Rescued chimps doing fine at rehabilitation

December 18 2007 at 07:02PM

By Gcina Ntsaluba

Five young chimpanzees are settling into their new life at the Jane Goodall Institute Chimpanzee Eden in Nelspruit.

The chimps were taken from Sudan where they were being kept as domestic pets and being trained for circus acts. Some were being used for medical research purposes.

"They are doing well. We have not had any problems so far. They are jumping around and climbing trees," said sanctuary manager Phillip Cronje.

The chimps were brought to the centre for rehabilitation three months ago following months of planning and red tape. They are one-year-old Zee, 18-month-old Charlie and Dinka, and three-year-old Nina and Thomas.

They are being kept in the infant enclosure and being slowly integrated into the rest of the group that live there. Altogether, there are 18 chimps at the centre.

The sanctuary is situated about 15km outside Nelspruit and is the only chimpanzee sanctuary in South Africa.

Cronje said the chimpanzees had been rescued from countries such as Angola, Italy and Mozambique, with a long-term goal to reintroduce them into the wild.

Chimpanzees are the closest relatives in the animal kingdom to humans, sharing 99 percent of our DNA.

They are indigenous to central Africa, but have lost most of their natural habitat to human encroachment. They are also hunted as "bush meat".

There are an estimated 80 000 chimpanzees left in the wild. - African Eye News Service

o This article was originally published on page 5 of Pretoria News on December 18, 2007