The Antwerp city zoo, in the land of chocolate and waffles, Belgium, have issued instructions to visitors. Don't look at the chimpanzees. They are being more than a bit disingenuous about the reason, however.
New rules have been posted outside the chimp enclosure at the city zoo urging visitors not to form a bond with a particular male chimp named 'Cheetah.' He was raised by humans but is now bonding with the seven other apes at the park, a zoo official said Wednesday.
"We ask, we inform our daily visitors and other visitors that one of the monkeys is particularly open for human contact," zoo spokeswoman Ilse Segers told AP Television News. "He was raised by humans in a family and therefore we are trying to integrate him, to try to get more social integration with the group."
She said Cheetah's continued interaction with humans was "delaying the social integration of the animal in the group," and isolating the ape from the others.
One of our informants broke away from the all-the-waffles-you-can-eat special at a local eatery long enough to clue us in to the real reason they are clamping down on Cheetah. Well, other than the fact that he stole Tarzan's sidekick's name. Cheetah was caught panhandling again. He's been trying to get enough money to make bail by hitting up the visitors.
