PUERTO DE LA CRUZ, Spain, Aug. 28 (UPI) -- A 41-year-old chimpanzee in Spain has successfully undergone a cataract operation and recovered her vision, zoo officials said.
The chimpanzee, named Silvia, is the longest standing mammal resident at Tenerife's Loro Parque Zoo in the Canary Islands.
She had been unable to see properly, and was having trouble playing with other chimps.
She also needed assistance from zoo employees when she ate or drank.
Veterinary specialists from England and Italy traveled to Tenerife to perform the operation, which was very similar to a human cataract surgery, The Local.es reported.
After the surgery, she began avidly watching more nature documentaries shown to the chimpanzees in the zoo.
The world's first cataract removal surgery on a chimpanzee was performed in 2004 in Cameroon.
Human operations are often performed on chimpanzees, because they have 98.7 percent of the same physical characteristics as humans, The Local.es reported.
