One of the world's oldest chimps, Fifi, has died in Australia, zoo officials said Friday. Fifi, the matriarch of the 18 chimpanzees at Sydney's Taronga Zoo, celebrated her 60th birthday in May with sugar-free cupcakes and coconuts among four generations of her family.
Cheeta, the star of a dozen "Tarzan" movies in the 1930s and 1940s, is listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's oldest chimp. He turned 75 in April.
American heroes head for happy retirement at Chimp Haven Rita and Teresa served the United States government with distinction for four decades. They played their part in its embryonic space programme and then later made an important contribution to medical research. Now, as they reach their dotage, America is doing its bit for them. The inseparable duo were the first residents of a thoroughly modern retirement home built deep in the woods of north-western Louisiana.
The primatologists at Chimp Haven in Keithville, La., the first federally-funded refuge for chimpanzees used in government and medical research, say every single one of us has benefited from the work done with these majestic, intelligent animals. Virtually any vaccination we get has been first tried out on a chimpanzee, our closest genetic cousins.