/ 15 January 2001

CHIMPS GET HOME ON THE RANGE

TWO pet chimpanzees from the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo were transferred to the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage in Zambia on Sunday because of fears that their owner would not be able to care for them. Brenda Santon from Friends of the Chimpanzee in South Africa said Sinki, a seven-year-old male, and Kambo, a five-year-old female, were welcomed to the sanctuary in central Zambia after being flown from their home in the south-eastern DRC town of Lubumbashi. The chimps were raised in a private house as pets, but their owner Anastassiou Magali said the DRC’s unstable economy and ongoing civil war made it increasingly difficult to care for them. Sinki was adopted by Magali after being abandoned in Lubumbashi by smugglers, while Kambo was brought in by locals. The pair have become the 81st and 82nd chimpanzees at Chimfunshi, where enclosures of more than 1000 acres allow the primates to roam in relative freedom.