Johannesburg - Orphaned by the bushmeat trade, Nikki was raised as a human infant in Liberia, could use cutlery and slept in a bed. Amadeus was chained up outside a petrol station in Luanda, Angola, to attract customers.
No one knows whether their traumatic early years prompted the pair of male chimps to attack American anthropology student Andrew Oberle in 2012, while he was studying their behaviour at the Jane Goodall Chimp Eden sanctuary in Mpumalanga. But late last month, they struck again.
This time, the chimps charged the fence of their enclosure, and despite being shocked by an electric current, Nikki managed to scale it, pouncing on a young assistant manager, who was part of a team inspecting their fence.
He has been discharged from hospital and is recovering at home. The sanctuary’s decision to kill the animals has prompted a huge public outcry. Now the sanctuary has announced it can stave off killing them if it secures $250 000 (R2 589 800) in public donations in 30 days to build a large maximum-security enclosure for them.
“This is an emotional blackmail proposal to spare the lives of the chimps,” a former volunteer, based in the US, told the Saturday Star this week. “This is a ridiculous and unachievable proposal in 30 days… The bigger question is, what if only $100 000 is met? The chimps still die and Jane Goodall Institute SA receives hefty donations that they aren’t going to return once the chimps have been euthanised.
“My fear remains that Amadeus and Nikki will die as a result of the decision by Margi Brocklehurst (executive director of the institute) to put an inexperienced assistant manager in a position that he wasn’t qualified for, not to mention the harm that came to him as a result.”
The volunteer also claimed a fence line walk-through was “only ever done when the chimps are safely secured in their night rooms”, and not in their enclosure.
But Brocklehurst refutes this. “There is an awful lot of misinformation out there from disgruntled people. The employee was doing exactly what he should have been doing.”
Martina Nicholson, a spokeswoman for the institute, told the Saturday Star R15 000 had been raised. “If the animals are still euthanised, we can pass it back to the individuals if it’s a big amount but obviously if it’s $3 or $5, it becomes more difficult.”
Staff have approached two sanctuaries elsewhere in Africa to re-home the animals. “We’re fighting at every front to keep these animals alive,” Nicholson said.
The employee is “gracious but in a lot of pain”, she said. “These allegations that there was any carelessness or stupidity are absolute bull dust. The employee has two degrees, one in zoology. Yes, he is not qualified in primates, but who in this country is? He was led by a team of highly experienced primate experts who have worked for many years at the sanctuary. He has the appropriate knowledge, intellect and passion.”
Isabel Wentzel, of the National Council of SPCAs Wildlife Protection Unit, is part of an ethics team that recommended killing the animals. The primates, she believed, still battled the trauma of being kept as pets.
In 2012, Nikki and Amadeus attacked Oberle when he climbed through a fence surrounding their enclosure. They pulled him through a second fence, and he lost an ear, several fingers, toes and a testicle.
“But in the latest attack, the chimps actually charged,” said Wentzel. “He is lucky to be alive. Now that they have breached the fence, they know they can do it. The fence is not deterring them anymore.
“We’ve been lucky because only staff have been attacked so far. But these chimps don’t have a fear of humans anymore. They’re aggressive animals.”
In one Facebook post on the institute’s Facebook page, Rita Stevenson wrote: “It’s a great place, but this latest incident does not warrant the death penalty. The staff… should have investigated the fencing when the chimps were inside. This is human error.”
Another, Helen Offtut, agreed. “Nikki and Amadeus are just healthy adult male chimps and they don’t deserve being killed because you can’t handle them.” - Saturday Star