Visakhapatnam: Two of the three chimpanzees brought from Israel last year in June to the Indira Gandhi Zoological Park escaped from its enclosure on Friday morning. However, they were caught after a dramatic chase of 45 minutes.
According to the Vizag zoo Assistant Curator and spokesperson SS Ali Mashaddy, the chimps managed to scale the high enclosure using a water pipe lying inside.
“Our staff had overlooked the pipe. However, we could catch the chimps because of alert security guards and animal caretakers,” he added. The three chimpanzees from Israel - Chiko (18 years), Chipa (20 years), Chikita (30 years) are the new guests in the zoo park.
The delegates from Israel Nature and Parks Authority (INPA) who visited the Vizag zoo last year were impressed with the zoo’s vast space and agreed to gift three chimps to it. They had shown interest to give four zebras to the zoological park as well.The zoo was closed for about two hours.
Chimps which belong to the Great Ape category live up to 50 years and attain puberty between the ages of 8 to 10 years. They share 99 per cent identical DNA, anatomy and physiology with humans.
The total expenditure in transportation of the chimps was US $21,000 (approximately 12.6 lakh). The chimps were transported from Tel Aviv (Israel) to Mumbai by air and then from Mumbai to Vizag via road.
