Macaco Tião ("Tião the Monkey") (January 16, 1963 in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of the same name, Brazil's List of Brazilian states by population, third-most populous state, and the List of largest citi ...

– December 23, 1996 in Rio de Janeiro) was a chimpanzee of the

Rio de Janeiro Zoological Garden Rio or Río is the Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Maltese word for "river". When spoken on its own, the word often means Rio de Janeiro, a major city in Brazil. Rio or Río may also refer to: Geography Brazil * Rio de Janeiro * Rio do Sul, a ...

who was very popular with children and visitors. His name ("Tião", a nickname for "Sebastião") is in memory of Rio de Janeiro's

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholic Church, Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocacy, advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, ...

Saint Sebastian Saint Sebastian (in Latin: ''Sebastianus''; Narbo, Gallia Narbonensis, Roman Empire c. AD 255 – Rome, Italia, Roman Empire c. AD 288) was an early Christian saint and martyr. According to traditional belief, he was killed during the Diocl ...

(''São Sebastião''). He was tall and weighed .

History

Tião started to become popular in the 1980s for his temperament, regarded as constant "bad mood" and having the habit of throwing mud and feces on the visitors of the zoo, especially politicians such as

Marcello Alencar Marcello Nunes de Alencar (August 23, 1925 – June 10, 2014) was a Brazilian politician and lawyer. Alencar served as the Governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro from 1995 until 1999, as well as two tenures as Mayor of Rio de Janeiro from 1983 ...

. Tião became a celebrity in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, when in 1988, the comedians who ran newspapers ''Casseta Popular'' and ''Planeta Diário'' (who would later join forces as

Casseta & Planeta is a Brazilian group of comedians who ran a TV show named , broadcast by Rede Globo between 1993 and 2010.

), jokingly created his extra official candidature for mayor as a protest in defence of null voting. At the time, voting was written on papers instead of registered using

voting machines A voting machine is a machine used to record votes in an election without paper. The first voting machines were mechanical but it is increasingly more common to use ''electronic voting machines''. Traditionally, a voting machine has been defin ...

. It is estimated that more than 400,000 ballots were cast for him, and he reached third place in an election with 12 candidates. Because of that, he is now on the ''

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

'' as the most voted chimpanzee in the world. As Tião was not a registered candidate, all his ballots were considered as null. In 1996, the voting system in Brazil was changed to electronic machines, so votes could no longer be cast for non-registered candidates. Macaco Tião had always attracted enormous attention and had a special place in the zoo, built especially for him. Nationally famous, various Brazilian newspapers and the French ''

Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...

'' reported the news of his death, in December, 23 of 1996. Tião died of

diabetes Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level (hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ...

at the age of 33. The city of Rio de Janeiro declared official mourning of three days, with the flags of Rio de Janeiro's Zoo being flown at half-staff. His body was taken to the primate center of the state of Rio de Janeiro
Centro de Primatologia do Estado do Rio de Janeiro - CPRJ
, in the

Guapimirim Guapimirim (, from Tupi 'little spring', ''guapi'' 'spring', ''mirim'' 'little'), is a Brazilian Municipality in the state of Rio de Janeiro around 50km(31 miles) from its state capital, the city of Rio de Janeiro. Its in a region known as Bai ...

city, where his skeleton is preserved.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macaco Tiao Animals in politics 1988 in Brazil Individual chimpanzees

History

See also

References