Gregoire (chimpanzee): Africa's Oldest Documented ChimpanzeCh

Chimpanzee Gregoire
By Delphine Bruyère (Own work)
 [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Gregoire (c.1942 – December 17, 2008) was, up until his death, Africa's oldest known chimpanzee. For the last eleven years of his life, he was a resident of the Tchimpounga Sanctuary (part of the Jane Goodall Institute) in the Republic of the Congo. He was observed to have a pair bond relationship with the chimpanzee Clara. Previously he had been confined by himself for more than 40 years in a cage at the Brazzaville Zoo before being rescued by staff of the Jane Goodall Institute and airlifted to the Sanctuary during a time of war.

He died in his sleep in his bed of eucalyptus leaves at the Sanctuary's rehabilitation centre on December 17, 2008, aged 66.^[1] Gregoire was known around the world as an old chimpanzee, appearing on the cover of National Geographic magazine in 1995, in a BBC special, and in an Animal Planet film, Jane Goodall's Return to Gombe.
  
References

1. Africa's Oldest Chimp, a Conservation Icon, Dies

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 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregoire_%28chimpanzee%29