The Chimpanzee Connection

The media, as is their custom, did a great job sensationalizing it.  When I first started seeing headlines about a woman having "an affair" with a zoo chimpanzee, I did a little shudder - not just at the thought of the sexual act, but at what the woman's face would probably look like by the time a very excited chimpanzee climbed off of it.  Upon reading, I realized that they probably meant something along the lines of an "emotional affair" -and even that is stretching it.

Antwerp Zoo says woman who had 'affair' with chimp asked to stay away 'for his health'

The truth is, some visitors develop special, empathic relationships with some animals.  Sometimes it's one way, other times, as in this case, it appears to be mutual.  Often it's with big, charismatic mammals (I know a woman who had a special fondness for a bear and visited her regularly when she left her hometown zoo to go to another facility hours away), but you never can tell where the connections will come.  At one zoo where I worked, there was a crow - just a plain American crow, such as you'd see in your backyard or loitering at the dump - who had a fan base.  Some people came just to see him, to sit with him and see if he'd croak a "hello" at them.

It sounds like this chimp has his own behavioral issues, which is not uncommon for chimps that weren't raised as part of a troop, and that the zoo is trying to work him through them.  Hopefully they'll be successful - and hopefully his human friend can see him again once he's in a more stable place (but maybe tone down the kisses).