In the late 1960s, pathologists at the San Diego Zoo began to notice iron storage in the internal organs of captive lemurs. Hemosiderin was found in liver, spleen, lymph nodes, duodenum, and occasionally other organs. This was most pronounced in Lemur macaco, least pronounced in Lemur catta, with the severity in Lemur variegatus variegatus and Lemur variegatus ruber falling somewhere in between. Since 1968, 20 of 29 necropsied lemurs had hemosiderosis, three with hepatomas, three with cholangiomas, and one with a metastatic pheochromocytoma. In a preliminary attempt to compare their iron absorption, five black-andwhite ruffed lemur (LRmur variegatus variegatus) weanlings and five rhesus monkey weanlings were each given -500 nmol/kg FeCI3 (27.9 pg iron/kg) containing 5 pCi of 59Fe in 0.1 M HC1 via a nasogastric tube. Retained 59Fe was measured by whole body gamma counting and found to be roughly the same in the two groups, possibly because insufficient quantities of iron were administered and/or excessive iron absorption becomes apparent only in older animals. Our conclusions were the following: (1) Hemosiderosis in lemurs is associated with tissue damage similar to that seen in humans with idiopathic hemochromatosis. (2) Because iron deposits occur both in parenchymal cells and reticuloendothelial cells, hemosiderosis in lemurs is probably not a model for idiopathic hemochromatosis in a pure sense.
In an eight-month field study of the pygmy hippopotamus, an endangered Red Book species, the author was able to make some assessment of the status of other animals in Liberia and Sierra Leone and shows how the danger is increasing for most of them. Chimpanzees in particular are exported in large numbers, and in order to catch the young animals whole family groups may be eliminated.
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