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Japan’s “genius” chimpanzee has died at 49

Ellsworth Toohey
Jan 13, 2026
∙ Paid

Hooting chimpanzee (Jane Rix/shutterstock.com)

Ai, a chimpanzee who spent nearly five decades at Kyoto University’s Primate Research Institute demonstrating that the gap between human and ape cognition is narrower than we like to think, died January 9 of multiple organ failure. She was 49, reports the BBC.

Brought to the institute in 1977, Ai became the f…

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