SMOKING CHIMPANZEE TRIAL

The main threat to chimpanzees, whose genes are 98.8 percent similar to those of humans, is poaching and the destruction of their habitat. Chimpanzees are listed as in danger of extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). He sees the existence of the chimp sanctuary as a sign of 'conservation failure' regarding the species, whose current population is estimated to be no more than 250,000. The sanctuary 'is not a natural environment, but it's a whole lot better than what those chimps experienced in the first part of their lives,' said Richard Vigne, Ol Pejeta's director. Others were seized in airports while being smuggled from one place to another.

SMOKING CHIMPANZEE TRIAL

READ: Drugs displayed as Kenya's $6mln cocaine trial gets underway Another called George was a pet in South Africa whose owners could no longer handle as the chimp grew older. Poco, 36, one of the oldest males in the sanctuary, was rescued from a cage of less than one cubic meter in a garage in Burundi. Many of them have been traumatised after experiences that make it impossible to return them to their natural habitat of tropical forests in the Congo basin and west Africa. Unfortunately for many of the other chimps in the sanctuary, that is not the case. 'He plays, he moves around constantly, he is very excited by what we give him,' said Ngulu. In the meantime, Manno happily swings on ropes and plays with stuffed animals and balls in his room. Manno, who is believed to have been born in a zoo in the Syrian capital of Damascus, has not had any contact with his own kind since at least the end of 2013 when he was illegally sold to the Dohuk zoo for $15,000 (R205 000). To avoid unsettling the delicate balance within the troop, and the creation of deadly rivalries, Manno will be slowly introduced to the other chimps before joining them in their one square kilometre of fenced territory. 'Before joining the other chimpanzees, he has to remain in quarantine for a while,' to ensure that Manno does not have any diseases that could be transmitted to the reserve's 36 other residents, said Stephen Ngulu, a veterinarian and the chimp sanctuary's director. READ: Study finds young smokers at risk for heart attacks

'On the trip between Dohuk and Erbil airport, the convoy carrying him was, at the closest, about 20 kilometres from Mosul,' where fierce battles are under way between the Iraqi army and the Islamic State group, said Daniel Stiles of the Project to End Great Ape Slavery (PEGAS).Īfter several days travelling in a small wooden box, Manno arrived on 30 November at the chimpanzee sanctuary within the Ol Pejeta conservancy at the foot of Mount Kenya, which has been taking in endangered chimpanzees since 1993. Then came help from several conservation groups, and Manno's days as a spectacle - and smoker - are now over after arriving at a chimpanzee sanctuary in Kenya a week ago. READ: Philip Morris looking towards cigarette phase-out

The four-year-old would also be dressed as a child and fed soda and sweets - giving him near permanent diarrhoea - before being locked in a small cage every night in a private zoo in the Kurdish city of Dohuk. PEJETA - Separated from his mother shortly after birth, Manno the chimpanzee was smuggled to Iraq and spent his days smoking cigarettes handed to him by amused zoo visitors and posing for pictures.

Smoking chimpanzee