It was on December 14 that the police were alerted that five chimpanzees had escaped from their enclosures in the monkey house at Furuviksparken just outside Gävle. Four of them were shot dead – the fifth, Selma, was wounded.
Now the zoo announces that she has become blind in one eye.
“The vet states that Selma is blind in the injured eye and that she has a stable and healing fracture in the injured arm. X-rays and blood samples have been taken and a closer examination of the eye has been done,” the zoo writes in a press release.
Hail splinters
In addition to the eye damage, Selma also has hail fragments in her body. Otherwise, the chimpanzee’s general condition is described as good.
“After Selma was shot, veterinarians made an early assessment of the possible risk of lead poisoning and were able to ascertain that this is very low,” writes Furuvik.
An open door allowed the five chimpanzees to escape, the zoo’s own account of the incident released last week showed.
The police have closed their preliminary investigation into work environment violations in connection with the evacuation.
On the morning of Wednesday, December 14, Furuvik’s seven chimpanzees are in one of their three enclosures, while an animal keeper and a handyman work in the other two. After finishing work, the animal keeper fails to close and lock one of the lattice doors to one of the enclosures.
At noon on the day, two animal keepers carry out a lock check before moving the chimpanzees to the two enclosures. However, both fail to check the particular lattice door that has been left open.
When the chimpanzees are locked in, one of the keepers discovers that the lattice door is open, that one chimpanzee has gotten out and that another chimpanzee is on its way out through the open lattice door.
The zookeeper tries to fight back the chimpanzee who is on his way out, but fails. The animal keeper then alerts his employees to get to safety.
Five minutes later, the zoo staff notes that a total of three of the seven chimpanzees have made it out into the park.
After consultation with several veterinarians, where anesthesia is ruled out, the park’s CEO and animal manager jointly decide that two of the chimpanzees, Linda and Torsten, who are discovered at the fairground area, must be euthanized.
During the afternoon, three more chimpanzees in the monkey house make several attempts to get out of the park through a window. One of these, Selma, is shot with a shotgun and injured but survives and returns to the house. The other two monkeys, Santino and Manda, are not deterred by the shot and continue to climb in and out of the window. The risk of them getting out into the park is considered high and a decision is made to euthanize them for safety reasons. They are shot dead.
Later in the afternoon and evening, the staff can see that the third monkey that escaped during the day has returned and thus all three remaining chimpanzees, Tjobbe, Maria Magdalena and injured Selma, are inside the chimpanzee house.
During Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings, various efforts are made to secure the chimpanzees’ enclosure.
On Saturday 17 December at 9.06, animal keepers manage to secure the chimpanzees in their enclosure.
(TT)