IF YOU GO* What: Hank’s Day.* When: 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday (zoo open 9 a.m.-5 p.m.).* Where: Chattanooga Zoo, 301 N. Holtzclaw Ave.* Admission: $8 adults, $6 ages 65 and older, $5 children 3-15.* Phone: 697-1322.* Website: chattzoo.org.
He’s the resident celebrity at Chattanooga Zoo, and he’s celebrating a big day. Hank the chimpanzee will be turning 42. His friends at the zoo are planning a party.
The entire family is invited to the celebration that will include free birthday cake (while supplies last), games and crafts.
Zoo director Darde Long said in an earlier interview with this newspaper that Hank’s story is remarkable.
“In many ways his story is the story of the zoo, taking animals from sad and inadequate surroundings into wonderful new habitats where they can fulfill their roles as ambassadors for all wildlife,” Long said. “Hank has made quite a journey from his first tiny cage here to the beautiful Gombe Forest Exhibit.”
Hank has lived at the zoo since 1976, Long said.
“He was donated by a family from Cleveland, Tenn., who was keeping him for Bobo the Clown (the late Reuben Tarin), who had him since he was a year old. Reuben traveled with Hank in the carnival circuit,” she said.
Hank was one of six chimps captured in Kenya after their mother was killed. He was purchased in New York City.
His living conditions during his early years at the zoo were “horribly inferior,” Long said. “He lived in a concrete-block cage. Getting him moved into the $1.9 million Gombe Forest, a chimpanzee exhibit built in 1992, was the turning point of the zoo.”