It might sound like the plot of a movie from an arthouse film, but it's a true story from Belgium: A woman has been banned from the Antwerp Zoo after having what's being characterized as a love affair with a chimpanzee.
As Newsweek conveyed, Adie Timmermans has formed a bond with Chita, a 38-year-old chimpanzee who lives at the Zoo. Timmermans has visited Chita weekly for the past four years, characterizing what they have as a strong friendship.
But as Belgian TV network ATV reported, Timmerman "has received a remarkable letter from the zoo" — namely, being asked not to make contact with Chita going forward.
The concern, according to zoo officials, is that Chita has formed such an attachment to her human companion that it's interfering with her ability to connect to the other chimps at the zoo. As ATV characterized it, "The rest of the chimpanzees exclude him every time he has had contact with humans."
“When Chita is constantly surrounded by visitors, the other animals ignore him and don’t consider him part of the group,” zoo curator Sarah Lafaut told ATV, according to the New York Post's account of the interspecies friendship. Chita reportedly spends 15 hours completely alone, even outside of zoo visiting times when Chita can only interact with other chimps.
As Lafaut noted, “An animal that is too focused on people is less respected by its peers. We want Chita to be a chimpanzee as much as possible.”
Timmermans, whose interactions with Chita include waving and blowing kisses to each other through the glass separating the chimpanzee exhibit from zoo visitors.
Timmermans, also interviewed by ATV, was perplexed with the zoo's request. "I haven't got anything else," she confessed. "Why do they want to take that away?"
She then conveyed, "We're having an affair, I'll just say. Other dozens of visitors are allowed to make contact. Then why not me?"
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