Interview with Eugene Cousins - What Does it Take To Start Chimp Eden

June 17, 2008 by Healthy Shana  

Animal Planet’s hit series Escape to Chimp Eden, which focuses on the plight of the African chimps and Eugene Cousin’s quest to rescue them is now over. Over the course of the season, many of you had questions about how to help Eugene or how the chimps came to be in the situations that they were in.

Eugene has taken the time to answer some of these pressing questions. I thought I’d post some videos regarding some of the questions that you all have been asking. The second question that we’ll tackle from this season is “What does it take to start Chimp Eden?”

Watch the video clip below to receive your answers. Keep pulling for the chimps by watching the show when it re-airs next season.

Boy Meets Girl - Escape to Chimp Eden

April 14, 2008 by Healthy Shana  

chimp-eden.jpgIn episode 5 of Escape to Chimp Eden we were introduced to the Angolan Girls and the struggles that they went through prior to him rescuing them from Angola.

Eugene was worried about introducing the three new girls to the male chimps in the adult compound and wasn’t sure what to do because these male chimps were known to be violent and aggressive. The Angolan Girlshad been in quarantine for a period of three months and are now ready to be released.

When the male chimps saw the female chimps they literally went crazy through the bars, and the females hadn’t even entered the same compound area as the males yet. Mimi is the first female chimp to join in with the males. They just chased her around but didn’t get too aggressive. She just acted like she was happy to be free. She had been caged up for so many years when in Angola and hadn’t even touched grass with her feet before.

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Escape to Chimp Eden: Episode 4 - Xena

March 21, 2008 by Healthy Shana  

15178_459_l.jpgThis Escape to Chimp Eden episode was about chimp Xena. Xena is a 3 year old infant female chimp that had been badly abused. Xena is going to be introduced to the female adult enclosure. A few weeks prior three of the females had been introduced to three of the males. This can be quite a process because of all the abuse that the chimps had gone through as well as the unpredictable behavior of the male chimps.

As Xena entered the enclosure with the female chimps she met Mimi, which kind of gave her the cold shoulder, but she didn’t really pay attention to it. Xena is a very strong and dominant chimp, so the humans at Chimp Eden are very scared as to how they will react to her. They decide to mix it up and have all the chimps get together in the internal quarters. They are prepared for everything just in case a fight breaks out between the males and Xena.

Nikki is the first chimp to enter and all HELL breaks loose. Its crazy to see the behavior that is exhibited towards her. Is that what we’ve done to our animals where they don’t want to interact with each other. Its all good though. After a while, Nikki does warm up to her, so it seems, but then he gets wild again and has to leave the enclosure. Xena gets so riled up in this episode that she starts to escape from the Eden. It’s looking like a scary situation.

Xena does escape briefly but Eugene does work his magic to get Xena to come back inside.

Getty Images: Brent Stirton

Escape to Chimp Eden: Episode 3 - Jao

March 5, 2008 by Healthy Shana  

meet-jao.jpgIn this episode of Chimp Eden, Eugene has to enter one of the encampments but needs to gain permission from Jao.

Jao is 43 years old and is considered the alpha chimp of the encampment. Because of the craziness that these chimps have gone through anything can trigger violent behavior from one of them at anytime. According to Eugene, the chimps have a mental capacity of a 5 year old but the strength of 7 times that of a human being.

It seemed like everything is working out fine with Eugene and he is gaining the trust and respects of the chimps. however the workers along with Eugene has the chimps start a tree climbing exercise and everything just goes down hill from there. Jao starts to get really angry and upset and eventually attacks Eugene. Because Jao is really strong and has alot of rage and anger Eugene is basically no match for him and they have to resort to extreme measures to get him under control.

Its just a really sad situation to see what these chimps have had to go through. Keep posted for more updates on this wonderful show and the work that Eugene is doing.

Who’s Who at Chimp Eden: Meet Cozi

February 25, 2008 by Healthy Shana  

Cozi is an 11 year old chimp that was born in America and sold to a photographer in Italy to be used as a prop. Cozi had been with the photographer for a while, traveling with him to shoots and jobs. The photographer later dies while

meet-cozi.jpg

Cozi is still a baby and gets left to be taken care of by the photographers girlfriend, who is later found out to be afraid of Cozi. As a result of this she locks Cozi up in a cage in a trailer home, locks the doors and the curtains and never lets him out again!

NINE YEARS LATER, JGI Italy receives information about this chimp that has been locked up in an trailer with no food, a darkened room and space barely enough to stand upright. As a result of this Cozi’s bone and muscle development has been severely stunted. Image if you’d been locked in a cage since the age of 2. How sad!

Since arriving at Chimp Eden, Cozi has made great progress and has developed alot of confidence. Meet Cozi!

 

Lemurs, Orangutans, Chimps—-OH MY!!!

February 12, 2008 by Healthy Shana  

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Friday nights on Animal Planet are all the rage. Get caught up, or become acquainted with the Friday night line-up. Start out with Lemur Kingdom @ 8PM and don’t stop watching until you’re caught up in Escape to Chimp Eden at 10:30 PM.

 


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