![]() “Now this is a very nice prison, but it’s a prison nonetheless,” he said Monday. ![]() And male chimpanzees are particularly strong,” he said.ĭave Salmoni, an expert in large predators for Animal Planet, said abused and captive chimpanzees can be particularly dangerous, likening the chimps to troubled prison inmates. “Chimpanzees are known to be violent, and they can kill other animals. Neville Pillay, head of animal behavior at Wits University, said that violence in chimpanzees is not at all unusual. Many of the primates have suffered “horrible injuries and abuse from humans,” according to the sanctuary. He hasn’t spoken to all of the tourists yet, either.Ĭhimp Eden was established as a home for rescued chimpanzees. Pienaar told CNN that his preliminary findings are that human error is to blame, but he cautioned that his investigation is not complete and that he wants to interview Oberle. He works for a parks agency that makes sure zoos, sanctuaries and breeding projects comply with the law. There are no plans right now to euthanize the chimps involved in the attack, said Dries Pienaar, who is leading the investigation into the incident. The sanctuary, which is featured in the Animal Planet program “Escape to Chimp Eden,” remains closed and its staff is receiving counseling, executive director David Oosthuizen said. She said the student’s parents had requested privacy, adding that they are “quite traumatized.” Hospital spokeswoman Baard declined to discuss the nature of Oberle’s wounds. The chimp that was shot had an operation at the Johannesburg zoo to repair damage to his small and large intestines. None of the 13 tourists, most of them from local areas, were harmed, officials said. Oberle was rescued and transported for medical care. Cussons shot that chimp in the abdomen, he told CNN, and it seemed to shriek as a kind of signal to other chimps that there was a more powerful threat present. One of the chimps then charged at Cussons, he said. Two male chimps grabbed Oberle and tried to drag him under the fence, but were not able to yank him into their enclosure.Ĭussons said he estimates the attack lasted 15 minutes.Īt some point, people tried to stop the chimps, and Cussons shot two rounds in the air to see if that might get them to retreat, he said. Oberle crossed one barrier and approached a second one, which is a main fence with 24 strands of electrical wiring, Cussons said. Witnesses to the attack said that Oberle went into a no-go area because he seemed to want to remove a stone close to one of the animals that could have been picked up and thrown around, Cussons told CNN. ![]() His training included an explanation about “no-go” areas, spaces for animals where people are not supposed to go. Oberle was at the sanctuary, near Nelspruit, South Africa, for the second time after training and volunteering there in 2010. ![]() Oberle had been at the Jane Goodall Institute’s Chimp Eden since May, according to Eugene Cussons, the facility’s managing director. “He went though a 6-hour procedure of which doctors cleaned out his wounds and now it’s a case of wait and see, and just to keep him sedated and comfortable for now,” she said. An American student is in critical condition after undergoing two operations after chimpanzees tore at his body in front of tourists at a South African animal sanctuary, a hospital spokeswoman told CNN on Tuesday.Īndrew Oberle, a primatology student from the University of Texas at San Antonio, was being treated at a Johannesburg hospital after two chimps attacked him Thursday, spokeswoman Robyn Baard said.
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