Chimp Dies at Zoo

A 37-year-old female chimpanzee has died at the Albuquerque zoo. Bernice was euthanized Monday after a short illness. She was one of nine chimps, including her 9-year-old daughter, who joined the Rio Grande Zoo in May 2002 from the Coulston Research Foundation, a former biomedical research facility. Zoo officials returned Bernice's body to the zoo's chimpanzee building to allow the other animals to know she had died. They displayed a variety of behaviors, including screaming and anger. Some hugged each other and gently touched her. A necropsy is pending but zoo veterinarians believe she died from heart disease. They say Bernice had a blood clot in her heart, and part of it broke off to cause a condition that made one of her legs wither. Treatment wasn't possible.

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News & Politics

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• zoo
• chimp
• dead
• dies
• bernice

[Apehouse]

@aliveinsd While i can understand you concerns and issues, you wouldn't have the same opinion if you had seen it. They absolutely understood and they grieved her right in front of everyone's eyes. It was one of the most powerful and beautiful things i have ever witnessed. They grieve their own in the wild and to take that chance away from them is a far worse crime. They needed closure, after watching her slowly get more sick, and they got it. And I'm proud to have been a part of the ceremony.

[aliveinsd]

@jesperc20 Well, yes. Humans do haul out and display their dead prior to ritual, followed by burial. But these are Humans displaying a dead chimpanzee to its own species, and atypical to chimpanzee behavior. Chimps just let 'em lay there and rot (Jane Goodall, "Through A Window"). Anyway, it all seemed just a little bit "eeeek!" and creepy to me. But I do understand your comment, and appreciate your reply. Kind Regards, Alive

[jesperc20]

@aliveinsd Isn't that exactly what humans do to our dead? It might work as a grief reliever for apes too. And I really don't think the apes took it as a threat.. because.. seriously.. they ain't nearly that clever or paranoid ;-)

[jakepacheco1]

stfu btch

[aliveinsd]

That is so sick. Why would any Human want to display a dead ape to its pack members. Haul the carcass out and burn it. The other apes probably took the dead apes display as a warning that they might be next?

[windap55]

These Chimpanzees deserve everything they are getting and more. It is sad that she couldn't of enjoyed her new life longer.....