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Status: Endangered due to poaching and habitat loss. Diet in wild: Mostly fruit and other plant material, but also some small animals. Life Span in wild: 30 to 40 years. Weight: Males average 198 pounds; females average 176 pounds. Native
habitat: Zaire and other East African coutries.
Learn about a chimpanzee's use of sign language!
"Coby" R.I.P. 2009
Black Pine Animal Park 1426 W. 300 N. P.O. Box 02 Albion, IN 46701 (260) 636-7383
©2008
Professional Animal Retirement Center, Inc.
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Chimpanzee Meet Tarzan, a whiite-faced male chimpanzee. As an adult chimp, Tarzan weighs
about 170
pounds and Tarzan is a retired performer that made his home at Black Pine in the spring of 1996. Though raised in captivity by humans, Tarzan is too dangerous to continue living in someone's home. He could live 50 to 60 years of age, too! Chimpanzees, native to Africa, are an endangered species. It is still common for humans to poach chimps sometimes as a source of meat, and other times babies are taken from the wild and sold as pets. Even others die from human diseases carried into the forests. By the age of six or seven years, these sweet-faced apes become very strong and intimidating. There aren't many things we do that chimps can't or won't, but one is swimming. Chimps are fearful of water because their bodies have virtually no fat which means they can't float. They inherently know they would sink like a rock, so water is not a playground for them!
Tarzan enjoys "human" food treats such as ice pops and sodas, but food is not his primary motivation. Tarzan thrives on peering into the eyes of his human keepers and visitors who observe him during tours of the sanctuary. He is playful, but also quite stubborn! Tarzan suffered the loss of his best friend, Coby, in 2009. Coby, a thirty-year-old chimpanzee, passed away from renal failure and presumed pancreatic cancer. Coby was an extraorinary chimpanzee! He was taught sign language as a youngster, and for years at Black Pine members of the staff worked with him to encourage use of signs to communicate. (Click here to read about the sign language study.) To learn more about keeping primates as pets, click here. |
The Animals
has the strength of six to seven adult human
men. With great strength
and intelligence, chimps are an amazing sight to see up close and in
person.
Enrichment,
enrichment, enrichment! Keeping primates in captivity poses a
constant challenge for keepers to ensure they are stimulated by their
environment, sights, sounds, and more, and are therefore
"fulfilled". Imagine living behind bars
in captivity, and you are imagining reality for chimps and other primates
in captivity. Entertainment is crucial to emotional health!