Dynasties: Chimpanzees show off strength by throwing rocks

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Four chimpanzees have been shot dead after escaping from their zoo enclosure into an amusement park. The animals escaped at around lunchtime today from the chimpanzee house at Furuvik Zoo, which is part of an amusement park near Gavle, around 100 miles north of Stockholm in Sweden.

Another chimp also escaped but made its own back into the enclosure.

Zoo spokesperson Annika Troselius told the Swedish newspaper Expressen Daily they had to shoot the chimps because there was not enough tranquiliser for all of them.

She said that because chimpanzees are physically strong animals there was a huge risk to people and so they had to take action to ensure nobody got hurt.

It is not clear why the zoo did not have anaesthetic for all the animals.

And the zoo has not yet released the names of the animals that were shot and killed.

Ms Troselius says that because they did not have enough drugs to subdue the primates they had to make a decision about how to get control of the situation.

She said the only way to do this was to bring in people to shoot the chimpanzees.

But the handling of the incident has devastated a woman who was primate manager at the zoo for 30 years, until 2013.

During Ing-Marie Persson’s time working there she says she built a unique relationship with the animals.

She says she sometimes lived with some of them and she was accepted as a pack member.

Speaking to Swedish news outlet Afton Bladet, she said: “You have to have a real plan for how to manage a situation like this.

“First and foremost, stun them, get someone there who can calmly stun the animals. 

“The last thing you should do is bring a lot of people and the police there. They get nervous and stressed. 

“You have to have competent people. Why didn’t they call us? We live only a few kilometres away.”

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Her husband Johnny Persson, former zoo director, is also upset about what happened.

Mr Persson said: “These are animals that are close to us, they are family members. There are no f****** lions out there.”

The zoo was evacuated after the chimpanzees escaped. Mrs Persson said this was also standard procedure when she was in charge and there was an escape.

But during her time in charge she says the staff only loaded guns with anaesthetic.

The Furuvik zoo had seven chimpanzees.

It is believed to be the only primate research station in the Nordic countries.

An investigation will take place to find out how the animals escaped and the zoo will then introduce measures to ensure it won’t happen again.

In 2009 the BBC reported that scientists discovered that Santiano, one of the zoo’s chimpanzees, planned hundreds of stone-throwing attacks on visitors to his enclosure.  

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