Chimps We Know

The "F" Family

Fifi

(1958 - 2004)

Fifi, daughter of Flo, was the last surviving chimpanzee from Dr. Goodall's early days as a researcher. Jane watched her grow from a lively and curious 2-year-old to a high-ranking female and one of Gombe's most successful mothers.

Like Flo, Fifi had a relaxed relationship with the adult males and was just as sexually popular as her mother before her. Indeed, when Fifi was a 10-year-old adolescent she was so preoccupied with the new experience of sex that Jane thought she was something of a nymphomaniac!

Fifi gave birth to nine offspring–a Gombe record: Freud, Frodo, Fanni, Flossi, Faustino, Ferdinand, Fred, Flirt and Furaha.

Fifi was also a grandmother. Fanni lost her her first son, Fax, but later gave birth to two sons, Fudge and then Fundi. Flossi, to our surprise, after visiting the males of the Mitumba community in the north several times during oestrus, decided to make her home with the northerners. She gave birth to her first infant, Forest, in 1997 and her second son, Fansi, in 2001. Flossi and Forest are important members of their new community.

Sadly, Fifi disappeared in the fall of 2004 and is now presumed dead.