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Status: Endangered due to poaching and habitat loss. Diet in wild: Mostly fruit and other plant material, but also some small animals. Life Span in wild: 30 to 40 years. Weight: Males average 198 pounds; females average 176 pounds. Native
habitat: Zaire and other East African coutries.
Send an e-card featuring Tarzan! IT'S FREE!
Learn about Coby's use of sign language!
Black Pine Animal Park 1426 W. 300 N. P.O. Box 02 Albion, IN 46701 (260) 636-7383
©2008
Professional Animal Retirement Center, Inc.
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Chimpanzee Meet Coby, one of two of our white-faced male chimpanzees.
Coby, and his roommate, Tarzan (below), are retired performers who made their home at Black Pine in the spring of 1996. Though raised by people their whole lives, they are now too dangerous to continue living in someone's home. They could live 50 to 60 years of age. Chimpanzees, There aren't many things we do that chimps can't or won't, but one is swimming. Chimps are fearful of water because their bodies have virtually no fat which means they can't float. They inherently know they would sink like a rock, so water is not a playground for them!
Coby is very intelligent. He was taught sign language as a youngster, and still today members of the staff work with Coby to encourage use of signs to communicate. (Click here to read about the sign language study.) Tarzan and Coby enjoy human food treats such as ice pops and sodas, but in early 1999, Coby was diagnosed with diabetes. Coby has to take medication to control the disease, plus he has a strict diet. To learn more about keeping primates as pets, click here. |
The Animals
Download a virtual 'Coby' puzzle!
As an adult chimp, Coby weighs around 160
pounds and has the strength of six to seven adult human men. With great strength
and intelligence, chimps are an amazing sight to see up close and in
person.
native to Africa, are an endangered
species. It is still common for humans to poach chimps sometimes as a
source of meat, and other times babies are taken from the wild and sold as pets.
Even
others die from human diseases carried into the forests. By the age of
six or seven years, these sweet-faced apes become very strong and intimidating. 
Enrichment,
enrichment, enrichment. Keeping primates in captivity means a
constant challenge for keepers to ensure they are stimulated and
challenged, and therefore fulfilled. Imagine you living behind bars
in captivity, and you are imagining reality for chimps and other primates
in captivity. Entertainment is crucial.