Cheeta the chimp turned 74 years old yesterday, April 9th.
Before he retired, Cheeta starred in a dozen Tarzan movies in the 1930s and 1940s.
Cheeta, an accomplished artist, has exhibited two of his paintings in the National Gallery of London.
According to his keeper, Dan Westfall, Cheeta is still active, still painting and “has every tooth in his head.”
Westfall said primate researcher Jane Goodall inspired him to start the C.H.E.E.T.A. Primate Sanctuary for unwanted showbiz primates. Cheeta lives at the sanctuary where he spends his time socializing with other apes and humans.
Happy birthday, Cheeta!
Cheeta and Tarzan
That is too cool MJ.
ReplyDeleteHappy Brithday Cheeta
I've been reading this in the papers this morning.
ReplyDeleteI think it's really lovely.
Apparently he's not allowed to drink beer or malt whisky any more though.
Poor sod.
I kinda found this to be pretty sad. Holding an ape 75 years in captivity is something to celebrate???
ReplyDeleteI think they should have found a way to release him back after those movies were finished. That was 50 years ago, Cheetah could have lived out his life throwing feces in the jungle all that time
Pamer: I agree with you that in an ideal world Cheeta would be flinging feces in the jungle. Unfortunately, many ex-showbiz apes are taken from their mothers when they are young and would not be able to survive if returned to the wild. Sometimes retired showbiz chimps are sold for biomedical research. So all in all, it’s probably best that Cheeta has a good home in the sanctuary. He has diabetes, for one thing. I celebrate the fact that he’s still enjoying an active life in a good home but I’d rather that he’d remained in his natural habitat in the first place. Thankfully, there are more animal rights groups now then there were back in the days when Cheeta was a “star.” I recommend reading the National Geographic article on the “Press” page of the C.H.E.E.T.A. Primate Sanctuary’s website.
ReplyDelete