Gregoire (chimpanzee)
Gregoire (* around 1942 ; † December 17, 2008 ) was the oldest known chimpanzee in Africa . He lived from 1944 in the Zoo of Brazzaville . In 1990 Jane Goodall found the almost hairless and emaciated animal living in a solitary cage. Until 1996, Dr. Goodall for better care so that Gregoire could be matched with two young males. When the first Congo War broke out in 1996 , Ndjili Airport, barely a kilometer away, was shelled by Kinshasa . Gregoire and several other chimpanzees were then flown to Pointe-Noire to be on the safe side. At the nearby Tchimpounga Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Center , the frightened animal befriended La Vieille (the old woman), an elderly chimpanzee. Gregoire shared his nest with another chimpanzee named Clara .
The Jane Goodall Institute and the John Aspinall Foundation took care of Gregoire at the Tchimpounga Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Center, where he spent the last years of his life. This center for orphaned chimpanzees is run by the Jane Goodall Foundation in the Congo.
Gregoire became known nationwide and appeared on a 1995 cover page of National Geographic . The BBC dedicated a program to him.
Gregoire was buried in Tchimpounga in 2008.
literature
- Paul Münch: Monkeys and People. Stories of difference, kinship and identity , in: Historische Anthropologie 19 (2011) 172–191.
supporting documents
- ↑ Africa's Oldest Chimp, a Conservation Icon, Dies
- ^ Front cover of National Geographic, December 1995
Web links
- In memoriam: Gregoire, 1942-2008
- Jane and Gregoire ( Memento of March 13, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
- Chimpanzee. Jane Goodall Institute UK ( 20 June 2010 memento on the Internet Archive ) (BBC Wildlife Fund)
- Jane Goodall Foundation film
- Animals: Chimp Conservation Icon Remembered , report on DiscoveryNews