Photos of Aimee, the rescued baby chimp, courtesy Jill Pruetz
This story began last Sunday when Jill Pruetz, an anthropologist at Iowa State University, sent out a frantic email: "I just got a phone call from Johnny, my field assistant in Senegal, who told me he thinks that an infant chimp from the Fongoli community was taken by people near the southern end of the range," she wrote.
The initial report was that the baby had been found by two men who had been out hunting when their dogs startled a group of chimpanzees. The apes fled, leaving the baby behind, according to their story.
Pruetz jumped into action. She consulted Janis Carter, who has worked with sanctuary chimps for years in the Gambia and also has ongoing conservation projects in Guinea and Senegal, and then briefly with a vet at Iowa State University about topical medicines for the baby chimp's scrapes and eye injuries, evident in the photo above.
Then she jumped on a plane to Senegal. We didn't hear from Pruetz again until today, when she emailed the good news that the baby chimp was reunited successfully with its mother.
Watch Pruetz in this video tell the story of how she reunited the baby chimp with her mother (added to this blog entry on February 6):
The Fongoli chimps -- named after a river that runs through their range -- were made media stars by Pruetz.
In 2007 she and colleagues reported that, for the first time, great apes -- the Fongoli chimps in Senegal -- had been observed making and using tools to hunt mammals. The research was funded in part by the National Geographic Society and was featured in National Geographic Magazine and in a NOVA/National Geographic Television documentary.
Also in 2007, Pruetz reported that the Fongoli chimpanzees take shelter from the scorching heat in caves. "The discovery has raised chatter among primate researchers, who say it's the first known case of regular cave use by an ape species," National Geographic News reported.
In recognition of her pioneering work, Pruetz was named a National Geographic Emerging Explorer last year.
So when Pruetz sent out her urgent email on Sunday, many people were naturally concerned.
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