The mother holds him tightly and doesn’t take her eyes off him, while little Tom sucks milk hard from her breast. It’s a celebration for the birth of a puppy at Safari Ravenna: Tom is in fact the first chimpanzee belonging to the “verus” subspecies born in an Italian zoo. His birth was announced on the occasion of the “Welcome Jane Goodall” meeting at the Bioparco in Rome which had Jane Goodall, ethologist and anthropologist, as its protagonist. Tom’s arrival is extraordinary news: the puppy in fact belongs to one of the most threatened subspecies in nature, the verus, defined as the Western Chimpanzee.
The first verus chimpanzees were included in the Ravenna Safari in 2015, when a group of six specimens held in Germany by a former circus trainer arrived. The Ravenna chimpanzees were therefore included in the European “ex situ Eep” conservation program and, as such, participate in the genetic management procedure of the captive population present in Europe. Over the years, other specimens have arrived – two from the Czech Republic, two from the United Kingdom and one from Switzerland – to obtain a breeding group, given the importance of the new genetic line present in Ravenna. The commitment of the Ravennate park in Romagna to the conservation of chimpanzees also required important investments, both in terms of human and economic resources. In fact, there is a team of 12 people – veterinarians, consultants, nutritionists and ethologists – entirely dedicated to them. And an investment of 1.1 million euros was necessary to expand and adapt the spaces in which they live, while every year the total expenses dedicated to their management amount to 820,000 euros. Furthermore, Safari Ravenna participates in research projects with various Italian universities and has actively contributed to the in situ conservation of the species through financial donations to associations. The commitment “has therefore allowed the success of a far from banal operation, with the birth of little Tom – finally comments the Casartelli family, owner of Safari Ravenna – and which sees us here together with other important zoological structures and with those who are among the symbols, par excellence, of the study of primates”.
