They have one chimp living by itself??? I think (perhaps someone can confirm this) the AZA now requires all accredited zoos with chimpanzees to have a minimum troop size of eight.
They have one chimp living by itself??? I think (perhaps someone can confirm this) the AZA now requires all accredited zoos with chimpanzees to have a minimum troop size of eight.
Well Brazilian Law dont give any recommendation in how many individuals but gives a recommendation for minimum size for enclosures, Chimps are only 70 sqm...
There were originally about 5 chimpanzees kept at the zoo and these arrived as rescued animals from a circus in the mid 70's. Over the years all of these passed away from old age and the last surviving member of the group was the youngest one , a male called "Black".
Black was very well cared for and formed a very special bond with his keeper of over 30 years , but earlier this year he was "confiscated" and taken to the "Sorocaba great ape sanctuary".
Basically what happened was the owner of the great ape sanctuary , who is a Cuban exile and an animal rights activist , paid / strong armed a contingent of the local police to allow him and his fellow activists to forcibly enter the zoo and remove the chimpanzee from its enclosure.
I and everyone at Sorocaba zoo frankly have an extremely low opinion of this individual "animal rights activist" and you only need to glimpse his personal website / blog to see that he is a fanatic who wants to remove zoos from the face of the earth and in fact believes that animals should rather be left to go extinct in the wild rather than be taken into captivity to be captively bred. But thanks largely to platitudes on social media they currently control the narrative. Footage later emerged of staff at the sanctuary giving cigarettes to some of the chimpanzees so we are fully aware that despite all his platitudes his "sanctuary" is from being above board despite what is claimed.
