Francis was one of the international residents of the Great Apes Sanctuary of Sorocaba, São Paulo, Brazil, and one of the oldest female resident.

Her story is a sad one, starting when she was taken as a baby from Africa, together with Queenie, to zoos and medical research labs in the United States. We don’t have much detailed information about her time in experimentations, but when she became an adult she started living in a zoo in the state of Colorado. A few years later she was sent there with her long friend, Queenie, to Vesty Pakos Zoo, in La Paz, Bolivia.

In 2004, the zoo could no longer take care of them and they were finally sent to the Brazilian sanctuary. Francis and Queenie lived together in harmony until 2011, when Queenie sadly passed away.

Francis’ early life was very hard, but she was lucky enough to find a decent life at the Sanctuary. After the death of her dearly companion, she shared her days with a few other chimpanzees. She was very reserved and didn’t like contact with humans, due to the suffering she has endured. But she didn’t like to be alone and used to seek out the company of other chimpanzees.

On the verge of her 58th birthday, Francis came down with the flu and within a few days her general condition had deteriorated, due to the changes she was already experiencing as a result of her advanced age. She passed away on April 2, 2025.