KNOXVILLE (WVLT) - Knoxville Zoo officials announced Saturday morning that one of its Chimpanzee's had passed away the day before.

Mugsy, 17 was brought to Knoxville shortly after his birth at the Los Angeles Zoo in 1991.

On Tuesday, his keepers began to notice he was lethargic and acting differently. By Thursday, his health began to deteriorate and he was rushed to the University Of Tennessee College Of Veterinary Medicine Hospital. He was immobilized, and vets discovered he was suffering from a perforated bowel.

"Basically his intestines folded in on themselves," said Terry Cannon, who is in charge of mammals at the zoo. "It's like opening or closing a telescope. Blood flow was stopped and his bowel tissue began to die."

Vets watched over around the clock, but even when most of his vital signs began to stabilize, his kidneys began to fail.

"He was watched over by vets for over 24 hours, and he went into renal failure," said Cannon. "They just weren't able to pull him out of it."

Suffering from both aliments, Mugsy had little time left. That's when zoo officials made the difficult decision to euthanize him.

"It's not common in chimps, but it's an affliction that affects people," said Cannon. "It's just not something we've seen a lot of in chimpanzees."

Mugsy was considered the alpha chimp on the Knoxville Zoo's chimpanzee range, a position he had only recently begun to accept.

"He was just coming into maturity and starting to assert himself as leader of our group," said Cannon.

According to the zoo, they decided to let the eight remaining chimps say goodbye to Mugsy shortly after he had been euthanized. Keepers took the fallen primate’s body to the chimpanzee range, and let them pay their final respects.

“First they tried to call to him and then they threw hay at him trying to get him to respond,” Cannon said. “Once they realized he was gone, they quieted down and sat with him for awhile."

Normally the chimps are a happy and playful bunch. On most days they are eager to please, and often hoot and holler at their visitors. However on Saturday they remained quiet, apparently still in mourning.

Denise Bible brought her two children to the zoo for Saturday’s “Touch a Truck Day”, but found herself also mourning the popular primate’s untimely death.

“We are local people, I feel like all the animals are part of our family,” she said. “So if one of them is gone, it feels like a family member is gone."

"Mugsy was a favorite among staff and visitors,” recalled Cannon. “He was one that loved to come down to the viewing glass. He had eyes that when they would look into your eyes, it was like he was looking into your soul. With kids, he either scared them or they loved him because he liked to jump at the glass from far away.”

Before his death, the Knoxville Zoo was on its way toward having one or the largest chimpanzee troupes in the nation. Zoo officials say for now they will stay with eight chimps, and one will eventually step into Mugsy’s alpha role.

“Honestly, you just can’t replace Mugsy,” Cannon said.

If you would like to send your condolences to the primates on the chimpanzee range and their keepers, you can mail them to the following:

Knoxville Zoo
Attn: Thoughts for Mugsy
P.O. Box 6040
Knoxville, TN 37914