At the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden in Ohio, a worker was attacked in a bonobo habitat and lost part of their thumb.
The worker was taking care of the animals by feeding them and giving them medicine when one of them allegedly bit the worker through a mesh fence. An NBC News report from the zoo said the worker was taken to the hospital right away and quickly stabilized.
In the end, the worker had part of their thumb cut off. The zoo said the event happened “behind the scenes” at the Jungle Trails habitat, which was home to 10 bonobos as of last year.
It says: “The incident occurred behind the scenes and no other staff, guests or animals were involved or injured.”
As the zoo said, there was no breach and no workers were in the core habitat at the time of the incident. “The Zoo is looking over the details to figure out what happened,” the statement said as an ending.
The Jungle Trails habitat was closed for the day while the investigation went on, but a zoo representative told NBC News that it would be open again on Saturday. It was not clear which animal was involved in the specifics of what happened.
Bonobos are primates that are closely related to chimpanzees.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources lists the primate as an endangered species because its population is falling because of mining, civil unrest, and human development in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where it lives.
The Bonobo Conservation Initiative, a non-profit group, says that there are only 15,000 of these animals left in the wild.
People think they are more peaceful, smart, and caring than other primates. They were said to be the last of the great apes to be found by humans and were given their own species name in 1929.
As of now, researchers are still gathering data on the species, which is said to be based mostly on female leadership.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, the animals are our closest animal kingdom relatives because they share 98.7% of our DNA. This is part of the research that is done on them.
Gilda, an 18-year-old bonobo at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, just gave birth to a boy. On September 30, the zoo posted video of the baby and mother making their first public appearance in their habitat.
