Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 13, 1992 TAG: 9202130106
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MICHELLE LOCKE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: SAN FRANCISCO LENGTH: Medium
R-RATED TOUR: EVEN CREATURES IN ZOO PRACTICE `RESPONSIBLE SEX'
Violet the orangutan is on the pill. King Lear the bison was rendered harmless with a bovine vasectomy. And Maxine the cougar is pushing high-tech boundaries with a Norplant-style implant.Birds do it. Bees do it. But at the San Francisco Zoo, some of the romantically inclined are taking precautions.
Responsible zoo sex has been promoted at American zoos for more than a decade. Zoos that are pressed for space want better breeding management to prevent unwanted offspring ending up in dismal wayside attractions or being used as quarry at private big-game ranches.
"It's nice to have little bodies, it's a crowd pleaser and things like that, but we've got an overall responsibility," said zoo veterinarian Dr. Freeland Dunker.
In honor of Valentine's Day, the zoo is running a special R-rated sex tour jampacked with fascinating facts. Foreplay can last from over a month for rhinos to hours for the aptly named slow loris, a tree-dwelling primate.
Orangutans can do it upside down, while rhinos carry on for up to an hour. Lions take pride in engaging up to 50 times in a 24-hour span, koalas exercise restraint with 40 seconds three times a year.
Then there are the zoo's two female Canada Geese, who have laid more than 40 unfertilized eggs for each other and are inseparable. Named Gertie and Alice - after Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas - the pair are favorites of animal keeper Jane Tollini.
"They show no interest in being apart," she said. "If one is gone, the other one stands out here just screaming."
As guide for the no-children Valentine tour, Tollini takes a keen interest in the sex lives of her charges.
This year, the tour includes information on contraception, such as King Lear's epididymectomy. The procedure - cutting the sperm channel - eliminated unwanted baby bisons, but didn't stop King Lear from being dominant bull.
On a recent tour, Tollini pointed out some of the contraceptive stars, such as Violet, slouched in the entrance to her cave munching on leaves. Since 1986, Violet has been taking human birth control pills.
Contraception among zoo animals in the United States began in the mid 1970s with contraceptive implants. Nearly 4,000 of them have since been used in more than 100,000 different species worldwide, says the Wisconsin-based Marshfield Medical Research Fund.
Implants and abstinence are the most widely used forms of animal contraception.
One method under study in San Francisco is a special vaccine that creates antibodies against the protective membrane of an ovum.
Zoo officials have been administering their new vaccine on a regular basis.
The bad news came this month with the discovery of a tubby bundle of joy snuggled next to Cuddles the hippo. Zoo officials speculate they weren't giving the right dosage or something went wrong with the dart gun.