Chimp in rehab

A RUSSIAN chimpanzee has been sent for rehabilitation treatment by zoo-keepers to cure his smoking and beer-drinking habits, a newspaper reported yesterday.

An ex-performer, Zhora became aggressive at his circus and was transferred to a zoo in the southern Russian city of Rostov, where he fathered several baby chimps, learned to draw with markers and picked up his vices.

“The beer and cigarettes were ruining him. He would pester passers-by for booze,” the Komsomolskaya Pravda paper said.

It added he has now been transferred to the city of Kazan, about 800km east of Moscow, for rehabilitation treatment.