Africa’s Oldest Chimp Dies

It is with heavy hearts that the staff of Arlington, Virginia’s Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) announced on December 18, 2008, the passing of Gregoire (above), the oldest-known chimpanzee living in Africa and a dear friend of the entire JGI family.

Gregoire, who was approximately 66 years old, died peacefully in his sleep on Wednesday, December 17, 2008, at JGI’s Tchimpounga Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Center alongside his long-time companion Clara. Gregoire had lived at the sanctuary in the Republic of Congo for the past 11 years. Prior to his rescue by world-renowned primatologist Jane Goodall, Ph.D., DBE, Gregoire survived more than 40 years of solitary confinement in a barren cage at the Brazzaville Zoo and a subsequent airlift evacuation during a civil war.

Gregoire was already a national celebrity, albeit a lonely one, when Dr. Goodall first encountered him in harsh conditions in 1990. As she later explained, “I gazed at this strange being, alone in his bleak cement-floored cage. His pale, almost hairless skin was stretched tightly over his emaciated body so that every bone could be seen. His eyes were dull as he reached out with a thin, bony hand for a proffered morsel of food. Was this really a chimpanzee?”

Gregoire had lived in the cage at the Brazzaville Zoo since 1944. Dr. Goodall arranged for a caretaker to look after him and to provide him with a healthier diet. Then, in 1996, Gregoire was introduced to two new chimpanzees: a young male orphan and an infant female. The stubborn spirit that had kept Gregoire alive during decades of lonely confinement was intact. He began to play like a child with the young chimpanzees. In 1997, the intermittent civil war in the Congo worsened. The zoo, a mere half mile from the airport, became the center of much fighting. Each time a shell exploded, Gregoire ducked under his wooden sleeping shelf, scraping his back raw.

JGI, the John Aspinall Foundation and the American Embassy arranged to have the zoo chimpanzees airlifted to Point Noire and, subsequently, taken to the Tchimpounga sanctuary.

It took Gregoire many days to recover from the trauma in Brazzaville and the transport by military helicopter. Eventually, though, he adjusted to his new environment. He lived for playtime with his young friends. Later, as the youngsters grew and became too rough for old Gregoire, he moved to an area of the sanctuary with La Vielle, a low-key adult female rescued from the Pointe Noire Zoo. There, he had his own ”special garden’ and played grandfather to the infant chimps.

Gregoire will be buried on the grounds of the Tchimpounga sanctuary, the home that provided him a safe haven, loving caregivers and a chance at happiness in the twilight of his life. Gregoire will be fondly remembered and missed by humans and chimpanzees alike.

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

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