Even as a youngster, Rollie looked older and wiser than his years. His white mustache sprouted longer by the month, until it flamed from his cheeks like a German kaiser's.
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At 17, the Emperor Tamarin — a resident of Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo — is a senior citizen of his species. In the Amazon he almost certainly would never have made it this long.
In captivity, he's got plenty of company. The Golden Years have arrived at the nation's zoos and aquariums.
Do female gorillas, living in to their 40s and 50s, experience menopause? Can an aging lemur suffer from dementia?
How do you weigh the most difficult choice — between prolonging pain and ending life — when the patient is a venerable jaguar who feels like a member of the family?
All those questions hang on a larger one that has been left to educated guesswork.
"How old do animals really live?” said Sharon Dewar, a spokeswoman for the Lincoln Park Zoo, whose keepers adjusted to Rollie's toothlessness by serving him soft-cooked veggies. "That's the million-dollar question.”
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that monkey looks like the Lorax
stinkerpants, Oklahoma City - Jun 22, 2008 2:13 PM
1
Thank you for joining our conversations on NewsOK.com. We encourage your discussions but ask that you stay within the bounds of our terms and conditions. Please help us by reporting comments that violate these guidelines. To review our rules of engagement, go to Commenting and posting policy.
Leave a comment. Log in below or sign up (it's free).Editor's note: It is not our intent to offer comments on crime or fatality stories.