ABSTRACT
“The most interesting animals” introduced to Rubondo, according to Frankfurt Zoological Society's Monica Borner, are the chimpanzees, previously held captive in Europe, who “had to rehabilitate themselves with practically no help from humans”. As part of his vision to turn Rubondo into a tourism attraction, Bernhard Grzimek provides different explanations for why he wanted to add chimpanzees to the island. The first related to species protection, the second to animal welfare. In addition, Grzimek justified his focus on chimpanzees with animal-welfare considerations: Most zoos only want young animals and are not equipped to keep full-grown, sexually mature chimpanzees. To obtain the desired apes for Rubondo, Grzimek approached various parties to ascertain whether they might sell chimpanzees for a reasonable price, including zoos in Europe and the United States as well as two primate research centres and the Schweizer National Circus Gebruder Knie.
