Hollywood has often used chimp “actors” in a way that has changed how people see these animals. It’s important to remember that chimpanzees are wild creatures and shouldn’t be taken lightly. In recent times, there have been news stories about “domesticated” chimps attacking people or being mistreated by their owners. These incidents are really shocking. However, we often overlook the many times when humans and chimps have helped each other, like when a truck driver rescued a 135-pound chimp from drowning.
The story of Rick Swope and Jo-Jo
The well-known event happened at the Detroit Zoo in 1990. Rick Swope, who was 33 years old and worked as a truck driver, was there with his wife and their three kids. “We were watching the chimpanzees for maybe half an hour, and just as we were about to leave, I heard a splash,” he shared in an interview with Deseret News back then. “I saw, out of the corner of my eye, this chimpanzee soaring through the air.
“Everyone was just watching the drowning chimp”
The ape’s name was Jo-Jo, and he ended up in the water while trying to escape a fight with another male. The moat is designed to keep the apes in because they usually stay away from water and supposedly can’t swim. “Everyone at the place was just standing there, watching this monkey drown,” Swope said. “When he went under for the second time, I realized I had to take action.”
Truck driver saves drowning chimp
So Swope climbed over the 4-foot fence and jumped into the chilly water inside the enclosure. Even though the zookeeper warned him about the risks, Swope wasn’t scared of the drowning chimp. “He was looking at me,” he said. “I think he knew I was trying to help him.” But when Swope got the chimp out of the water, the animal seemed “pretty lifeless,” and Swope wasn’t sure if he was still alive. Luckily, Jo-Jo survived what could have been a deadly accident, but it’s not clear what happened to him afterward.
Can chimps swim?
Back then, experts thought that if chimps went into water, they would just drown. But in 2013, researchers recorded a video of a chimp and an orangutan learning how to swim. While wild primates would struggle in deep water, these two were raised in captivity. They often played in bathtubs and swimming pools. With a safety rope around him, Cooper the chimp learned to stay afloat, dive with his eyes closed, and swim like he was doing a breaststroke. At the same time, Suryia the orangutan also figured out a breaststroke-like technique, but he could open his eyes underwater and swim 39 meters (about 12 yards) without help.
From an evolutionary standpoint…
A study in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology suggested that apes lost their swimming ability as they adapted to living in trees. However, their skills in swinging from branches might have affected how they swim. On the other hand, many animals, including humans, tend to dog paddle when they are in water, which is a natural instinct from walking on land. “We still don’t know when human ancestors started swimming and diving regularly,” said researcher Nicole Bender from the University of the Witwatersrand in a statement. “The way great apes behave in water has been mostly ignored in anthropology.” But this finding made zookeepers reconsider their approach to using moats to keep animals safe.
Jo-Jo’s backstory
In 2005, at a speaking event held at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, primatologist and conservationist Jane Goodall talked about a story. She discussed the problems that are putting chimpanzees in danger, like the bushmeat trade and deforestation. Then, she talked about the strong connection between animals and humans by sharing Jo-Jo’s story. Jo-Jo was born in Africa, but when he was just two years old, hunters killed his mother. After that, he was sent to a zoo in America. There, he had to live all by himself in a tiny cage made of iron bars and a cement floor. Later, the zoo director built a big enclosure with a moat and added 19 other chimps to live with him.
Drowning to escape other chimps
After being alone for 15 years, Jo-Jo didn’t know how to act around other chimps. So, when a younger male chimp tried to challenge him, Jo-Jo got scared and jumped into the water, not realizing he could drown. When Swope jumped in to rescue Jo-Jo from drowning and brought him back to the shore, three male chimps started to come closer. The crowd yelled at Swope to get away, but he made sure Jo-Jo was safe on solid ground before he climbed back over the fence.
“Won’t anybody help me?”
When the director of JGI USA asked Swope why he saved Jo-Jo, Swope replied, “Well, you see, I happened to look into his eyes, and it was like looking into the eyes of a man, and the message was, ‘Won’t anybody help me?’” Goodall mentioned that she has seen that same look of fear in the eyes of animals and children she has tried to help over the years. “If you see that look with your eyes, and you feel it in your heart, you have to jump in and try to help,” she finished.
