In Cheetah Mystery, Florida Sanctuary Stands by Its Chimp A Florida animal sanctuary on Thursday stood by its claim that a chimpanzee that died there over the weekend was featured in the classic Tarzan movies of the 1930s, despite the skepticism of some experts who believed it was unlikely that a chimp could live to be more than 80 years old. "I'm disputing that, I am greatly disputing that, and I think that's not fair to the animals that have lived that long," Debbie Cobb, the outreach director at the Suncoast Primate Sanctuary in Palm Harbor, Fla., said in a telephone interview. She added, "I'm sad to hear that people are questioning that." The sanctuary set off a stampede of news media coverage when it announced the death of a chimpanzee there over the weekend named Cheetah, who, the sanctuary said, appeared with Johnny Weissmuller in films like "Tarzan the Ape Man" (released in 1932) and "Tarzan and His Mate" (from 1934). Ms. Cobb, 51, said that she had known Cheetah all her life and that he was born in 1929 or 1930. She said he had been brought to the sanctuary by her grandparents, who received him in the 1960s when Weissmuller's estate "was being dispersed." "My grandparents picked these animals up," Ms. Cobb said. It wasn't like you called a hauling company to go pick up a full-grown male chimp. Though the nearby Lion Country Safari in Loxahatchee, Fla., is home to a female chimpanzee named Little Mama who is in her 70s, some zoologists believe such animals are not representative of typical lifespans in captivity. "Animals that live into their 40s are definitely considered elderly by most any standards," Dr. Steve Ross, assistant director of the Lester E. Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, told The New York Times. But Ms. Cobb said that "the more that you offer an animal, they can live a long, healthy life, just like humans." "These guys have 15 doctors, between dentists, M.D."s, D.V.M."s," she said of the primates at her sanctuary. They get five feedings a day, they don't have any stress. An animal in the wild is like a homeless person, always looking for love, food, shelter, friendship and not to be killed. Ms. Cobb said that her sanctuary planned to post brochures from the 1950s and "60s on its Web site that would show that its Cheetah had appeared in the Tarzan movies, and that the announcement of his death was not a "marketing ploy." "We have nothing to prove," she said. It cracks me up how ignorant some people are, but I think that causes controversy, and isn't that what it's all about? I mean, really. I think people like controversy. These are real living beings to us here. These are relationships. We don't care if it's in the media or not.