A geriatric gorilla called Ozzie has become the first of his kind to voluntarily have his blood pressure taken.

Cardiac disease is the leading cause of death in adult male gorillas living in captive settings.

Because of this, Georgia Institute of Technology devised a blood pressure reading cuff that was comfortable and large enough to fit on a 300 pound primate.

Staff at Zoo Atlanta used “positive reinforcement training” over a period of several months to prepare Ozzie to feel safe about using the inflatable device, called a Tough Cuff.

“We built a safety mechanism into the device so that gorillas would not be injured if they became alarmed or frightened and tried to remove their arm from the cuff,” Georgia Tech’s David Sotto said.

According to the research team, western lowland gorillas like 48-year-old Ozzie “aren’t typically keen on the idea of inserting their arms into inflatable cuffs”.

Ozzie is one of four older gorillas living at the zoo and is at an age, the research team say, where he may be subject to health concerns similar to those experienced “by mature humans”.

Whether Ozzie has high blood pressure or not was not revealed, presumably for patient confidentiality reasons.