Animals. Blue ribbon at the Ravenna safari zoo: a chimpanzee was born

Tom is the first "verus" born in an Italian zoo

RAVENNA – The mother holds him tightly and doesn’t take her eyes off him, while little Tom sucks milk hard from her breast. It’s a celebration for the birth of a puppy at Safari Ravenna: Tom is in fact the first chimpanzee belonging to the “verus” subspecies born in an Italian zoo. Her birth was announced on the occasion of the “Welcome Jane Goodall” meeting at the Bioparco in Rome which had as its protagonist Jane Goodall, an ethologist and anthropologist known throughout the world for his pioneering studies on chimpanzees.
Tom’s arrival is extraordinary news: the puppy in fact belongs to one of the most threatened subspecies in nature, the verus, defined as Western Chimpanzee. Not only that: its birth represents the success of a “Pan” project started in 2018 which brought together the Italian zoos that keep chimpanzees, to develop a continuous comparison and sharing on modern management criteria for the specimens of the race.

The first verus chimpanzees were included in the Ravenna Safari in 2015, when a group of six specimens held in Germany by a former circus trainer arrived. The Ravenna chimpanzees were therefore included in the European “ex situ Eep” conservation program and, as such, participate in the genetic management procedure of the captive population present in Europe. Over the years, other specimens have arrived – two from the Czech Republic, two from the United Kingdom and one from Switzerland – to obtain a breeding group, given the importance of the new genetic line present in Ravenna.
The park’s commitment Romagnolo Ravennate for the conservation of chimpanzees also required important investments, both in terms of human and economic resources.
In fact, there is a team of eight-12 people – veterinarians, consultants, nutritionists and ethologists – entirely dedicated to them. And an investment of 1.1 million euros was necessary to expand and adapt the spaces in which they live, while every year the total expenses dedicated to their management amount to 820,000 euros. Furthermore, Safari Ravenna participates in research projects with various Italian universities and has actively contributed to the in situ conservation of the species through financial donations to associations.
The commitment “has therefore allowed the success of a far from trivial operation, with the birth of little Tom – finally comments the Casartelli family, owner of Safari Ravenna – and who sees us here together with other important zoological structures and those who are among the symbols, par excellence, of the study of primates : Jane Goodall. Together with the Bioparco di Roma, Natura Viva and the Bioparco di Sicilia, we are honored to give life to the ABC (Anthropomorphic: Wellbeing and Conservation) Coordination”.