She was born in the rain forest in the early 1950s and brought to the Frankfurt Zoo a short time later: the female Bonobo Margrit was “a personality with a mischievous personality”. The oldest great ape in the world has now died at the age of 70. She leaves around 80 offspring.
What is currently probably the oldest bonobo in the world has died at the zoo in Frankfurt am Main. The female monkey Margrit died on Friday, as the zoo announced. Margrit was probably the oldest great ape in the population alive today and the currently oldest representative of her species. The elderly female was fine until the end. Caregivers only noticed slight changes two days before her death. She was less active and ate less than usual. She didn’t show any signs of pain.
Margrit was probably born in the Congo rainforest in the early 1950s. Since November 1959 she lived in the Frankfurt Zoo. She had offspring seven times, three of her children still live in zoos in Germany and France. More than 80 offspring are attributed to Margrit. Great apes are kept in 19 zoos worldwide, 17 of which have descendants of Margrit. Some great-grandchildren of the fifth generation still live in Frankfurt.
“Margrit was a personality, friendly, cooperative and with a mischievous spirit,” said zoo director Christina Geiger. Her death leaves a void. She died within a few minutes under the watch of the nurses. According to the Frankfurt Zoo, animals that were born in the wild only rarely live in zoos today. The 1975 Washington Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species prohibited commercial trade in endangered species. The populations in the zoos are maintained with breeding programs. These can survive without importing wild-caught species and with sufficient genetic diversity.
