Chimpanzee, Lucifer Recovered From Tooth Rremoved

Despite having a devil of a time with a split tooth, Lucifer is already back doing what he does best acting the chimp.

The 20-year-old chimpanzee, who resides at Hamilton Zoo, had a broken upper-right tooth removed by Auckland animal dentist Dr Russell Tucker last week.

Chimpanzee zookeeper Katherine Nichols said the zoo staff were delighted with Lucifer's progress, adding he was already back on his usual diet of vegetables and fruits.

"I'm so pleased how well he's doing," she said.

Ms Nichols discovered Lucifer's broken tooth on April 11, when she found Lucifer "screaming" in pain.

She said the injury could have resulted from a variety of activities, either challenging his brother Luka, or from an accidental fall. The pain did not last long.

Ms Nichols said he had been in very little pain for the last month. "Chimps are phenomenal healers and have a higher pain threshold than humans."

Lucifer's operation took about three hours at the zoo's on-site veterinary facility using an ex-ambulance stretcher donated by St John. It was the first time that a chimp had been removed from the exhibit for treatment in the facility."

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