Extraordinarily low bone mineral density in an old female chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) from the Mahale Mountains National Park.
We examined bone mineral density (BMD) of the femoral neck and lumbar vertebrae of four chimpanzee skeletons from Mahale Mountains National Park, Tanzania, and four captive ones, with a dual energy X-ray absorptiometer. The BMD of Wansombo, an old female chimpanzee from Mahale, was remarkably lower than the mean of the other six younger adult female chimpanzees and categorized as osteoporosis. Posture, locomotion, and trunk-sacral anatomy of chimpanzees may have prevented fractures in Wansombo, whose BMD was below human osteoporosis criteria.
Gunji
Harumoto
H
Japan Monkey Centre, Inuyama, Aichi 484-0081, Japan. jmc.gunji@mbh.nifty.com
Hosaka
Kazuhiko
K
Huffman
Michael A
MA
Kawanaka
Kenji
K
Matsumoto-Oda
Akiko
A
Hamada
Yuzuru
Y
Nishida
Toshisada
T
D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D015519:Bone Density; D005260:Female; D005269:Femur / Q000503:physiopathology; D008159:Lumbar Vertebrae / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity; D010024:Osteoporosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002679:Pan troglodytes / Q000502:physiology*; D011187:Posture; D013636:Tanzania