Follow-up: Chimps that mauled American student given immunity
In a follow-up to a story Monday, South African government investigators have ruled that, Nikki and Amadeus, the male chimpanzees who mauled an American grad student last week, were defending their territory and will be allowed to live.
Conservationist Dries Pienaar blamed human error for Thursday’s attack of University of Texas at San Antonio graduate student, Andrew Oberle.
According to the Associated Press report Tuesday:
Oberle was in critical condition and in a medically induced coma in the hospital by Monday night. On Tuesday, doctors refused to describe his condition saying the family, which has arrived from the United States, is traumatized and asking for privacy.
Pienaar told The Associated Press that the chimps tore off one of Oberle’s testicles and some fingers from one hand as well as mauling his head. This was “to my astonishment, I couldn’t believe it because I know those chimps personally,” he said.
“The only thing that happened is Andrew stepped over the small barrier fence and went right up to the electric fence,” he said. “We all know that they are tame chimps, but he shouldn’t have done that, he’s a researcher, he’s supposed to read the body language.”
He said he found no negligence on the part of the Jane Goodall Institute’s Chimpanzee Eden SA in eastern South Africa.