THE joy felt by a chimpanzee reunited with the woman who hand-raised her for two years in the 1970s was there for all to see when the pair met again yesterday after 30 years apart.
The chimp named Sally was rejected by her mother soon after birth at New Zealand's Auckland Zoo 38 years ago, so the head zookeeper Richard Seccombe, took the primate home for his wife, Georgie, to raise, the Waitako Times reported.
They lived next door to the zoo and raised the baby chimp as one of their own, with photographs of the nappy-clad primate with their children and other pets among the images in the family photo album from the era.
The chimp went back to the zoo after two years because she had become too big and strong for them to manage, the New Zealand Herald reported. A few years later Sally was moved to Hamilton Zoo.
Now aged 94, Georgie Seccombe was reunited with Sally in Hamilton for the first time in decades yesterday - and the recognition was obvious, with the chimp bounding up to her at the sound of her call, and performing a few handstands.
Hamilton Zoo primate keeper John Ray said chimpanzees were known for "incredible memory recall", which was obvious when Ms Seccombe approached Sally at the zoo.
"She got very excited," he said of the chimp. "When she gets excited she'll do a bit of a dance, put her hands in the air, reach out to people that she wants to get closer to ... It's her happy dance, which she did when she saw Georgie."
And it seemed the delight at the reunion was reciprocated.
"It was pretty hard to give her back. She's just like a human being," Ms Seccombe said. "She's a lovely little chimp, she really is. It was great seeing her."
