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SALT LAKE CITY — Even great apes need a checkup now and again. The Hogle Zoo's favorite orangutan, Eli, spent some time hanging around some University of Utah radiologists this week.
Eli underwent surgery in May and July for breast cancer. In may he had two cancerous lumps removed, and in July they attacked any potentially cancerous tissues.
This most recent trip to the hospital was only for a CT scan to track the progress of the cancer. Doctors sedated Eli for about a half hour in order to make the scan possible.
There is no word yet on the final results of the scan, but according to a U. health care spokesperson, doctors did find some abnormal lymph nodes. How that will affect treatment is still unclear.
Eli is well known not only as a male orangutan with breast cancer, an extremely rare disease, but is also famous for having picked the winner of the Super Bowl for five years running. Eli is also an artist. In 2012, some of his paintings were sold in order to fund the Kinabatangan Orangutan Conservation Project.
