The First IVF Gorilla Baby at the Cincinnati Zoo
Throughout his career, Dr. NeeOo Chin has been proud to help thousands of couples bring children into the world. Fertility medicine is his true passion, and he believes that top-quality care and innovation will forge better-quality fertility medicine for the future.
One of Dr. Chin’s proudest accomplishments throughout his career is his historic, first-ever successfully conceived gorilla via in-vitro fertilization (IVF) in 1995. Before the birth of this gorilla, named Timu, it was believed that IVF was impossible in non-human primates.
Dr. Chin and a team of other innovative IVF pioneers made non-human IVF a reality. Timu, who passed away in January of 2024, represented a remarkable milestone in fertility medicine. Not only was Timu conceived via IVF, but she also later had a daughter and granddaughter conceived through natural methods.
Learn more about how Dr. Chin helped perform the first successful IVF procedure on a western lowland gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo.
The Story of Gorilla IVF at the Cincinnati Zoo
Timu the western lowland gorilla was born on October 9, 1996, at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, conceived via IVF from eggs collected from the Cincinnati Zoo’s female gorilla named Rosie and the frozen sperm of a male gorilla.
Dr. Chin was the reproductive endocrinologist behind the procedure. He worked with other fertility medicine pioneers, including Dr. Betsey Dresser, Dr. Erica Behnke, Dr. Marcelle Cedars, Dr. Odell Owens, Dr. Paul Russell, Mr. Charles Sinoaway, many other local primatologists along with veterinarians from the Cincinnati Zoo.
How did you become interested in IVF for non-human primates?
It came from my love for animals! I remember, years ago when I was in medical school, reading in one of our textbooks that in-vitro fertilization was impossible in non-human primates. It felt like a challenge to me!
Everything changed in 1978 when the first (human) in vitro fertilization baby was born in Bourn Hall, England. That birth opened up a world of possibilities. I graduated medical school in 1981, so at the time I was wondering what innovation or breakthrough would come next.
About fifteen years later, I was working as the Director of the Christ Hospital Infertility Center, and the opportunity to perform IVF on a lowland gorilla became possible.
How did you get involved with the project?
Originally, I interviewed for a position at the University of Cincinnati Department of OBGYN. During that process, I met with Dr. Betsy Dresser who was director of the Cincinnati Zoo Crew. She originated the idea and brought me on board. It was her idea to pursue IVF with the lowland gorillas at the zoo and she reached out to me because I had a passion for innovative fertility medicine and a deep love for animals.
Can you describe the day of the extraction? Can you talk about the months of work that went into making this happen?
The day of the procedure itself was filled with cautious excitement. In the end, it was a success, but to truly understand the importance of the moment you have to look back to the months of work that went into making that moment possible.
The preparation took months. To develop multiple eggs, Rosie, the patient, was given oral medications in her banana split and given injectable medications with a blow dart.
Monitoring her cycle was very tenuous in that there was very little previous experience with any gorilla in captivity; in any evaluation she had, she was completely sedated, which was not an easy task.
Another major challenge was that the female anatomy of a lowland female gorilla was evaluated only a few days prior. We performed an ultrasound to determine follicular sizes just before the day of the procedure and we had to trust our observations on Rosie’s cycle were correct.
However, those months of careful preparation made the IVF procedure a success, and Timu, Rosie’s daughter born from the IVF procedure, was born completely healthy.
Did you ever meet Timu after she was born?
Yes, I did! I even got the chance to hold her. It was an amazing experience. Holding her as an infant, I was struck by how similar it was to holding a human baby. I remember holding her upright and she grabbed me with her hands and her feet! It was a truly odd sensation, but an experience I will never forget.
Did you have any thoughts after the birth?
Timu did appear to be slightly premature at birth. However, the gestational time for a gorilla was truly unknown since no well-documented experience was available at that time. Very few gorillas had been born in zoos, so knowing when conception had occurred with the gorillas at the zoo or in the wild, was nearly impossible.
The neonatologists from the Cincinnati Children’s Medical Center were amazing. They were a great help and Timu went on to live a very healthy life.
Would you ever do anything similar in the future?
Yes, absolutely! I would jump at the chance. However, the Zoo presently doesn’t prioritize in-vitro fertilization research with the primate populations ever since Dr. Dresser’s departure. Still, a fantastic opportunity and an area of interest for me.
What impact do you hope this will have on the world of biology or medicine?
I would love this project to be a small piece in the mission of helping endangered species repopulate the Earth. I feel this is a wonderful project and I am glad to have played a small part!
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