Chimps, like the rest of us in the primate family, aren’t immune to bad habits. There have been fat chimps who were forced on a diet (and who later needed plastic surgery), and then there’s Charlie. Charlie the chimp was world famous because of his vice: Charlie was the world’s best-known smoking animal. He was the star attraction at the Mangaung Zoo in Bloemfontein, South Africa, but now Charlie the smoking chimp has gone to the great smoking lounge in the sky at age 52.
Before anyone asks, Charlie didn’t die from his smoking habit. In fact, the chain-smoking chimp out-lived the average non-smoking chimp of the same species by a staggering 10 years! Charlie just died of old age. “He was on serious medications and in and out of the vet,” said zoo spokesperson Qondile Khedama. “Even though he has been receiving special care, and a special diet including protein shakes, vitamin and mineral supplements, he succumbed to old age.”
I’m against smoking as a rule, but here’s hoping Charlie got to enjoy one last cigarette before he passed on. He’s earned it.
Tags: Charlie the Chimp, Charlie the smoking chimp, unusual animals, smoking chimp, Charlie the smoking chimp dies, smoking chimp dies, smoking chimp dies at 52, obituaries, Charlie the chimp dies at 52, Mangaung Zoo, Bloemfontein, South Africa, Qondile Khedama
