Death of Chita, companion of Tarzan, creates doubts

A Florida animal sanctuary said Cheeta, chimpanzee who accompanies Tarzan in his films in the 1930s, died at age 80, but other versions contend that that assertion is false.

Debbie Cobb, Director of the Suncoast Primate Sanctuary on the coast of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico said Wednesday that his grandparents bought "Tarzan" Johnny Weissmuller star Chita and that the chimpanzee had been involved in the movies filmed between 1932 and 1934. At that time Weissmuller filmed "Tarzan the Ape Man" and "Tarzan and His Mate".

But Cobb did not submit documents that supported and said that those who had had been destroyed in a fire in 1995.

Other versions of Hollywood indicate that a chimpanzee named Mr. Jiggs and Jiggs Chita and Weissmuller played years before and that he died in 1938.

In addition, a chimpanzee of 80 years would extremely old, perhaps the oldest u000athat he has known. According to many experts and with the sanctuary Save the Chimps, also located in Florida, the chimpanzees in captivity live between 40 and 60 years. Lion Country Safari in Loxahatchee, Florida has a chimpanzee who, according to their data, has about 73 years. There is a similar statement about another chimpanzee who supposedly played the friend of Weissmuller.

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