The #1 source for news about monkeys and apes

[Josh Greenman <josh.greenman AT gmail.com>]

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/09/charlie_the_chimpanzee_stood_i.html

Charlie the 39-year-old chimp dies at the Oregon Zoo of apparent heart
attack or stroke

Posted by Katy Muldoon and Eric Mortenson, The Oregonian

September 17, 2009 20:26PM

Charlie the chimpanzee stood in front of his Oregon Zoo exhibit's
viewing window Thursday, made one final, bristling display of
dominance, then dropped to the ground and died.

The chimp's death shocked and saddened employees, who long had
referred to the primate with the distinctive, regal bearing as the
Prince of the Zoo. His was 39 -- deep into middle age for his species.

"I thought I'd be leaving him, not him leaving me," said Dave Thomas,
60, the senior primate keeper who worked with Charlie for 36 years.
"This is an end of an era."

Charlie was born in Africa in 1970, where an American mining
contractor saw villagers leading the baby chimp down a road. Figuring
the animal was bound for the cook pot, the contractor, Edward Miller,
bought him.

When he returned to the Northwest, Miller brought the chimp, and in
1972 he turned Charlie over to what then was known as the Washington
Park Zoo.

He joined four female parentless chimps and the five lived together ever 
since.

Volunteers taught the young animals basic sign language and sometimes
led them from cages on 50-foot leashes so the chimps could climb
trees.

Among those early volunteers was Thomas, who later hired on and became
Charlie's No. 1 advocate. The story of the decades-long relationship
between the man and the chimp was featured May 24 in The Sunday
Oregonian.

Although keepers admired Charlie's intelligence and curiosity, they
kept a respectful distance after an incident years ago in which the
chimp bit off the end of a former zoo director's finger. For a month
afterward, keepers said, the chimp acted as if he knew he'd done
something terrible.

Charlie's facial hair grew wiry and gray, and white fur dusted his
broad back. But the nearly 5-foot-tall, 160-pound chimp had appeared
fit and healthy.

On Thursday morning, Charlie ran to greet keepers as usual, said Bill
LaMarche, zoo spokesman. Through the day, the chimp scaled high into
his climbing structure and cooperated for training.

But sometime before 3 p.m. there was a commotion near the viewing
window. Thomas saw a chimp down and heard a volunteer yell that it was
Charlie. The female chimps screamed, and by the time keepers cleared
them away and got to Charlie, he was gone.

Late Thursday, veterinarians performed a necropsy, or animal autopsy,
to try to determine the cause of death. They suspect the chimp may
have had a heart attack or stroke.

Charlie outlived one son and daughter. Another son, Joshua, is the
alpha male at the Kansas City Zoo. At least one grandchild, a female
born in Dallas, survives him.

Katy Muldoon: 503-221-8526 or katymuldoon AT oregonlive.com; Eric
Mortenson: 503-294- 7636 or ericmortenson AT news.oregonian.com