Chimps get in the swing at new pad

Published on Saturday 26 April 2008 19:49

IT IS a home fit for the king of the swingers. The new £6m Budongo Trail at Edinburgh Zoo houses the world's largest chimpanzee enclosure and is expected to be a major draw when it opens to the public this week.

The 11 chimpanzees kept by the zoo have acclimatised to the three 'zones' within the enclosure as experts monitor their behaviour.

Head keeper Jo Richardson said they settled "within a matter of days". "Chimpanzees are an amazing species to work with," she added. "What this house allows the chimps to do is show all of their mental and physical capacities."

The enclosure replicates conditions at a primate research station in the Budongo Forest in Uganda. Set up in 1990 and now funded by the Royal Zoological Society Scotland, it is home to around 600 wild chimpanzees, as well as blue monkeys, colobus monkeys, forest baboons, duiker antelopes, bush pigs and more than 350 bird species.

Richardson is planning a visit to Uganda. She said: "It's really important for us to go, because if you've been out there and experienced it you can relay information to the public in a completely different way.

"From a personal perspective, to get the opportunity to study chimpanzees in the wild would be amazing. We will build up the links between us here in Edinburgh and the people working at Budongo.

"Our aim is to have a captive population – not just of chimpanzees, but other endangered species as well – and that's really important.

"Animals in the wild, sadly, are disappearing because of habitat destruction and other threats. So we've got to make a difference out there."