Cindy's community get a new lady! Toprish, as already mentioned, is another victim of the pet trade in illegally smuggled, wild animals. She was taken to Turkey and sold to be someone's exotic pet but, as expected, grew too large, boisterous and potentially dangerous to be in a human household and was presumably and understandably surrendered to Turkey's Faruk Yalcin Zoo. With Monkey World's well-known reputation all over the world, it clearly seemed to be the perfect place for her to be with her own kind in carefully and specially designed facilities to cater for her every need. Alison Cronin went to collect her and brought her to what is now her new, forever home. She is estimated to be around 8 yrs old and in chimp terms still a teenager. From the videos of her so far she has a lively personality with a playful, adventurous spirit, which is not surprising considering her age. She has been put into what is now Cindy's group, made up of 16 chimps. This group has predominantly mature chimps in an establiahed hierarchy therefore I wonder how Toprish will cope with finding her place among those older ladies. The only chimp near her age is Bart and I have a feeling that they may get along perfectly. Eddi is the only other young female in the group at 17 and she is settled among the older females. Toprish will most definitely find herself at the bottom of the pecking order atleast for the time being. She is now the youngest chimp in the community and as much as she adds a vibrant, positive energy to the group that has had so many sorrows, she will bare the brunt of the adult females to begin with. Cindy, Bixa and Beth are the ruling elite and will stamp their authority over the new young lady in their midst. Toprish may be popular with the males (a new female is always a source of admiration among the opposite sex) but unless she plays her cards right she may find trouble with the females. The addition of a new chimp into an established group does disrupt the hierarchy temporarily, as everyone needs to reaffirm their place or risk going lower on the social ladder. Athena may have been the lowest ranking female but she will definitely ensure that the new girl does not outrank her. So far Toprish has met a few members probably and because she seems social she probably takes it all in her stride. No matter the rank she will get priority is that she thrives in the company of her new chimp family, and with the confidence she already shows interacting with Alison she may one day rool the roost amongst her own kind too!
A slow loris has been born to Nicki, unfortunately having to be hand reared by Alison Cronin. Named ‘Bob’
