The famous chimpanzee, Julius at Kristiansand Zoo was drugged and the chimpanzee started gnawing at his own arm. Now Norwegian police looks for the suspects.
The chimpanzee entered a psychosis-like state after drinking from a bottle thrown to him. The police is investigating the case.
–This could have gone much worse, and it might have killed Julius. We are shocked, says veterinarian Rolf-Arne Ølberg to NRK.
Keepers became concerned when they noticed Julius, a 39-year-old chimp, acting strangely at the zoo near the southern city of Kristiansand.
Keepers say it was caused by a bottle contained narcotics which had put Julius into a psychosis-like condition.
He is the only one of the chimpanzees who can open caps, and was therefore the only one who received the drug.
Zoo workers took blood and urine tests and sent them to a hospital in Trondheim, which confirmed he had narcotics in his blood.
The police told that a group of young people (15-19 years old) were observed during the incident, who spoke Aust-Agder dialect. There were both girls and boys in this groupaccording to the description reproted to the police.
Also a man between 45-60 years old was seen in the same area and at the same time.
–We want these people to contact the police to give testimony, says police investigator Petter Sandell.
Julius became famous when he was adopted by the family of Edvard Moseid, the director of the zoo, after the chimp was rejected by his mother as a baby in 1979.
The little chimpanzee became the subject of a children’s documentary on the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation in 1981, and was soon the park’s most popular attraction.
