Erie Zoo News & Updates

Joe Orangutan Update #3

Posted on March 16th, 2022 at 9:53 AM
At this moment Joe’s condition continues to be stable and the orangutan family remains behind the scenes. Our team is grateful for the overwhelming support as our coordination efforts continue to progress.
 
Today we wanted to share what goes into monitoring orangutan health at your Erie Zoo on a routine basis. Our team has done extensive work over the years with the orangutans so that they are able to willingly participate in their own health monitoring. Joe specifically is trained to let us take his blood pressure, do blood draws, issue oral medications, take his temperature, and even use a mobile single-lead EKG machine called KardiaMobile to check his heart function. All of this training has been vital in our monitoring of Joe and has put us ahead in the diagnostic process. See the video below for an example of the KardiaMobile EKG monitoring our team does with Joe. Further updates on Joe’s condition will be released as they develop.
 
An extra special thank you to Dr. Strasser and Dr. Singh who donated the KardiaMobile to the zoo last year!