Chimps Rescued From Rusty Backyard Cages in Angola Now Live in a Congo Sanctuary

Two young chimpanzees named Zeze and Zizi once lived in rusty cages in the backyard of a house in Cabinda, a province of Angola. Both now live at the Tchimpounga sanctuary in the Republic of the Congo. Getting them there took two conservation groups, government help on both sides of the border and, at one point, an emergency effort to reopen that border.¹²

Their story shows how trafficked primates in Angola find a permanent home. The country has no primate sanctuary of its own. The German nonprofit Wild at Life e.V. rescues animals there and has an agreement with the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) to send them to Tchimpounga.¹

What the rescuers found

Wild at Life found Zeze and Zizi with a third primate, Kuxie, all kept in the same backyard.¹ Zeze was in the worst shape. He was severely malnourished and had a deep machete wound that cost him his right eye, according to the Jane Goodall Institute UK.⁴ Wild at Life says the wound left him blind and that he also had a bullet lodged in his body.¹

Zizi was malnourished too. Wild at Life says Zizi was trying to look after Zeze anyway.¹

With approval from Angola’s Ministry of Environment, the group took all three animals to its base camp for a long rehabilitation.¹

Two separate trips to Congo

Zeze went first. JGI says he was about three years old when he arrived at Tchimpounga in early 2020, after the governments of Angola and the Republic of the Congo worked with the institute to move him.⁴³ JGI says he is thriving today with one eye.⁴

Zizi followed in July 2022 as one of eight chimpanzees in a convoy from Angola. Dr. Rebeca Atencia of JGI’s Republic of the Congo program organized the transfer. Four of the chimpanzees came from Cabinda, Zizi among them, and four came from near the capital, Luanda. JGI says Zizi had been kept as a pet in a small backyard cage at a private home in the village of Cacongo.²

The trip did not go smoothly. Immigration authorities closed the border between Angola and Congo, which stalled the convoy. The Governor of Cabinda then launched an emergency response to get the border open again, and the chimpanzees continued on to Tchimpounga.²

Kuxie stayed behind. Wild at Life says Kuxie is doing incredibly well at its camp in Angola.¹

A partnership that keeps going

JGI says it has worked with Wild at Life and the Angolan government since 2019 to care for rescued chimpanzees.² Wild at Life calls its ongoing primate rescue work in Angola Mission Caita. The name honors Caita, a poached chimpanzee who died of septic shock caused by tetanus after 11 days in the group’s care.¹

The group’s most recent update, from March 2024, reports a hopeful sign beyond the cages. Camera traps, motion-triggered cameras left out in the wild, recorded a variety of animals in an area that used to be heavily poached. Wild at Life takes that as evidence that wildlife there is starting to recover.¹