(Zombie Apes?!? Banana Bath Salts?!?) Adult Chimpanzee Fatally Mauls Baby Chimp at LA Zoo

NBC 4 Los Angeles ^ | Wednesday, Jun 27, 2012 | Beverly White and Sam

[DogByte6RER]

Adult Chimpanzee Fatally Mauls Baby Chimp at LA Zoo

The unnamed infant was born March 6 to Gracie, who is being allowed to keep the infant overnight to grieve, zoo officials said.

The first chimpanzee baby born at the LA Zoo in 13 years was mauled to death Tuesday by an adult chimp in front of a crowd of visitors, including children, zoo officials said.

The unnamed infant was born March 6 to Gracie, who is being allowed to keep the infant overnight to grieve, zoo officials said.

When the adult male chimp began attacking the infant, zoo staff were unable to remove her from the exhibit because policy forbids them from entering the same space as the animals, which are strong and potentially dangerous.

"I felt bad for the people that saw that happen today. There were young children there that were so sad, you know, it's just really heartbreaking," said the zoo's director of mammals.

Zoo staff did not witness the killing, but said the attack went down in front of a crowd of visitors.

"I did talk to a couple of visitors as I was coming up here, tried to help them process what they had seen,” said John Lewis, director. "We also had some other visitors to help us get a better understanding."

The zoo in Griffith Park houses one of the nation’s largest troops of chimpanzees – 15 in all – in a North American zoo, officials said. Tuesday’s violence against the infant, who was gradually introduced to the coed group, was unexpected for the staffers that make up the zoo’s Great Ape Team.

“We have made grief counseling available to them,” said Denis Verret, deputy director. “They are a support group. They work with these animals every day.”

[Fawn]

Where is the video of the mauling? IF no video, why post this?

[calex59]

Anyone who knows anything about chimp behavior knows that male chimps frequently kill infant chimps. They do this for several reasons, one of them being it brings the mother back into heat faster, another reason is chimps eat meat, and that meat is usually another primate. Baby chimps are primates and meat, hence they kill the babies and eat them.

As a reader of Jane Goodall when she was young and studying chimps I learned all this and more. Male chimps will also kill human babies and eat them.

Male chimps are vicious animals and not the cute little critters they show on TV(those are children chimps, not yet adolescents).

My point is why in the world did these "experts on chimps" have the female and baby in the same enclosure as the male chimp? They should have known better.

[Slings and Arrows]

They're so human.

[Joe 6-pack]

"Ripping apart smaller relatives happens all the time too - should we also mimic that behavior?"

Um...we already do, and ennoble it with the name, *freedom of choice*.

[Eaker]

Tuesday’s violence against the infant, who was gradually introduced to the coed group, was unexpected for the staffers that make up the zoo’s Great Ape Team.

Ape team is fairly accurate.

Retard team would be spot on accurate.

[Redcitizen]

Go human, not Ape.

[beaversmom]

And Flint killed his baby sister out of jealousy. He wanted mama, Flo, all to himself.

[beaversmom]

My point is why in the world did these "experts on chimps" have the female and baby in the same enclosure as the male chimp? They should have known better.

I agree and would have hated for me and my kids to witness something horrible like that. I know she's just an animal, but I feel sorry for the mama. The zoo people goofed up big time.

[rmlew]

The Common chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes, is a horribly violent animal. I consider them too smart, too strong, and too violent to hold in captivity. They will castrate you and rip your face off. Eating their young, and the young of other apes, including human infants is common. They are our closest relatives. All else follows accordingly. Only libtards think that people are naturally good. Sadly, most people who work with animals are libtards

The Bonobo, Pan paniscus, is less violent. It is also quickly going extinct. If we are going to keep any member of Pan in our zoos, it should be these.