Will Nikita become pregnant?

The famous Mysore Zoo has created a history of sorts by artificially inseminating an 11-year-old female chimpanzee, Nikita, and is hopeful that she would become pregnant and deliver a baby chimp in captivity.A team of veterinarians of the Zoo, led by a local doctor, Sharath Kumar, artificially inseminated Nikita, who came to Mysore in 1991 from Sweden. They had a tough time in conducting the intra-uterine insemination, as Nikita, sensing some trouble began to express its wrath and escape from the doctors’ hold. It threatened them by roaring and protesting when they approached her. Another chimp backed Nikita’s protest, pelting stones at those standing outside the cage. Finding it difficult to manage Nikita, the veterinarians offered her a glass of tea mixed with four Calmpose tablets. Though Nikita gulped a little, rest she spat on those standing nearby, as she found the taste of tea different than usual. Finally, the doctors tranquilized the chimp and carried on their experiment of artificially inseminating her. The
doctors claimed that the operation is the first of its kind in India.There are six chimpanzees in the Mysore Zoo, but the family head male Vali, 32, refuses to mate with the females. The experts feel that Vali’s behaviour may be because he was reared within the four walls of his prison. Vali instead of choosing a female partner, resorts to masturbation whenever he is aroused. As Vali is not contributing to the growth of the family, the worried doctors decided to collect his semen and artificially inseminate the female one. After immobilizing Nikita, the doctors injected Vali’s preserved germs into her fallopian tubes, with the help of cannula and ultrasound equipment. The ‘intra-fallopian insemination’ is claimed to be the first of its kind in the world, though intra-uterine insemination on captive animals has been performed elsewhere in the world. According to Dr.Sharath Kumar, who heads a fertility research centre in Mysore, the chances of conception by Nikita are ten times more, as the sperms have been injected nearer the ovaries. The Zoo officials are hoping that the ‘Sperm Intra-fallopian Transfer’ (SIFT) would bear fruit and Nikita would become pregnant in the next 40 days.