October 7 - Official dedication of the Peace Path
 The Peace Path bridge is marked with a green dot on the map above. It's accessible from Nightingale Road.
We are happy that the pedestrian bridge and path across Beargrass Creek and accessed from Nightingale Avenue is completed! The bridge helps connect neighborhoods and is another step toward making our district more walkable and bikeable.
The path is now open and an official dedication is planned for October 7 at 9:30 a.m.
Famous Louisville Zoo gorilla Jelani in recovery following abdominal surgery
 The Louisville Zoo’s world-famous silverback gorilla, Jelani, underwent a successful surgery to remove an abdominal mass last week and is resting in recovery behind the scenes at Gorilla Forest.
The 25-year-old gorilla is a guest favorite and has been a resident at the Zoo since the opening of Gorilla Forest in 2002. Jelani captured the hearts and attention of visitors and fans across the globe after videos of his engagement with guests and their smart devices went viral.
Jelani’s care team reports that he is interacting with his favorite troopmate and fellow silverback, Bengati, through mesh and moving around quite nicely. His appetite has picked up and his surgery site looks good.
The Zoo’s Animal Health Center Team, which includes Senior Veterinarian Zoli Gyimesi, DVM and Associate Veterinarian Erica Lipanovich, DVM, often consults with human health care practitioners. For Jelani’s case, they conferred with Baptist Health Louisville General Surgeon Richard Pokorny, MD to perform the surgery to remove the abdominal mass.
Jelani had previously presented symptoms to his keeper care team of lethargy, decreased eating habits and an apparent weakness when climbing. Initial examination ruled out heart and dental diseases, two common health problems in gorillas, but an abdominal mass was discovered. On a subsequent exam, Jelani was transported off campus to a local imaging facility for a CT scan. The scan highly suggested a perforated intestine and localized infection. This has been previously reported in gorillas in managed care facilities and occurs in people as well.
The surgeons were able to isolate the mass and found that it was attached to the appendix, so an appendectomy was performed in addition to the mass removal. The diagnosis was welcome news to the care team as a more involved intestinal resection and reattachment was unnecessary which set the stage for an easier recovery for Jelani.
Primate anatomy and human anatomy are very similar. Gorillas, like humans, can live without an appendix without any need for a change in diet, activity level or lifestyle.
“We are grateful for all of the human practitioners in our community who are willing to consult with us and, in some instances like this, to perform surgery on an animal in our care,” said Gyimesi. “Jelani is bright and alert and moving about normally. We will continue to closely monitor his progress and hope to have him back with other gorillas and on exhibit soon.” |
