Belgium Zoo Bans Woman From Visiting After Having An Affair With Chimpanzee

After building a deep bond with one of the chimps at a nearby zoo, a woman in Belgium has been barred from visiting them. ATV said, citing zoo officials, said her "affair" with the ape, prevented him from bonding with the other chimps.

Adie Timmermans has been seeing Chita, a 38-year-old chimpanzee at the Antwerp Zoo, every week for the past four years, reports claim. Timmermans adds that she and Chita had developed a great friendship throughout that time.

"I love that animal and he loves me," Timmermans said in an interview with ATV, according to LadBible.

East Coast Daily said Timmermans and Chita allegedly communicated by waving and blowing kisses through the window in their romance. On the surface, the encounters appear to be innocuous. However, zoo officials claim that their friendship has harmed Chita's social standing among the other chimps.

"When Chita is constantly surrounded by visitors, the other monkeys ignore him and don't consider him part of the group, even though it's important for him," a spokesperson for the zoo told ATV. "He then sits on his own outside of visiting hours."

The zoo allegedly barred Timmermans from visiting Chita in order to boost his social well-being.

"I haven't got anything else. Why do they want to take that away?" she asked in her interview with ATV. "We're having an affair, I'll just say. Other dozens of visitors are allowed to make contact. Then why not me?"

The chimpanzee may be too preoccupied with Timmermans to form bonds with his peers, according to the zoo.

Chita is being raised as a chimp as much as possible, according to the zoo.

Chita has worked at the zoo for 30 years, according to LadBible. Before his tenure at the Antwerp Zoo, he was someone's pet. Still, he eventually became "unmanageable," according to Antwerp Zoo's curator Sarah Lafaut. He has a link with and an interest in humans, despite having learned chimpanzee behavior at the zoo. This isn't unheard of, apparently.

Stephen Ross and Hani Freedman published a study in 2014 that found chimps who were separated from their moms at a young age and raised mostly by humans exhibited "social impairments" several years later.

Grooming, Ross told Wired in 2014, is the glue that ties chimp society together.

Researchers discovered that chimps exposed to humans early in life were less likely to engage in this behavior later in life, even after learning to live with other chimps. According to researchers, these animals were ineffective at maintaining social relationships, as evidenced by their decreased grooming rates.

Chita may, unfortunately, constantly struggle to connect with his peers. Hopefully, zookeepers will be able to assist him in adjusting to life with his fellow monkeys.