SECRETARY'S REPORT 135 



REPORT OF THE VETERINARIAN 



The National Zoological Park was without a veterinarian from 

 July 1, 1962, mitil May 6, 1963, when Dr. Clinton Gray was appomted. 

 During the interim, the director and the general curator, assisted by 

 Thomas Schneider as medical technologist, shared the responsibility 

 for the health of the animals. They were fortunate in having the 

 cooperation and assistance of men in various fields of clinical 

 investigation and medicine. Among these were : Dr. Leonard Marcus 

 and staff, of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology ; Dr. Clarence 

 Hartman and staff, of George Washington University; Dr. M. B. 

 Chitwood, Dr. A. Mcintosh, and Dr. W. W. Becklund of the Beltsville 

 Parasitological Laboratoi'y, Department of Agriculture; Dr. A. G. 

 Karlson, Mayo Clinic, Kochester, Minn.; Dr. F. K. Lucas, director 

 of the Livestock Sanitaiy Laboratory, Centreville, Md. ; and Dr. 

 Anthony Morris of the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md. 



In October, Tomoka, the baby gorilla, became ill with an intestinal 

 infection. Local pediatricians were called into consultation, but 

 when the animal did not respond to treatment he was taken to Cliil- 

 dren's Hospital and put in an animal research laboratory under the 

 care of Dr. Everett Lovrein, resident physician, and Dr. Kobert E. 

 Martin. Headkeeper Ralph Norris and senior keeper Bernard Gal- 

 lagher stayed with the little ape 24 hours a day, and he made a speedy 

 recovery. Despite a serious prognosis — Shigellosis complicated by 

 dehydration and acidosis — Tomoka made a remarkable return to his 

 normal weight gain after this hospitalization. 



Nikumba, the adult male gorilla, showed signs of having a cold 

 about the middle of Jmie. Medication was given, and he appeared 

 to be recovering, when he was stricken with bilateral paralysis. As 

 of June 30, prognosis is impossible, but he is being treated by an 

 orthopedic surgeon. Dr. Henry Feffer, and a neurosurgeon. Dr. Hugo 

 V. Bizzoli, in consultation with Dr. Alf Nachemson, orthopedic sur- 

 geon of the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. 



Specialists from George Washington University Medical School 

 tried to establish a suspected pregnancy in Ambika, one of the Indian 

 elephants, by means of electrocardiographic equipment. Electro- 

 cardiographs had been taken in the Portland (Oreg.) Zoo when their 

 elephants were pregnant. In the case of Ambika, however, no fetal 

 heartbeat could be detected, and she has now gone past the time for 

 giving birth since the last possible conception date. 



The bharal or blue sheep {Pseudois nayaur) was inadvertently 

 omitted from the inventory printed in last year's annual report. On 

 July 5, 1962, the last of the line, a female, died, and the post mortem 

 showed liver abscesses. The original pair of these beautiful animals 

 was brought to the Zoo in October 1937 by the National Geographic 



