KARACHI: Bibi, a female chimpanzee who had spent most of her life in isolation at Karachi Zoo, died over the weekend after months of illness, officials confirmed.
Daniyal Sial of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) said a post-mortem attributed her death to “senility,” noting that Bibi had long been under treatment for multiple age-related complications. “She was around 40 years old,” he told Pakistan’s independent newspaper Dawn, adding that she had been in deteriorating health for months.
Bibi’s story began with tragedy. In 2000, police captured her after a raid on a house in Karachi’s PECHS area, where she and a male chimpanzee had been kept illegally as pets. The pair had escaped, prompting an operation in which the male was shot dead. Bibi was taken to the zoo and later paired with another chimpanzee, who died three years later from cancer. Since then, she had lived alone, one of Pakistan’s last captive chimps.
A Broader Conservation Crisis
Chimpanzees are listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, having disappeared completely from at least four African countries. Experts say their survival is threatened by illegal wildlife trade, poaching, and deforestation.
Under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), chimps are classified as Appendix I animals — meaning commercial trade is strictly banned except for scientific or conservation purposes.
Sindh Wildlife Conservator Javed Ahmed Mahar said Pakistan’s Trade Control of Wild Flora and Fauna Act 2012 mirrors these international protections. “Rule 86, Sub-rule 7 of the Sindh Wildlife Rules 2022 prohibits the import of primates,” he explained, adding that many animals once entered the country through “shady deals” before such laws were enacted.
“Now there’s strict surveillance at the international, national, and provincial levels on any movement of wildlife,” Mahar said. “Trade in all wildly caught species is completely banned.”
