Chimpanzee Rescue Update - Fight Back News

EAL Director, Andrea Crosta, and the rest of the EAL team consider these rescues of chimpanzees around Africa an important project and a duty, in line with our core ethical values and our mission to fight wildlife crime.

Miriam, the female chimp pictured above, has been freed from the multiple padlocks around her neck. It was discovered that Miriam had been quietly living at the home of a wildlife officer, who chose to not disclose this information to any of his colleagues. A year after having her, he realized she was too much to handle and decided to surrender her. The sad thing is, in order to make sure she didn’t escape he locked her down with padlocks as well as a power saw chain attached to these padlocks and all to a canvas strip and plank of wood which was around her neck. It will take a long time, if ever, for her to recover from the trauma she’s experience being kept in this condition.

Miriam is now having a very enjoyable time relaxing in freedom and eating many new fruits she’s never had before. Her favorite is watermelon, which she absolutely adores!

The youngest female, Victoria, was being held by her owner in Yambio, who was trying to sell her to us for USD $5,000. Our partner in the field, Annie Olivecrona, with the assistance of a trusted wildlife security officer, were able to confiscate Victoria without any problems and transported her to Juba.

The young male, John, is between 2 or 2 ½ years old but his growth has been stunted by a lack of proper nutrients and food. John took to Victoria immediately and the two have been inseparable ever since.

Victoria took to her bottle of formula right away and when John saw her happily suckled on a bottle, he was ready to do the same! John is already in much better condition than when he arrived and is beginning to enjoy life with his new best friend.

At this point, we are waiting for all our permits to be in order so we can complete the final transfer of Miriam, Victoria and John to their forever safe home at a sanctuary in Zambia.