• iconNews
  • videos
  • entertainment
  • Home
  • News
    • UK News
    • US News
    • Australia
    • Ireland
    • World News
    • Weird News
    • Viral News
    • Sport
    • Technology
    • Science
    • True Crime
    • Travel
  • Entertainment
    • Celebrity
    • TV & Film
    • Netflix
    • Music
    • Gaming
    • TikTok
  • LAD Originals
    • Say Maaate to a Mate
    • Daily Ladness
    • Lad Files
    • UOKM8?
    • FreeToBe
    • Extinct
    • Citizen Reef
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
Snapchat
TikTok
YouTube

LAD Entertainment

YouTube

LAD Stories

Submit Your Content
Oldest member of famous tool-wielding chimpanzee tribe has died at the age of 71

Home> News

Published 06:18 29 Sep 2022 GMT+1

Oldest member of famous tool-wielding chimpanzee tribe has died at the age of 71

Fana was born in 1951 and was a member of the incredible Bossou clan, in southeastern Guinea.

Rachel Lang

Rachel Lang

Fana, the iconic matriarch of a chimpanzee dynasty known around the world for using tools, has passed away in solitude at age 71.

The 71-year-old was born in 1951 and died in the forest near the village of Bossou in the southeast of Guinea.

The village has seen keen scientists travel for decades to study the incredible community of advanced chimps.

The small tribe use stone hammers and anvils to crack open nuts, which is the most sophisticated act ever observed by the genetically closest relative to humans.

Advert

The local environment ministry confirmed her death on social media, the Daily Mail reports.

Infant male Flanle, aged 3 years, carried on the back of Fana in 2011.
Nature Picture Library / Alamy

Fana's body was found in the forest on September 19 and she was buried the next day in the presence of local villagers.

The news of Fana’s death came as no surprise to the people in the village of Bossou as she had been showing signs of slowing down in recent months.

One of her upper limbs was paralysed after it was dislocated nearly 25 years ago when she had a nasty tumble out of a tree.

Advert

She has long stopped climbing and lived alone as she grew less mobile, the AFP reported.

Her death is a major blow for the Bossou chimp community, with numbers steadily dwindling since 2003 when their 21-strong tribe lost seven members after a flu outbreak.

Fana's death in 2022 brings the tribe of what was only seven chimps down to six.

The news compounds fears that the clan will soon die out as more than half of the remaining Bossou chimps are females that are too old to reproduce.

Yo (left), Fana (centre) and Joya (right) in 2011.
Nature Picture Library / Alamy

Advert

The loss of the incredible clan, which is marvelled by primatologists around the world, would be a major blow to both the animal kingdom and scientific community.

The survival of the Bossou chimpanzees is reliant on the nearby villagers’ special relationship to them.

They are considered 'ancestral relatives' by the local people, who did not have a tradition of hunting the chimps.

That has changed in recent years as young hunters do not honour old traditions and now often consider the creatures to be a pest.

Additionally, deforestation has been a major issue for the Bossou chimps.

Advert

Slash and burn agriculture is used in the area, and although the chimps lived in a preserved forest around Bossou, deforestation in the surrounding lands means they have been cut off from the rest of the Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve, where there are larger chimp tribes.

Fana leaves behind two sons, Foaf and Fanwa.

Featured Image Credit: Nature Picture Library / Alamy.

Topics: Animals, World News, Environment, News

Rachel Lang
Rachel Lang

Rachel Lang is a Digital Journalist at LADbible. During her career, she has interviewed Aussie PM Malcolm Turnbull in the lead up to the 2016 federal election, ran an editorial campaign on the war in Yemen, and reported on homelessness in the lead-up to Harry and Meghan’s wedding in Windsor. She also once wrote a yarn on the cheese and wine version of Fyre Festival.

X

@rlangjournalist

Advert

Advert

Advert

Choose your content:

an hour ago
2 hours ago
  • an hour ago

    Mysterious bright green pigeon spotted in UK town has experts 'sounding the alarm'

    The bird has been attracting visitors from all over the country

    News
  • an hour ago

    Distressing new bodycam footage shows police woman with bloodied face after Manchester Airport brawl

    Pc Lydia Ward suffered a broken nose following the incident at the Terminal 2 car park pay station area on 23 July, 2024

    News
  • 2 hours ago

    Scientists dropped a cow carcass into the sea and it got some very unexpected visitors

    The visitors were reminiscent of a certain Finding Nemo character

    News
  • 2 hours ago

    Doomsday prepper hoarding for WW3 shares everything on his list incase of global disaster

    Shahzad Kayani has stockpiled loads of essentials so that he is ready for anything

    News
  • Archaeologists claim the 'world's oldest pyramid' was not built by humans
  • World's oldest person has died aged 116 and credited two things with her longevity
  • Scientists have ‘grim outlook’ on Doomsday Glacier as main countries at risk if it collapses revealed
  • Tragic story of the 'loneliest man in the world' who spent 26 years alone in the Amazon rainforest