Chimp sleeps in park owner's bed after rejection

A baby chimpanzee has slept in a wildlife park owner's bed for a month after the mammal was rejected by her mother.

Staff at Wingham Wildlife Park in Kent have been hand-rearing Jane since she was born in February and documenting her progress on the visitor attraction's YouTube channel.

The 11-week-old is the third western chimpanzee, a critically endangered species, to be born at the park in the past eight years.

Managing director Tony Binskin said Jane "was in our bed with us while my wife slept on her back for one month, because the baby chimps sleep on the front".

He told BBC Radio Kent that Jane "needs this contact and this comfort" and now goes to sleep in her own cot "beautifully".

"She puts her arms in the air, she wraps her up, puts her arms down, shuts her eyes," Binskin said.

"I'd love one of my four children just go to sleep like that."

After his wife Jackie looks after Jane through the night, she goes to "chimp nursery" with the wildlife park's keepers from 08:00.

"She's doing really, really well, she's putting on weight great, she's just starting to try and crawl," Binskin said.

"There's lots to go on in the background for us to get Jane back in [the enclosure] but we really want to get her back in before she's six months old."

Returning Jane to the enclosure requires "lots of planning" and "training the other chimps" to make sure she can be taken or can independently come to the enclosure fence to be fed.

Keepers plan to help her attach to her aunt Georgia, after Jane's mother refused to take her on after birth.

Binskin said the animals were "not a pet" and that "once they get to seven, they are so dangerous".

According to the ICUN Red List, western chimpanzees are native to multiple countries in west Africa and are decreasing in population.

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