Oldest male chimpanzee in the United States dies at San Francisco zoo. Cobby was 63

The oldest male chimpanzee living in an accredited North American zoo died Saturday at the San Francisco Zoo & Gardens. He was 63.

The chimpanzee, named Cobby, had been a hand-reared performing chimpanzee before he was brought to the San Francisco zoo in the 1960s. Although the zoo said in a news release that the chimpanzee’s cause of death had not been determined, the animal had recently been ill and zoo officials believe old age was a factor.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists chimpanzees as endangered, and they are considered among the most at-risk primates in Africa due to hunting, habitat loss and disease.

Cobby’s death comes less than a week after a chimpanzee named Joey died at the Sacramento Zoo.

Joey died at the age of 57, officials said on the zoo’s Facebook page. He arrived at the Sacramento Zoo in 1967 from a facility in Thousand Oaks.

Joey was the oldest mammal at the zoo and officials said his long life was due to the excellent care he received from zookeepers and University of California, Davis veterinarians.

The average life expectancy of the 100,000 to 200,000 chimpanzees living in the wild is 33 years, while it is between 50 and 60 years under human care, the San Francisco zoo said.

Cobby was integral in bringing together the San Francisco Zoo’s chimpanzee population, officials said, and acted like the elder of the troop.

“Cobby was part of San Francisco,” said Tanya M. Peterson, executive director of the San Francisco Zoological Society, in a statement. “He touched so many lives, and people have so many memories of him. He is irreplaceable, and our hearts are broken. We will all miss seeing his handsome grey beard watching over us from the top platform of the yard.”