A Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden employee’s thumb was partially amputated after a bonobo attacked throughout morning feeding Friday, the zoo stated.
The worker has been stabilized at a hospital and was being handled, the zoo stated in an announcement Friday afternoon.
The bonobo bit by way of a protecting mesh barrier because the primate care employee was giving meals and medication to the animals throughout morning rounds, the zoo stated.
It wasn’t clear if the primate made contact with the employee or if the harm got here from the barrier.
The zoo emphasised that it occurred “behind the scenes” at its Jungle Trails habitat, which it stated final 12 months is house to 10 bonobos.
“The incident occurred behind the scenes and no different workers, company, or animals have been concerned or injured,” it stated.
There was no breach, and no employees have been contained in the core habitat, the zoo stated.
The Jungle Trails habitat was closed for the day however was scheduled to reopen Saturday, a zoo spokesperson stated.
“The Zoo is reviewing the small print to know what led to the incident,” the establishment stated in its assertion.
The zoo didn’t determine which animal was concerned within the incident.
Gilda, an 18-year-old bonobo, gave delivery to a boy on Sept. 8 on the establishment, the zoo stated. On Sept. 30, the zoo posted video of the pair making their first public look of their habitat.
The bonobo is a primate carefully associated to chimpanzees.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources lists the bonobo as an endangered species with a inhabitants on the decline due to improvement, civil unrest and mining in its native Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The nonprofit Bonobo Conservation Initiative stated dependable inhabitants estimates are troublesome to acquire. “As few as 15,000 bonobos stay in the present day,” it stated on its web site.
Bonobos, usually organized round feminine management, are thought of extra peaceable, clever and empathetic than different primates. Because they’re the final of the good apes to be found by people — they have been formally designated as a species in 1929 — researchers are nonetheless making discoveries and hope to make extra.
Key amongst potential insights is what bonobos can educate researchers about people. The primates share 98.7 of their DNA with people, making them our closest relative within the animal kingdom, in response to the World Wildlife Fund.