Zoo chimpanzees confronted wayward raccoon

A wild raccoon probably didn't expect a big chimp challenge when he wandered through the Knoxville Zoo in Tennessee. A few days ago, "Downtown" Randall Brown was visiting the zoo with his son, Will White, when they spotted something unexpected in Chimp Ridge.



A raccoon had somehow got inside the chimpanzee enclosure, and had been "treed" by the youngest and most inquisitive member of the group, 7-year-old George. While the other chimps looked on from nearby, George grabbed a stick and was trying to poke the raccoon. Brown started recording the scene, and he and other visitors are amazed at what they are seeing.



"Chimps use tools, so that's unique in the animal kingdom that they do that," said Lisa New, zoo president. "He was extending his reach." But he wasn't touching the small intruder. New believes the chimps were curious but wary. They weren't looking for lunch, either. In the wild, chimps do hunt and kill for food, but these chimps have never eaten meat.


YouTube link.

"I don't think they would kill it. He was acting like he was a little bit afraid of it, which was why he had the stick, and wasn't grabbing with his hands," said Leigh Rickey, the Great Apes keeper.George continued to poke at the raccoon, which eventually decided to make a break for it. George and another chimp took off in hot pursuit, but the raccoon ran up another, even taller tree, that even George and his stick couldn't reach. Eventually, zoo keepers got all of the chimps into their inside enclosure. They opened a back door and the raccoon finally made it's escape.