Ape Expert Alan Mootnick Dies In LA At Age 60
SANTA CLARITA (AP) — Alan Mootnick, an animal lover with no formal training who became a self-taught primatologist and went on to found Southern California's Gibbon Conservation Center, has died. He was 60.
His cousin, Geri-Ann Galanti, says Mootnick died Friday at a Los Angeles hospital of complications following heart surgery.
For 31 years, Mootnick cared for dozens of gibbons at his center in Santa Clarita, which claims to house the largest gathering of endangered apes in the Western Hemisphere.
Galanti says Mootnick fell in love with the small Southeast Asian apes while watching "Tarzan" reruns when he was nine.
Despite attending only a few years of college, Mootnick published several academic papers and flew around the world to give advice to zoos and rescue agencies on how to treat gibbons.
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