After Losing His Family, This Adorable Baby Chimp Finally Finds His Happiness In A Sanctuary

How would you like it if you were separated from your family? You wouldn’t like it at all, would you? A young chimp in Liberia was separated from his family. Luckily, thanks to the kindness of a stranger and an animal rescue, he found a happy new home. Come learn his story, plus see how chimps can adopt orphans in the wild.

15. Chimps Are Amazing Creatures

Chimpanzees, or as they’re commonly known, “chimps,” are very social creatures. According to scientists and experts, the social order of chimps is one of the most complex in the animal kingdom. Like humans, they like to be in the company of others, and need this socialization. One chimp named Survivor really needed it.

14. Survivor

Survivor was the lone chimp left when his family was killed by wildlife traffickers in Liberia. He was grazed by a bullet during the attack but luckily, he survived. The traffickers decided to take the baby chimp and put him up for sale on the black market. Luckily, they found a buyer who would help Survivor.

13. Buying a Chimp

The buyer felt bad for the little chimp when he saw him up for sale and decided to buy him. He thought he could make the chimp his pet and he adopted the baby. He was the one who named the little guy “Suvivor” on account of his harrowing story.

12. A Chimp as a Pet

Chimps don’t make good pets and soon, the man discovered this for himself. Survivor was fine when he was younger. The man enjoyed watching him play but soon, Survivor was much bigger and stronger too. He needed to go out and climb trees and have same escapades that others of his kind did. The man didn’t know where to turn.

11. Wrecking the Furniture

Survivor decided to climb on the furniture and use it as a makeshift tree. This solution wasn’t a good one and just ended in a lot of mess. The chimp’s owner was soon at his wits’ end. He clearly saw that a chimp was not a good pet and wasn’t fair to either of them.

10. Rescued

The man decided to find the chimp a new home but he didn’t want to sell him on the black market. He’d grown too attached to the little guy and knew he needed a suitable chimp-friendly home. He reached out to a woman named Jenny Desmond and she knew just the place.

9. Jenny Desmond

Jenny Desmond is the co-founder of a rescue organization called Liberia Chimpanzee Rescue and Protection, or LCRP. LCRP was founded to help chimps who are victims of the bushmeat and live pet trade. The rescue helps rehabilitate chimps and works with animal welfare organizations for conservation.

8. A New Life

Survivor’s owner knew that he had to surrender his pet to LCRP and did so. Jenny was thrilled to welcome the new chimp and told The Dodo he jumped right into her arms when he arrived. The little chimp seemed to recognize that this was going to be his home and it was great to see his reaction.

7. No Socialization

Without the socialization he needed, Survivor had grown depressed. When he saw the other chimps, however, he perked up right away. He finally had a family around him and he even had trees to climb.

6. A New Family

The rescue was the home of not just adult chimps, but also baby chimps. Survivor would be able to bond with all of these chimps and find a new family. How did it go? Wait until you see!

5. Happy at Home

Survivor took to his new home amazingly and was the picture of happiness despite everything he’d gone through. Jenny posted a photo of the happy chimp on the official rescue Facebook, sharing “Although often still fearful and wary, Survivor is adjusting so well and seems to be slowly realizing that life has changed and that he might be able to truly trust in his new home and the many shapes and sizes of people showering him with attention.” Click to see more photos of the chimps at the rescue!

4. The Rescue’s Residents

In addition to Survivor, the rescue has multiple chimps of various ages. The residents include Jack, Gola, Gloria, Rudy, Max, Sweet Pea, Lucy, Guey, Bui and more. All of these chimps live in harmony thanks to the loving care of Jenny and her husband Jim, along with a handful of dedicated volunteers. Want to know more about chimps? Read on for an amazing story of adoption!

3. Amazing Chimps

Chimps are amazing creatures because they will adopt orphaned animals. One amazing study found the real altruistic nature of animals when 18 orphaned chimps were discovered in the Taï forest in the West African country Ivory Coast. The orphans were cared for by both female and male chimps said Christophe Boesch of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany.

2. Orphaned Yet Cared For

Christophe was able to determine through genetic testing that only one of the males taking care of orphaned chimps was biologically related to the baby. The other males and females simply found a sense of duty in caring for the young animals, even protecting them and helping them for a long period of time through no benefit of their own. This is just another example of the wonderful world of animals.

1. Threats to Chimps

Stories like Survivor’s aren’t unfamiliar to Jenny and Jim. It’s common for hunters to kill the adult chimps then take their baby chimps to the black market. Another threat is the loss of their habitat thanks to logging and other industrialization. The chimpanzee is currently an endangered species with an estimated 170,000 and 300,000 chimps in the wild. Luckily animal conservation groups and rescue organizations are working to protect chimps.