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[Benjamin Bayliss <ctrkgrendel AT yahoo.com>]

Chimpanzee attacks OSU student

Associated Press

Monday, January 16, 2006

A chimpanzee attacked a student at an Ohio State University animal research facility, and the woman sustained minor injuries, school officials said.

The attack happened around noon Sunday at the OSU Chimpanzee Center, a university police dispatcher said.

 

The woman, whose name and age weren't released, was treated at Riverside Methodist Hospital near campus.

 

"She was bitten and she may have been bruised when the chimp pulled her close to the cage," school spokesman Earl Holland said.

 

Officials weren't sure what prompted the attack by Sarah, a roughly 80-pound chimp.

"We'll obviously be looking at this to see what happened and ensure that all procedures were followed and guidelines were met," Holland said late Sunday.

 

Sarah, born in the wild, is 47 years old and came to Ohio State in 1987 from the University of Pennsylvania, according to the center's Web site. She has learned an artificial language system and understands the numbers zero through six.

Holland said he didn't know of another attack on a person by an animal at the center, which was founded in 1983 and has nine chimpanzees _ five adults and four adolescents. Researchers study them to learn about child development, comparative psychology, animal behavior and neuroscience.

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