KWW
New Member
Just a little clarity to sone chimp history on here- there were 3 chimps that were housed off site (the zoo had a big house & property now owned by the city or parks) in the 70s and a huge enclosure was built for them to acclimate to captive life. The oldest chimp, Sudi, was surrendered to the zoo because the family raising her (like a human child) became overwhelmed due to the fact they had a wild animal living in their home and it was acting wild. She was used to dressing up and sitting at the table, so needless to say, she was not happy. Njugu and Kiji were very young chimps from Africa who were orphaned due to poaching. The idea was to get my stepfather, Phil Ogilvie (zoo director) and my mother, Lucie Ogilvie, to acclimate them together while all living at the big house. It was a wonderful childhood for my siblings and I, as these chimps were our playmates and my mother worked on teaching them sign language, as that was the big push- to communicate with chimps. The zoo ultimately decided not to keep them. They went to the Trinidad-Tobago Zoo where conditions were incredibly sad. There are a lot of videos of the chimps after they moved. Guests used to light cigarettes abd throw them to the chimps to watch them smoke. Sudi is still there. There are fabulous stories about our chimp adventures, and I may not have ALL the details, but overall, I wish Toronto Zoo had kept them.