Twycross Zoo Chimpanzee Celebrates Becoming a Teen

Posted By : The Animal Facts Editorial Team

Date: August 18, 2020 8:50 pm

The chimp family celebrate the birthday

Photo Credit: Twycross Zoo

The chimpanzees at Twycross Zoo have enjoyed a party to celebrate a member of their troop becoming a teenager. They enjoyed some enrichment as Tuli turned 13.

Tuli was born at Twycross Zoo during August 2007 and has become a character within the group.

To celebrate her birthday the chimpanzee troop was treated to a homemade ice cake created by their keepers. This cake included berries, oats and fruit-flavored water. In addition food was scattered across the habitat for them to find.

The chimp family celebrate the birthday

Photo Credit: Twycross Zoo

Neil Dorman, Curator at Twycross Zoo, said: “Our keepers are very creative in coming up with ways to enrich our animals and Tuli’s birthday is a perfect example of this. Enrichment is a way to increase our animals’ physical and mental activity levels, and encourage them to use natural behaviours that are displayed in the wild, such as foraging. It also promotes good animal welfare too.”

At Twycross Zoo the chimpanzee family live in the £3.5million habitat, Chimpanzee Eden which opened in 2018.

“Our visitors will be able to see Tuli and the rest of the troop of chimps throughout the Summer Holidays. Chimpanzee Eden is always a popular destination for our visitors, so if you visit and see Tuli on her special day remember to say Happy Birthday!,” finished Dorman.

The chimp family celebrate the birthday

Video Courtesy: Twycross Zoo

While at the zoo the chimps can enjoy a party wild chimps aren’t quite as lucky. They need to spend their day avoiding hunting for bush meat and the pet trade along with habitat clearing for logging and mining. These threats have led to them being listed as endangered.

Twycross Zoo is home to 500 animals representing 125 species. This includes being the only place in the United Kingdom where visitors can meet the world’s four great ape species including the chimpanzees along with gorillas, bonobos and orangutans.

Learn more about chimps here – Chimpanzee Fact File | The Animal Facts

Learn more about Twycross Zoo on their website – Twycross Zoo