Mallory, who never had a baby of her own, took a special liking to me and spent a lot of time with me. The group included female chimpanzees, Kohei and Mallory, who were eleven at the time. At four months old, my mother and I were re-introduced to the group Donna had lived with previously. I resemble a juvenile gorilla, giving me a distinct look. During a routine physical I was described as a healthy, handsome baby and I definitely grew into a striking adult. It’s clear that it’s much easier for these people to attack us.I was born to parents Donna and Wes on Februat the Coulston Foundation, a biomedical research laboratory. We in the sanctuaries, we have animals, they are healthy. “All these animals are becoming rarer in the forest. “I know that unfortunately it (kidnappings) will happen more and more often,” he said. It’s also dangerous, as chimpanzees grow up quickly and an adult chimpanzee can kill an adult human with its bare hands.Ĭhantereau is not hopeful about the future. “They don’t understand the consequences of their actions because for one little baby to arrive in their hands, at least 10 have been killed,” he said. Many of the buyers of the smuggled babies are wealthy people who want to keep exotic animals in their homes, according to Chantereau. “To catch the babies, they have to kill the entire family in the jungle, usually between 8 and 10 individual apes, and a lot of the baby apes will die before reaching their final destination,” Chantereau said. “We can’t get back to our daily life, we are completely devastated,” he said.īut Chantereau said the kidnapping won’t shake his determination to save baby chimps from the clutches of smugglers. REUTERS/David W Cerny DAVID W CERNY/REUTERSĬhimps from two Czech zoos are Zooming each other every day It has now been almost two weeks since Chantereau last received any proof from the kidnappers that the chimpanzees were still alive, and he is worried.Ĭhimpanzees watch a giant screen inside their enclosure at Dvur Kralove Zoo, where a screen broadcasting fellow apes from Brno zoo has been installed as part of an enrichment project for chimpanzees amid zoo closures due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Dvur Kralove nad Labem, Czech Republic, March 16, 2021. In September 2013, the sanctuary’s education center was set ablaze, but there were no casualties, according to Chantereau. Months after its foundation in 2006, a group of people broke in during the night and set fire to the baby chimps’ sleeping place, killing two out of the five that were there at the time. This is not the first time that Chantereau’s sanctuary has been targeted, however. The kidnap is “the first of its kind in the history of the DRC,” he added. The authorities are still investigating and trying to identify the kidnappers, in the hope of finding them in the coming days or weeks, according to Koyakpa. “(The kidnap) is inhumane and unnatural,” Koyakpa said. “We will not give in to this kind of demand,” Michel Koyakpa, media adviser to DRC’s environment minister, told CNN on Friday. If we pay the ransom, it could set a precedent and it could give ideas to others, so we must be extremely vigilant,” he said. “There are 23 sanctuaries across the continent doing this. From Tobias DeschnerĬhimpanzees apply 'medicine' to each others' wounds in a possible show of empathyĬhantereau was also concerned that it would open the door to further abductions. This photo shows a chimpanzee female, Roxy, applying an insect to a wound on the face of an adult chimpanzee male named Thea. “Not only do we not have the money, but you need to understand that if we go their way, they could very well do it again in two months, and also we have no guarantee that they will return the baby to us.” “Obviously, it’s impossible for us to pay the ransom,” Chantereau said. The kidnappers claimed to have drugged the chimps and threatened to hurt them if Chantereau didn’t pay the ransom. But they didn’t come so the kidnappers took these three babies hostage and demanded a large amount of ransom from us,” Chantereau said. “They told us that they had planned to kidnap my children because they were supposed to come here on vacation. He later found the other two hiding in the kitchen.Īn hour after the break-in, Chantereau’s wife received three messages and a video of the abducted chimps from the kidnappers. on September 9, Chantereau said, and took away three of the five baby chimpanzees that he had rescued so far this year – César, Hussein and Monga. Kidnappers broke into the sanctuary around 3 a.m. Hussein, pictured in an image sent by his kidnapper Courtesy Jeunes Animaux Confisqués au Katanga
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