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This is the heartbreaking moment a dying chimp recognises an old friend and is absolutely overcome with emotion.

Mama the chimp is terminally ill and had been refusing to eat and stayed curled up in a ball until her old pal arrived for a visit.

The 59-year-old from the Royal Burgers Zoo in the Netherlands would not even drink water until Professor Jan van Hooff called to see her.

Mama opens her arms up in an adorable moment of pure joy when she sees the professor, who set up the chimp colony she had been living in.

She screeches with happiness and he cradles her in her final days.

(Image: Jan A R A M van Hooff/Youtube) (Image: Jan A R A M van Hooff/Youtube) (Image: Jan A R A M van Hooff/Youtube)

The pair have known each other since 1972 and Professor Hooff wanted to visit his former charge before she lost her fight for life.

Despite being in a state of gloom for several days, the visit was enough to lift Mama's spirits.

Sadly, she passed away just a week after the emotional visit in April last year.

Mama was born in the wild back in 1957 and was the oldest chimp at the zoo at the time of her death.

(Image: AFP)

She was part of the first group of chimps to be kept together in the same habitat in zoo history.

Mama was famed for her dominant nature and was described as the 'grand lady' of the colony'.

After Mama's death, behavioural scientists Frans de Waal said: "Mama was the 'grand lady' of the chimpanzee colony. That was the case when I worked there in the seventies, but also when she got older and had difficulty walking it remained so.

"She had an exceptionally strong and dominant personality, so that no man who wanted to come to power could do so around her. She also brought consolation when there were tensions and mediated conflicts.

"She will be sorely missed, also by my, because I have rarely seen such an admirable character in both humans and apes."

The group of chimps were divided into two so they could all say a special goodbye to Mama.

Several of the chimps struggled to let her go during their heartbreaking goodbyes.

The video of her emotional final meeting with Prof Hooff can be seen on Youtube .