Baby Chimp Rescue

Lessons are starting at a home for rescued baby chimps

in Liberia, West Africa.

Jimmy and Jenny Desmond started with two chimps and now they have 21,

all rescued from the illegal pet trade.

They, and their team of caregivers, are working round the clock

to look after them all.

But with new chimps arriving all the time, taking care of them

is becoming quite a challenge.

Oh, they're pulling your skirt down.

LAUGHTER

They need to find them a new home in the forest,

where they can lead a more natural life.

I'm Professor Ben Garrod.

A biologist, chimpanzee specialist,

and long-time friend of the Desmonds.

This is not normal chimp behaviour.

We don't do the wheelbarrow like that.

Wheelbarrow, wheelbarrow.

As these babies have no mothers to learn from,

I'm here to teach them how to live like wild chimps.

They're going to love it. Yeah?

Yeah, I think they're going to be psyched.

Over the next 12 months...

Go and play, little fella.

..we'll be showing them how to climb...

..how to forage for food...

I was going to say, we're going to try and see if they can

nut crack, but Lucy's... She's a pro.

..and who to avoid.

Max is playing with a deadly snake.

So he will be dead.

Yeah, and that's as scary as it is. Yeah.

With the house full to bursting,

the pressure is on to find them all a new home,

and get the chimps ready for life in the forest.

Ah, geez.

Is that really necessary?

Bridge of doom!

I've come to Liberia in West Africa, on a very unusual mission.

I'm here to see a couple of friends of mine, Jimmy and Jenny, who came

to Liberia a couple of years ago for something completely different.

But once they got here, they found themselves somehow responsible

for a couple of chimpanzee babies, and then a few more and a few more.

Now they've got 20, 21.

Sounds exhausting, so I'm here to help.

I'm heading to a small village called Charlesville,

roughly 70 kilometres from Liberia's capital, Monrovia.

OK, I'm getting more excited now.

Here we are.

Well, there's dogs, there's people and there's chimps.

I think we're in the right place.

Jimmy!

DOGS BARKING

Hello, hello, guys.

Hello!

Oh, my God.

How are you doing?

Hiya, man! So awesome to see you.

Seriously.

Sorry, it's been way too long.

This is Gola. Look at the family. Hello.

Yeah, we've had 21 children since we saw you.

It's so good to see you.

She likes to hang upside down.

Does she?

I miss this so much.

It's been like, what?

I met the Desmonds a decade ago on another chimp project.

Jimmy's a wildlife vet, and when he and Jenny first came here,

someone brought them two orphaned chimps to look after,

and they couldn't say no.

Then they started to get more,

and now they're responsible for 21 chimpanzees.

Watch out, you're not going to like Gloria, sweetie.

Gogo, be nice.

Let me just introduce you to everyone. Yeah.

So, this is Max.

Max, say hi.

I've heard so much about you, Max.

Yeah, Max is a cuddler. Hello.

And he's crazy.

So these two are the most scared, because they're the youngest.

Are you going to go see him?

You can go see him.

Beautiful, who's this again?

That's Ella. Ella.

How about you? You doing OK, baby?

There you go.

It's like an overload, there's so many people, chimps and dogs.

And this is only some of them.

It's normal.

Yeah.

None of this is normal. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Totally normal.

I've always been fascinated by chimpanzees.

They're our closest living relatives,

sharing around 98.6% of our DNA.

Like us, they have complex emotions.

And they even laugh when they're tickled.

When you work with chimps, or you study chimps or you spend

any time with chimps, it's really clear just how similar

we are to them.

We share culture, we share a very high level of intelligence.

They have a sense of humour, they laugh, they mourn,

they have a theory in mind, they recognise their own place

in the world around them.

And physically as well, OK, we look a little bit different,

but they've got the same number of fingers and toes

and their bones are very similar.

And even little things, like their fingerprints,

they have unique fingerprints, just like we do.

Like human babies, chimpanzees form strong bonds with their mothers.

But every chimp here has seen their mum killed in front of them,

to be eaten as bushmeat.

The babies are then sold as pets.

The lucky ones end up here with Jimmy and Jenny.

A lot of these guys come with injuries from the hunter.

Someone kills the mum and usually they're carrying the baby,

so a lot of guys actually have, like, shotgun pellets.

Just, every time, it seems sweet, it seems fun, they seem cute.

But there's a really sad story behind everyone.

No-one here has got a happy story behind them.

No, that's the thing.

Every guy you see here, it's a tragedy.

Like, they've all been through a really traumatic experience.

And they shouldn't be here. No.

They should be in the forest with their family.

You know, that's where they should be.

And we're just trying to give them the best life we can,

considering the circumstances that they've been put in, you know?

It's just, it's just tragic. Yeah.

The main goal of the sanctuary is to help the chimps

overcome their trauma.

To do that, the orphans have a dedicated team of carers,

who replace their parents and look after them round the clock.

Daniel, this is our friend Ben. Ben, this is Daniel.

He's one of our other caregivers. How are you?

And this is Eddie, he's also a caregiver.

This is Ben.

Nice to meet you.

Welcome. Thank you.

Thank you.

Well, you have a lot of animals to care for? Yes.

Yeah, we love the animals.

Yeah, these guys are great.

Yeah. I love them.

They're family, aren't they?

It's the truth!

At the moment, Jimmy and Jenny are paying for everything

with their own money.

As well as the eight babies at the house,

there's a further 13 older chimps at another facility

a few hundred metres down the road.

Come on, crazy face.

The whole place feels like it's bursting at the seams.

Do you feel his penis? Mm!

Penis in face.

You got penis in face.

You should feel really good. I don't.

I don't want his dinkle in my face!

I feel like I've been fully accepted.

He's laughing.

Chimpanzees in the wild have a home range of up to 65 square kilometres.

Oh, boy.

Raising 21 chimps in a fraction of that space

is proving a huge challenge.

CAR HORN BEEPS

Be good.

One thing that sort of struck me earlier is it's great when there's

so much going on, but you must be nearly at the point

you can't take many more in.

We... I mean, we're way over capacity.

We were over capacity at three!

ROOSTER CROWS

It's the end of the first day and it's been...

..there's no other word, it's been crazy.

First day back in Africa.

First day seeing Jimmy and Jenny.

First day being inundated with a whole bunch of chimps again.

And seeing the project, and it's amazing.

But it's overwhelming, it's massively overwhelming.

At the same time as exciting, as fun, as lovely.

So much for you guys to do.

The Desmonds' dream is to move all the orphans

to a new home in the forest.

They've found a patch of land that would be perfect for the chimps,

if they can secure it, and we're on our way to take a look.

So, Ben, if you look...

..if you look, sort of, behind the mangroves there,

you can see those big trees. Yeah, just behind. Yeah.

That forest is the land where we want to... where we want

to put the sanctuary. Oh, really?

Yeah. It's perfect. It's really ideal.

The proposed site stretches over 100 acres of forest.

Surrounded by mangroves and a river, a natural barrier for the chimps.

And they'll just be like wild chimps. As close to the wild

as they can ever be and it looks... it looks perfect. Yeah.

This hundred acre wood could be the solution to all their problems.

A promised land for them and the chimps.

And for right now, it's... it's going to be fantastic.