Making Clouded Leopard Babies

Today was the big day as we tried another artificial insemination attempt. Raja kenneled up perfectly first thing in the morning. We started off by collecting semen from him to evaluate its potential for the procedure. Everything went smoothly and we got some great sperm! (At least for a clouded leopard.) Next, we gave Josie her anesthesia and packed her in her kennel. (We still handle Josie so we gave her the injection by hand and then just helped her inside.) Up at the hospital she was prepped for surgery. The following is a quick video review of the proceedings. The players you'll see are Dr. Karen Goodrowe, Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium's General Curator and a reproductive specialist. She is in charge of collecting the semen and prepping the sperm. You will see she gets very excited about her job! Our veterinary technician Julie Lemon is prepping Josie for surgery. Our surgical team consists of PDZA vets Dr. Karen Wolf and Dr. Holly Reed.



Once she was prepped, we brought Josie into the surgery room to begin the procedure. Dr. Holly performed the surgery while Dr. Karen served as anesthesiologist. My job was to document the procedure by photo and video. Here's the annotated result:



Now we will wait about 25 days until we do the first ultrasound. I'm sure it will seem even longer...