Today marks 11 years since Bart was born. He is the second child of Susie (her second) and Paddy (his 4th!), two now deceased chimps who once lived in the forests of western, central or eastern Africa before being ripped from their own mothers and smuggled into the tourist resorts of Spain to be dressed up in human clothes and pose with humans as props before being rescued by Simon Templer and brought to the ape sanctuary Money World in Dorset. Back in 2006 the park made the decision to take two of the female chimps in what was still Paddy's community off birth control; Cindy who was then 27 and Susie who was about 26. The reason for this is because of the success Eddi was and having been reared naturally by her mother Susie and how much her arrival benefited the group ( bringing them together as a close family). It was decided that 5 years later another baby should added. Susie was the obvious choice because she already brought up a baby and Cindy I suppose because she was maternal towards the youngsters. For one reason or another, Cindy didn't conceive but Susie did. Considering that chimp pregnancies are 8 months long Susie must have conceived Bart around October/November 2006. She delivered a healthy male infant with characteristicly large ears, as his older sister Eddi. This must be in the genes from Paddy! Bart grew up with his chimp family and not surprisingly spoilt rotten by his mum and the other females. Change came in 2013 when he lost his mum at the tender age of 6 when Susie fell ill at the age of 33. Luckily Bart was already weaned and although it obviously had a big impact on him he pulled through the depression with the companionship of his sister Eddi, father Paddy and rest of the group. Just when things were beginning to settle down Bart faced another tragedy when his father Paddy, who was the group leader since he arrived at the park in the late '80s, lost he life to a heart-related problem at the age of 36 in 2016. This brought the dilemma of a group of 16 not having an alpha male. Bart was 9 then and not old or big enough to take charge of mature females. Since then Bart has continued to grow into a fine young chimp and at 11 now he's slowly reaching maturity. A male chimp is fully grown at just 15 and that is the age when they normally start to dominate females and take their place in the hierarchy among the adult males, although 25 is the prime age for most males to take the alpha position. This means that it would be at most another 14 years before Bart is big enough in his prime to take his father's position. Until then he seems happy to just have his family around him and enjoy the attention. Cindy, the second oldest primate at the park, seems to have taken the leadership role for now. Bart has grown into his ears and is looking very handsome. He's taking after Paddy in looks and I look forward to seeing him continue to grow and hopefully take charge of what will be his harem of females. Bart has not been castrated therefore he has all the makings of being a successful alpha male and perhaps a father himself some day.
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