Matt's Shanghai

Chimpanzee quits smoking... Not kidding...

You may wonder what kind of articles show up in the Shanghai Daily the all English newspaper in Shanghai. Here's a good example of stories that show up everyday...

Even a chimp can quit smoking

2005-10-04 Beijing Time

A CHIMPANZEE in a northwest China zoo has quit smoking, a habit that has troubled her for 16 years.

Ai Ai, a 27-year-old mother chimp at Qinling Safari Park in Shaanxi Province, spent four weeks abstaining from smoking, by cutting her daily cigarette consumption step by step until ridding the habit entirely, a zoo keeper said. He said the zoo management decided to help the chimp quit smoking because it had been harming her health.

"She's served fried dishes and dumplings at every meal, alongside her usual diet of milk, banana and rice," he said.

"I also put earphones on her so that she could enjoy some pop music from my walkman."

The zoo keepers tried every way to divert the chimp's attention from cigarettes: a walk after breakfast, a music session after lunch and gym after dinner.

"In the first few days, she squealed for cigarettes every now and then, but as her life became more colorful, she gradually forgot about them altogether," said the zoo worker.

Ai Ai became a smoker in 1989, soon after her spouse died.

posted by Matt Dull @ 7:46 PM