A baby chimp estimated to be 10 months has been rescued from Kibaale Trading Centre. The chimpanzee was picked up from a man who allegedly killed its mother and held it in captivity with intentions to sell it.

“We are running a community chimpanzee monitoring programme in Kibaale, Hoima and Masindi because there many chimpanzees in private forests,” Ms Lilly Ajarova, the executive director of Chimpanzee Sanctuary and Wildlife Conservation Trust, (CWSCT) told the Daily Monitor Yesterday.

“It was these trained community members who identified the chimp and alerted us.” She said they found the chimp hanging on tree at the home of the suspect, who run away on seeing a team from the Uganda Wildlife Authority. She said the suspect is a known chimpanzee hunter, who according to area residents, wanted to sell the animal.

“We found the chimp dehydrated and wounded and we took him to Uganda Wildlife Education Centre where he is recovering,” Ajarova said.

She said the chimp would be kept in quarantine for three months before it is taken to Ngamba Island Chimpanzee sanctuary.

Chimpanzees are an endangered species because they are rare and declining rapidly across Africa.

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