South Africa

Ex-Circus chimp,Charles:improving every day

In a quirky twist of fate, the chimp who bit half of Phillip Cronje’s finger off is back in his care – 15 years later!

Charles arrived at JGI SA Chimpanzee Eden at the beginning of this year, together with Jessica. Both are ex-circus chimps, aged about 25.

They were once temporarily looked after by the Johannesburg Zoo while Phillip was looking after the primates there. Charles managed to sever the finger during a feeding session – an incident which Phillip describes as a non-malicious accident.

The chimps moved on after a short stay at the Zoo, and although Phillip heard no more about them, his half-finger was a daily reminder of Charles.

JGI SA was approached towards the end of last year to rescue two chimps from the Natal Zoological Gardens near Pietermaritzburg, owned by Brian’s Circus. When Phillip heard that one of the chimps was called Charles, he wondered if this was his old friend.

“When Charles arrived at the Sanctuary, he would only vocalise when I spoke to him, and not when anyone else did,” says Phillip. “It’s difficult to be 100% sure, but that may have been because he recognised me.”

Both chimps were in a bad way when they arrived. Jessica should have weighed around 35kg, but was a mere 25kg. And although Charles looked fine physically he obviously had some psychological problems.

Jessica joined the Sudan youngsters, Martha, Lily and Suzie, and has become the alpha female of this group.

Charles’ introduction is proceeding more slowly, and had a set-back when Amadeus bit his foot the first time they were introduced. “When we drugged him to stitch his foot, we discovered his canines had been forcibly broken off,” says Phillip. “We now need to remove what remains of these before we release him into his new home. “Charles has therefore had a bit of a rough ride, but he is much more vocal now than when he first arrived and watches everything that is going on. He is certainly a lot better mentally than he was three months ago.”

Just as an aside – Phillip isn’t the only one at the Sanctuary to have lost a finger to a chimp. Animal behaviourist and volunteer manager Jessica Ney had the top of her finger bitten off by Cozy last year…