Video Producer: Aparna Singh
Video Editor: Abhishek Sharma
A chimpanzee escaped the city zoo and wandered the streets and park in Ukraine’s Kharkiv on Tuesday, 6 September. The chimp was later persuaded by a zoo employee and wheeled back to her home on a bicycle.
The footage of the chimp named Chichi has gone viral on social media. In the videos, Chichi can be seen walking the streets and running around in the park. It shows the zookeepers struggling to persuade her to come back to the zoo. At one point, the chimp and the staff were seen sitting in the middle of the road.
It was only when it started to rain that she ran to the zookeeper, who offered Chichi her jacket and a hug as seen in the video.
As per The Guardian, the animal is safely back in the zoo.
When the Russia-Ukraine war started in February 2022, Chichi was evacuated from her zoo in Kharkiv.
Kharkiv has been facing continuous shelling from the Russian side. Many animals were killed in the zoo before Chichi was evacuated, according to the zoo owner.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)