Grant,

That is a good point you are making. I am not sure why AI as a technique is not used more often in gorillas. Whether it has not been tried as much as in for instance rhinos (where the technique is now well advanced) because gorillas breed more readily .......... That would be my best guess.

On gorilla introductions I can confirm what you said on gorilla breeding by experiences at Amsterdam zoo. Over a 10 year period 3 male gorillas have been introduced when the old proven silverback died in the late 1990's. The first Kumba, a wild caught and unrepresented male from Cameroon who had languished in zoo in Germany, turned out to be infertile. The second Ivo, a captive-born male, turned out to be an grumpy man who was not adept at interacting too much with the females and his posse just was not a natural gorilla group (the chemistry was just not there). Only the third male Akili, also a captive-born male, knew how to handle things ..... Within weeks all sorts of things were happening and the zoo staff were outwriting their daily reports. Suffice to say he has now successfully mated with all 3 females in his group and 1 has given birth and rearing her offspring while the other 2 are pregnant and due somewhere in late summer!