Less than a year after the Dallas Zoo said goodbye to their oldest chimpanzee, Missy, zookeepers are mourning the loss of another of the Zoo’s great apes.
Shortly before zoologists performed their routine end-of-day rounds on Friday, Aug. 25, Kirk the chimpanzee stopped breathing. When team members found Kirk, they immediately took life-saving measures, but it was already too late.
The loss of the 31-year-old chimpanzee comes as a shock to the people who cared for him because he had not shown any signs of illness or distress in the days leading up to his passing. A necropsy showed the cause of death to be heart disease, which is common in great apes as they get older.
Kirk had been a resident of the Dallas Zoo ever since he arrived with his mother, Margaret, back in 2018.
The zoo released a statement about Kirk’s passing on their social media:
“Kirk was known as a sweet chimp who loved to eat carrots and energetically gallop around the habitat. He will be dearly missed. Please keep our Zoo family in your thoughts, especially the primate team, as we mourn this sudden loss.”
