NOS News•today, 07:24
A chimpanzee died after a fight with others in the Beekse Bergen safari park. The animal survived the altercation, but was seriously injured. Chimpanzee Wouter eventually died on the operating table.
“Conflict is not uncommon in chimpanzees. However, in this case the physical consequences were so great that the vet had to be called in,” the zoo said in a response. The chimpanzee was 23 years old. On average, the monkeys in captivity live to be about 40 years old.
Park manager Rens Willemsen tells the Brabants Dagblad that some visitors saw the quarrel between the animals. “Carers were then able to get the group in fairly quickly and got Wouter separately. The anesthesia and treatment also went well, but unfortunately Wouter did not recover from the anesthesia,” Willemsen told the newspaper.
Last year, chimpanzee Stephan drowned in a canal after a fight with other monkeys in Beekse Bergen. Some visitors saw it happen. A spokesperson for the park then stated that something like this rarely happens. About twenty chimpanzees live in the zoo, divided into two groups.
