Don’t miss a thing! Sign up to the Daily Star’s newsletter
We have more newsletters
For four years, Adie Timmermans headed to her local zoo every week to spend time with her 'love'.
But much to her dismay, the 'affair' was brought to an abrupt end when bosses at Antwerp Zoo in Belgium decided their monkeying around was causing too many issues.
A little cruel perhaps? Perhaps not when you discover the focus of Adie's attentions was a 38-year-old chimpanzee named Chita.
READ MORE: Fisherman finds 'repulsive' crab with 'human teeth' and it looks horrifying
The pair's weekly get togethers at the enclosure saw them blowing kisses and waving to each other. Adie said their bond was like "having an affair".
Speaking to reporters of her heartache, lonely Adie said: “I love that animal and he loves me.
“I haven’t got anything else. Why do they want to take that away?”
Adie shared clips of herself pressed up against the glass, kissing her primate partner through the partition.
But in 2021 officials put an end to things and warned Adie to stay away from Chita for his own good.
They said Adie would not be welcome at the Belgian zoo if she continued with such monkey business.
The zoo said he long had issues integrating into the zoo's chimpanzee troupe after being brought up by humans.
He was very interactive with visitors, leading him to be ostracised by his fellow chimps. In 2008 he was injured in a brawl with several other primates.
"When Chita is constantly surrounded by visitors, the other animals ignore him and don't consider him part of the group," zoo curator Sarah Lafaut told Belgian channel ATV.
"He then sits on his own outside of visiting hours. An animal that is too focused on people is less respected by its peers and we want Chita to be a chimpanzee as much as possible."
But Adie said this was bananas and that Chita was unlikely to change his ways at his age.
“Chita is 38 and has been used to people from an early age," he said.
"On average chimpanzees live to about 40 so his behaviour isn’t going to change now is it?"
When approached in March of this year, a spokesperson for the zoo said that Chita was thriving following the change in his relationship with Adie.
They said: "We asked Ms Timmermans more than once not to focus on him anymore. Chita has to focus on the other chimpanzees as much as possible, he has to be part of the group for his own wellbeing.
"Because he was raised with humans at home and came to the zoo almost 30 years ago, he is still fond of humans. But, for his own health, he has to be part of the chimpanzee group as much as possible.
"We asked Ms Timmermans to let him be a chimpanzee among chimpanzees and not to stay with him for too long nor attract his attention.
"He is doing very well and Ms Timmermans is following our rules for now."
Adie was not the first person to get involved with an animal.
In 2013, Brazilian man Aparecido Castaldo married his pet goat, Carmelita, because, "she doesn’t speak and doesn’t want money."
The bishop who performed the marriage said: "This is not the first goat he has, because he likes animals.
"He just needs a companion. There will be no intercourse between the two."
In 2006, a Sudanese man, was forced to marry a goat after he was caught mounting the horned beast.
Town elders instructed the owner not to go to the police.
"They said I should not take him to the police, but rather let him pay a dowry for my goat because he used it as his wife," said the disgruntled owner.
- Animals
- Monkeys
Source: Read Full Article