Unique outplacement of a chimpanzee

On the 25th of May chimpanzee Guidage exchanged her residence at AAP in Almere for a new home in Saarbrücken Zoo in Germany. Guidages outplacement is a unique happening for AAP, because the possibilities to outplace a chimpanzee are scarce. It is years since a chimpanzee from Stichting AAP has been found another home.

Saarbrücken Zoo

Even though several zoos wrestle with the problem of too many animals, we were still able to find a place for Guidage in Germany. In 1932 Saarbrücken Zoo was started in an old sandstone quarry. The zoo supports the work of AAP does and last year they gave a temporary home to a long tailed macaque waiting for a place in Almere. The zoo offers a home to roughly one thousand animals including a group of older chimpanzees. Saarbrücken Zoo was prepared to place one more chimpanzee in this group.

Overabundance of chimpanzees

In the wild chimpanzees are a threatened animal species, but in captivity there is often an overabundance. This overabundance is the result of animals in zoos being bred in the past to attract the public. Because of the limited suitable housing available it often meant that the surplus animals ended up, via the illegal trade , in circuses and laboratories or they were euthanized. After a long life of suffering, luckily , some of these animals found a home with professional and loving care at AAP. Nowadays breeding programs are better coordinated and this leads to a partial solution to the overabundance of animals.

Guidages History

AAP rescued Guidage in Portugal in 2009. The chimpanzees had been kept almost all her life (18 years) in a garage workshop near Lisbon. The owner was extremely cooperative because he realized that a chimpanzee is a social animal which becomes very unhappy when kept alone, and therefore he surrendered her to AAP. Guidage now enjoys the company of other chimpanzees which she has missed for so long.