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http://www.thetimes.co.za/PrintEdition/Article.aspx?id=936397

Swinging safari

Once neglected and abused, a handful of chimpanzees has found a happy new 
home in Mpumalanga. Geoff Dalglish hung out with them for a day.

‘Hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo!” The early morning call of a chimpanzee rises to a 
stirring crescendo, other primates enthusiastically joining in and creating 
jungle sound effects that would do credit to a wide-screen Hollywood epic.

Perhaps all that is missing is Tarzan, swinging king of the apes, although 
Nelspruit’s own Eugene Cussons could probably do a convincing impersonation — 
the 29-year-old animal activist sometimes has to teach orphan city chimps how 
to hang out in the forest.

While their natural habitat is the increasingly threatened and war-torn Congo 
Basin, most of the inhabitants of Chimp Eden have only known desperate lives 
of imprisonment, usually in solitary confinement.

These highly intelligent animals are our closest relatives, but what must 
they think of us?

Although they share more than 99% of their critical DNA sites with humans, 
they’ve often experienced only the cruellest of human behaviour, suffering 
the early trauma of seeing their mothers butchered for the bushmeat trade 
before being sold into slavery as pets in bars, restaurants, circuses or 
medical testing facilities around the world. 

Now they’re getting a second shot at life, thanks to a dedicated team of 
permanent staff and volunteers at Chimp Eden, a game farm 16km outside of 
Nelspruit that is the only Jane Goodall- approved sanctuary in South Africa.

“Some had even forgotten how to be chimps when they arrived here,” Cussons 
laments. “They have to be taught by example how to walk, climb, to forage for 
food, to find water and to interact with other animals.

“Often the chimps we rescue have been kept in tiny cages and subjected to 
years of solitary confinement, some becoming alcohol and nicotine addicts as 
they are fed a diet of cigarettes and booze by their human tormenters.

“We have to protect the species and the gene pool so that they can again be 
released into the wild,” Cussons insists. “All rehabilitation is being done 
with the idea of creating a full circle and eventually releasing them.

“We’re also developing technology that will enable airborne researchers to 
use infra-red devices that will detect the heat signatures of wild chimpanzee 
groups in the forests and help determine where they should best be released, 
probably in remote areas of Gabon and Angola.”

Their fate is in human hands, the optimists believing the species has a 
viable future; others predicting that they could be extinct in the wild as 
early as 2015.

Perhaps this is the perfect opportunity for South African and international 
mining and logging companies operating in their home range to give something 
back, helping to fund future initiatives at Chimp Eden.

More than anyone else, it is Jane Goodall, a remarkable Englishwoman, United 
Nations goodwill ambassador and world-renowned primatologist, who has 
championed their cause, showing them to be highly intelligent animals that 
exhibit emotional reactions and a need for social interaction not unlike 
those of a human child.

In fact, chimps are closer to humans than they are to other great apes, such 
as the gorilla.

In 1960, a young Goodall saw chimps stripping leaves off twigs to fashion 
tools for fishing termites from a nest, forcing scientists to re-evaluate 
their belief that humans were the only species to make tools. Also, in her 
first year as a researcher, she observed chimps hunting bushpigs and other 
animals, disproving the theory that they were primarily vegetarians and fruit 
eaters who occasionally supplemented their diet with insects and small 
rodents.

Decades of living close to mankind’s nearest cousins showed her that 
individual animals have distinct personalities, minds and emotions, 
observations that are being reinforced at the Mpumalanga sanctuary.

For the past year the growing population of rescued primates — 29 at the last 
count — has been featured on Animal Planet’s Escape to Chimp Eden, a 13-part 
TV series that began airing in South Africa in November.

Now a second season is in the making, with Cussons enjoying celebrity status 
in the US where he was recently named the top actor/presenter of a nature 
programme.

“The important thing is to raise awareness around their plight and also to 
generate much-needed funds,” he says. 

“Each chimp rescue takes up to three weeks and can cost as much as R100000, 
sometimes involving expensive air charters. And those costs pale beside the 
long-term investment in looking after young animals that could live to 
between 40 and 60 years.”

So why bother?

You could argue that a wrong has been done and needs to be righted, 
regardless of the practical difficulties; to show our humanity to ourselves 
and the animals that have fallen prey to our darker side.

Of course, the rescues are also a demonstration of commitment, compassion and 
resourcefulness. There is a strong element of risk, with rescue missions 
often performed in the shadowy underbelly of major African cities and 
trouble-spots including war-torn Sudan. 

“There’s a whole underground network of animal traffickers and they are 
willing to kill — you or the animals,” Cussons warns.

To date, 30 have been rescued, with 29 surviving at Chimp Eden and going 
through an intensive process of quarantine, rehabilitation and education. 
Hundreds more need to be rescued.

The animals roam freely in large forested camps but are often curious about 
visitors and always show up at feeding times. Guided walks of the sanctuary 
are offered daily at 10am, noon and 2pm.

But as cute and cuddly as they might seem, they remain potentially dangerous 
and are viewed from the safe side of sturdy, electrified game fences.

German-born animal behaviourist Jessica Ney insists: “They are wild animals 
and can be as dangerous as a leopard or hyena. I’m happy to work with them 
from behind a fence.”

She jokes about her inability to do a proper high five, since she has a digit 
missing after a normally lovable chimp called Cozy suddenly bit her — but she 
doesn’t bear a grudge.

“I don’t blame Cozy at all. He is an animal that was abused and suffered 
terribly.”

Although he is one of the sanctuary’s success stories, displaying a colourful 
personality and entertaining visitors and fellow chimps with his antics, he 
does sometimes have aggressive tendencies.

Earlier, he threw a stone at photographer Inga Hendriks, and Jessica tells us 
it’ s because of her blonde hair. It turns out he was kept in a tiny cage by 
a stripper for a number of years.

Phillip Cronje, the sanctuary manager who was previously with the 
Johannesburg Zoo, has been invaluable in helping the staff to interpret chimp 
language, which is based on vocalisation and behaviour patterns.

One pattern that touches everybody’s hearts is an outstretched open hand, 
accompanied by a nervous shriek and a grimace, which means: “Please help me!”

Where to find usChimp eden

The sanctuary is funded by admission fees paid by visitors — R100 for adults 
and R25 for children under 17 — as well as by donations. The Adopt-a-Chimp 
programme enables benefactors to see “their” chimp daily via permanent camera 
positions that are used for research.

The sanctuary also boasts a museum, quality restaurant and the 13-roomed 
Chimp Eden Boutique Hotel. The 90-minute guided tours start at 10am, noon and 
2pm daily.