África

Date of birth: Between 1997 & 1999
Place of birth: In the wild
Arrival at MONA: May 2009

Africa’s story

This young chimpanzee is one of the most recent cases of endangered animal trafficking on our borders. She was captured in the wild and smuggled into Spanish territory by boat. She arrived at the port of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria with three more infants whose current whereabouts are unknown. She had bruises on her face and back. A worker at the port decided to “save” her and took her into his care, without knowing the full implications of keeping a wild animal in his home.

Past

When Africa began to approach adolescence, family life for the caretaker became impossible.Every day that passed, Africa was more and more dominant and began to attack the women of the house. For that reason the couple decided to build a room on their terrace to keep Africa locked away for many hours of the day.
When she arrived at MONA, Africa’s head and shoulders were completely bald, red, scaly and infected due to complications from a previous head injury. Because of this, she had been rejected by several zoos when her owners had tried to place her. Africa was also missing hair in various areas of her hands, feet, and arms due to hair plucking caused by stress or boredom. MONA discovered that her head injuries were treatable, and after several treatments a day, her hair began to sprout again and the redness subsided.
When we started with Africa’s integration into the group, she was so afraid of the other chimpanzees that she kept screaming, sometimes so much that she would vomit.

Present

After overcoming all the problems of integration, Africa is now not afraid of anything or anyone. The change came suddenly during one of the associations. Instead of reacting with fear to Sara, she greeted her warmly. From that moment on, she mastered the tactics of social life. She has a gift of always getting what she wants from others by easily manipulating her peers.Every reaction is exaggerated by Africa, whether positive or negative; hence her nickname, the “Drama Queen”!

Her social life

She belongs to the Mutamba group and hes hierarchy depends very much on her alliances. She is gifted to establish social relationships that benefit her and always ends up being the boss in the shadow. And all of that with her 37 kilos!

Likes

She does not like meat and is the only chimpanzee at MONA eating tuna as a source of animal protein in the diet.
She loves lying in the hammocks, hanging under the platforms, manipulating earth, and greeting new people, either in a friendly or not so friendly manner.

Fun Facts

When Africa greets the other chimpanzees, she does it in a very exaggerated manner with shouts and loud hoots. The others didn’t understand this until they got to know her and learn her behavior.
Africa greets her caregivers with a spit followed by a kiss which, of course, they find puzzling!

Africa’s group

She is part of the group we call the Mutamba*.

Mutamba: Strychnos spinosa is a native tree of tropical and subtropical Africa. After the rainy season it produces a sweet, juicy yellow sour fruit, a supplemental source of food for the rural population and a highly nutritious fruit that also feeds many animals, including the monkeys. In fact, it is also named “spiny monkey-orange”.