For a team of three doctors and three veterinarians at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., the answer involves heavy sedatives.
Veterinarians hope to learn what makes gorillas , especially males, mysteriously drop dead.
Male gorillas tend to have heart problems, which usually aren't diagnosed until it's too late. They hide any illness. They mask it. And doctors can't tell themselves whether the animals are sick until it is too late, because so little is known about gorilla hearts that doctors don't know what is normal and what isn't. They are trying to learn more, but progress is slow.