Rodney (1968-2004, aged 36) was a male chimpanzee who was once leader of his group at Monkey World. He was also the father of Arfur, Jess, Bob, Ben and Pip and the maternal grandfather of Rodders.
He along with Bixa, Evie, Jestah, Buxom, Jane (with whom Rodney had a son named Bob in 1994 (who died in 1998) before her death in 1995) and babies Arfur (whom Rodney had with Bixa) and Jess (whom Rodney had with Evie) used to live at Windsor Safari Park until it's closure. He and his group arrived at Monkey World on 31st May 1993. Jestah and Buxom were placed into The Bachelor Group whilst Arthur and Jess were hand reared (due to Bixa not having enough milk to feed Arfur whilst Evie rejected Jess) and later placed in the park's nursery group and were cared for by the group's dominant female Sally. In 1996, Rodney's group was joined by Charlie (who served as second-in-command), Peppa, Susie, Paco, Gamba, Cherri, Lola, Olympia, Cathy, Clin, Athena and Grisby, who were previously members of a group led by Butch (who became leader of the Bachelor Group).
In 1997, the females in Rodney's group were beginning to become unruly and Charlie wasn't being a good second-in-command. The staff decided to merge the group with Paddy's Group. After a brief clash, Rodney stepped down and accepted Paddy as leader, whilst Charlie was moved out after his hand was badly bitten during the introduction. In 1999, Rodney was ousted from the group and was made leader of a group (which was made up of previous members the nursery group) that was previously led by Charlie (until he was moved into the Bachelor Group due to his behavior towards the other members) which consisted of Hananya (who later became Rodney's second-in-command), Tikko, Simon, Semach, Arfur, Jess, Trudy (whom Rodney treated like a daughter), Cherri, Mona and Peggy (the latter two were previously in Chico's Group).
In September 2001, Rodney had a son with Peggy named Ben. Sadly, Peggy rejected Ben, who was then hand reared before joining the nursery group before joining the Bachelor Group until his death in 2017. Two months later, Rodney had a daughter with Cherri named Pip. Cherri cared for Pip for the first few weeks of her life before starting to put her down. This resulted in Pip having to be hand reared before joining the nursery group before returning to her birth group in 2008 before passing away in 2009.
Rodney led his group until 2004 when he got into a fight with Hananya. The males of the group (who were childhood friends with Hananya) took Hananya's side and attacked Rodney, but stopped when they saw they had hurt their leader.
Rodney was later taken to be treated by the vet for his injuries. Despite this, Rodney did not recover and sadly, Rodney died during the night from a heart attack. Following Rodney's death, Hananya took over as leader of the group. In 2005, Rodney postumously became a grandfather to Jess and Hananya's son who was named Rodders (who now lives in Bryan's group) by the staff as a tribute to Rodney.
Trivia
- In the television series Monkey Business, Rodney is incorrectly stated to be Seamus' father where in fact it is Paddy.