OTHER CHIMPANZEE FELL INTO THE HEDGHOG TRAP

OTHER CHIMPANZEE FELL INTO THE HEDGHOG TRAP

For those who think that civilized chimpanzees, who were born in captivity and never had contact with the risks of the forest, can demonstrate an interest of living or even surviving in them, we have some examples to show. A few months ago Jango fell into the hedgehog trap. When he tried to get it, he got injured in his hand by the spines. Now Gilberto was the one who fell into the trap.

Gilberto is a chimpanzee who was born in captivity in Europe and arrived in Brazil when he was a little bit more than 5 years old. He lived for several years in Morrete, Paraná state, in a commercial breeder that used to reproduce chimpanzees. When the breeder was closed, he came together with several females, in the first adult group that we have at Sorocaba Sanctuary.

In spite of being civilized, Gilberto does not trust any human being and there is no intimacy with him beyond the fence. Gilberto is Pedrinho, Luiza, Emilio, Noel and Claudio's father. The first two ones with Ditty, the other two with Margerethe and the last one with Lulu.

There was a time that he almost got killed for being bitten by a young Cascavel snake that had entered his enclosure. He tried to get the snake to kill it, but I screamed, managed to get him out of the enclosure and put the snake outside. This time, he met the hedgehog, whom he had never seen before, in the end of the afternoon or in the evening. Gilberto always stays, during the night, near the door of the bedroom, taking care of his family. This is a tradition practiced since he arrived at the sanctuary. The hedgehog bit him strongly. As long as we can not access him easily, Dr. Camila had to give him an anesthetic in order to pull out the 30 spines, which were intact - he had not tried to pull any of them out and walked around holding his hand due to the pain.

According Dr. Camila, in the day after, when he was still lied down because of the anesthetic effect, she went to talk to him through the fence. Gilberto stood up, showed his hand with no spines, as he was saying "you made me free of this torture… thanks".
                     
Dr. Pedro A. Ynterian
President, GAP Project International