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Vegas chimp who spent 18 yrs. alone finds friend

Posted at 9:06 AM, Mar 10, 2016
and last updated 2016-03-10 15:53:37-05

Terry the chimpanzee who spent 18 years alone at the Las Vegas Zoo before it was closed has found a new friend at a Florida sanctuary.

A video of Terry and another chimp named Jeannie is going viral. The video shows the two chimps holding hands and refusing to let go.

Terry is in his late thirties. He was trained to perform in a show titled "Ice Capades," but never did so. In 1995, Terry and another chimp named Simon wound up in the Las Vegas Zoo. Simon died soon after arrival and Terry spent the next 18 years without the companionship another chimpanzee.

After years of complaints by local animal activists and the general public, the Las Vegas Zoo was closed in 2013. Terry made his way to Florida and settled in at Save the Chimps, the world's largest chimpanzee sanctuary.

Terry and Jeannie were only recently introduced at the sanctuary.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, Jeannie was rescued from a biomedical research lab. It is believed that Jeannie was born in the wild around 1966, which makes her a bit older than Terry. That doesn't seem to bother him though.

There are 253 chimpanzees at the sanctuary.