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C H I M P F A C T S
Chimp Saves ManBy Jane Goodall From her children's book, My Life With the Chimpanzees This is a story about a chimpanzee called Old Man. He was bought by a zoo in North America when he was an adolescent. We don't know his history. Perhaps he was once in a lab or a circus. But he hated people. He was put to live on an island with three grown-up females. He got on fine with them. And one of the females had a baby. Old Man was the father. Just about that time, a young man called Marc got a job looking after the chimps. Marc's job was to paddle a boat out toward the island and throw food to the chimpanzees. Everyone told him how dangerous they were. And, truly, adult chimps in captivity usually are dangerous. Most of them have not been well treated. For a while, Marc fed the chimps the way he had been told to. Then he decided he couldn't properly look after animals without some trust. So he began to make friends. He went closer and closer. He handed them their food and said nice things to them. And at last he could get onto the island. At first the adults still attacked him sometimes, but even though he got bitten, Marc didn't give up. He became friendly with Old Man, and he could play with him and groom him. But the three females were more standoffish. One day, Marc slipped and fell close to the infant. The infant screamed in fright, and at once the mother lept onto Marc and began to bite his neck. He felt the blood run down. Before he could get up, the other two females also joined the attack. One bit his arms, one his leg. He felt his hand go numb. He thought that he had had it. He could never escape now. Suddenly Old Man rushed up. He seized hold of the females, one after the other, and pulled them away. Marc began to drag himself toward the boat. Old Man stayed close beside him, threatening the females every time they tried to attack again. At last, Marc got off the island. Old Man had saved his life. | |||||||||||||
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