Abstract. Great apes and humans develop many of the same health conditions, including
cardiac disease as a leading cause of death. In humans, lipid markers are
strong predictors of morbidity and mortality risk. To determine if they
similarly predict risk in gorillas, we measured five serum lipid markers and
calculated three lipoprotein ratios from zoo-housed western lowland gorillas
(aged 6–52 years, n=61, subset with routine immobilizations only: n=47):
total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TGs), high-density lipoprotein (HDL),
low-density lipoprotein (LDL), apolipoprotein A1 (apoA1), TC∕HDL, LDL∕HDL,
and TG∕HDL. We examined each in relation to age and sex, then analyzed
whether they predicted all-cause morbidity, cardiac disease, and mortality
using generalized linear models (GLMs). Older age was significantly associated with
higher TG, TC∕HDL, LDL∕HDL, and TG∕HDL, and lower HDL and apoA1. With all
ages combined, compared to females, males had significantly lower TG,
TC∕HDL, LDL∕HDL, and TG∕HDL, and higher HDL. Using GLMs, age, sex, and
lower LDL∕HDL were significant predictors of all-cause morbidity; this is
consistent with research demonstrating lower LDL in humans with arthritis,
which was the second most prevalent condition in this sample. In contrast to
humans, lipid markers were not better predictors of cardiac disease and
mortality risk in gorillas, with cardiac disease best predicted by age and
sex alone, and mortality risk only by age. Similar results were observed
when multimodel inference was used as an alternative analysis strategy,
suggesting it can be used in place of or in addition to traditional methods
for predicting risk.
Gut microbiome composition of wild western lowland gorillas is associated with individual age and sex factors
