Manno is a four-year-old chimpanzee who has had a sad but extraordinary start to life. Manno was taken from his parents when he was just a baby by animal traffickers. He was taken from his home in Africa to the Middle East, where he was sold to a zoo in Iraq, just 80 kilometres from the ISIS-held territory of Mosul.
Discover our latest podcast
It was there that he was discovered by Canadian high-school teacher Spencer Seyker. Seyker was volunteering with a vet nearby and came to visit the zoo on his time off. Whilst Seyker found the owners of the zoo to be kind and welcoming, he became increasingly uncomfortable with the small enclosures the animals were being kept in. He developed a particularly close bond with Manno, the chimpanzee whom he would visit every morning. 'I’d show up and he’d just come barrelling over to me, and jump all over me and fall asleep in my arms', he told CBS News.
Manno's temper tantrums
Despite his cuteness, Seyker also knew that Manno could be a handful. He would throw tantrums like a child would and he knew that this could become dangerous as he grew bigger. Whilst all of the keepers at the zoo treated Manno well and were fond of him, Seyker also observed some visitors treating him cruelly by trying to make him smoke cigarettes.
Seyker worked tirelessly over the next three years to relocate Manno to a more suitable environment, where he could be with other chimpanzees. Finally, in November 2016, Manno was moved to the Sweetwaters Sanctuary in Kenya. However, he had to be quarantined for the first four months of his stay. In April, he received a clean bill of health and was able to be with other chimpanzees for the first time in his life!
However, this was far from the end of the story. Introducing a new chimpanzee to a group can be dangerous, if the males perceived him as a threat they would kill him straightaway. Therefore, Manno had to be gradually introduced to the other chimps at the sanctuary.
It took him a while to get used to other chimpanzees as the only primates he'd ever known had been humans! At first he didn't want to play or interact with other chimps.
The new and improved Manno
Eventually, in May 2017 he had a breakthrough. Another young rescued chimpanzee named Jane had been placed with Manno but so far he had run away every time she tried to initiate contact. This time though, when she stretched out her hand to him, he took it and they began to play together!
Since then, Jane and Manno have become like brother and sister and have also developed close relationships with two more female chimps, Akela and Bahati. The four of them are now like a family. David Mundia who works at Sweetwaters said that Manno is now 'the happiest chimp ever'. What a beautiful happy ending!
