where everyone wants to be
involved and donates or volunteers their time in some shape or form from MD cardiologists
and sonographers, down to the keepers at institutions.
And I think to reiterate what Haley was saying is that we’ve actually had the problem that
we realized that if so many people are invested in this, and we actually have such a large
percentage of institutions that are all working together that, in terms of the collections
perspective, we’re essentially assisting almost every ape in North America.
What started out at Zoo Atlanta as kind of a little seed project has now turned into
this international project that has garnered a lot of press, I think, because the animals
we study are very charismatic.
And people relate to apes.
And people relate to heart disease because it’s a lead killer of humans.
And so, I think it’s just skyrocketed into this really large project that Zoo Atlanta
has really taken under their wing and made it their kind of showpiece project, also,
which has lent a lot of credibility to the project.
So, we had got a government funding to start.
And then it’s turned into this larger entity-- it’s own entity almost, at this point.
I’m a primatologist by training.
I study behavior of animals.
And I think like most other people in the zoo community, I chose this career path because
I wanted to work with animals and not people.
And now, it’s funny that now I spend most of my day on a computer emails with human
primates.
And I think that’s actually historically been an issue for people at zoos, that this
inter-institutional communication and collaboration.
And I think that our project has really broken through barriers.
And that’s where we really succeed as a model for other institutions to try to address
a problem across multiple disciplines. �