Don't Monkey Around With Wild Animals; Chimp Critically Injures Human

Most have seen at least one Planet of the Apes movies. They are scary because they foreshadow the damages that can be inflicted by wild animals.  South African conservationist Eugene Cussons is an expert on ape attacks. Cussons even hosts Animal Planet show "Escape to Chimp Eden."  Unfortunately, the most recent chimp attack was at his own Jane Goodall Institute Chimpanzee Eden in South Africa. The victim is Andrew F. Oberle, a University of Texas at San Antonio graduate student who was studying the chimps.

Twelve tourists tried to separate the chimps from Oberle. Cussons, was himself attacked by a chimp as he tried to pull it off Oberle.  Cussons had to actually fire a shot into the air to scare the chimps away.  Oberle was bitten and dragged for nearly a half mile. One of the chimps was also injured in the incident. Male chimps can be 5'6" and weigh up to 150 lbs. The exact size of the two chimps that attacked Oberle is not known. But regardless of their size, Oberle had been trained to keep a safe distance from the animals. Oberle was in South Africa to study chimps. He had also previously worked for several years as a camp counselor at the St. Louis Zoo.


However, Oberle apparently broke the rules by going through the first of two fences that separate humans from the chimps. The chimps pulled him under the second fence.  Mediclinic Nelspruit hospital said Saturday that the 26-year-old Oberle remained in critical condition after Thursday's surgery.  Amadeus and Nikki, the two chimps involved in the attack, have been isolated.   Amadeus, was orphaned in Angola and brought to South Africa in 1996, where he was kept at the Johannesburg Zoo until the sanctuary opened. The other, Nikki, came from Liberia in 1996 and also was held at the zoo until becoming one of the first chimps at the sanctuary. The sanctuary has been closed to the public since the attack.