Dylan Bettencourt
A chimpanzee thought it had made a great escape from a zoo in Kharkiv.
Chichi was wandering the streets of Ukraine’s biggest city on Monday when the weather suddenly turned and rained on her parade.
That was enough to persuade her to climb onto a zookeeper’s bicycle and let herself be ferried back to the zoo. The staff even put a yellow rain jacket on the chimpanzee to keep the rain off her during the trip home.
Video footage of Chichi’s homecoming brought smiles to the nation, still under attack from Russian forces.
Zoo director Oleksiy Hryhoriev told The Guardian that Chichi was back home and safe after her trip around town.
It would be near impossible to find any living being that has not been affected by the ongoing war, as Chichi was when she was evacuated from the Feldman Ecopark earlier this year.
Over 100 animals died at the Ecopark before Chichi was moved to the city centre zoo. Ecopark zoo owner Oleksandr Feldman confirmed that six volunteers died alongside the animals during an attack.
Kharkiv has been under severe strain with daily shelling as hundreds have succumbed to the war. The city centre where the zoo is located has been less affected but its administrative buildings were destroyed in March.
Chichi may have been living on the edge for a bit of fun. But she lives in danger every day.
Image source: @TheGuardian
