Over 30 years ago, Ponso the chimpanzee was living a happy life. He had his family and was a proud member of a troop of chimps that worked together, loved each other, foraged together, and lived together.
But one day, Ponso found himself captured along with several other members of his family. Eventually, strange humans arrived to do tests and experiments on the scared animals. They were chained and kept in the dark and experimented on in the worst ways imaginable.
Eventually the experiments were finished, and Ponso, along with 20 other traumatized chimps, was dropped off on an abandoned island off the Ivory Coast. According to the Daily Mail, nearly all of the chimps died in less than a year. With no food or resources on the island, the company that did the experiments on the animals was forced to drop food every once in a while, but it never seemed to be enough.
Soon enough, all that was left was Ponso, his wife, and two of his children. Three years ago, they all died as well, except for Ponso.
Ponso has been living in total isolation for these past three years with only one human stranger dropping by to give him food when he can.
But then something amazing happened.
Ponso and his family were dropped off on an abandoned island over 30 years ago. As the years passed, chimp after chimp finally passed away due to lack of food and the emotional trauma from the experiments. Eventually all that was left was Ponso, his wife, and two children. But even they passed away and left him completely alone.
A local villager did his best to feed the horrified chimp, feeding him bread and bananas whenever he could. Ponso continued to eat, but in his eyes there seemed to be something empty inside his soul.
This one villager refused to give up on this poor chimp all those years. Eventually, Ponso's heartbreaking story went viral all over the world.
That's when Estelle Raballand came into the picture. As director of the Chimpanzee Conservation Center, she's quite experienced in their care. So when she heard about Ponso's desperate story, she knew in her heart that she had to go visit this chimp in need.
When Estelle first saw the 40-year-old chimp, she wasn't sure how he would react. This chimp had gotten used to the local villager who fed him, but to encounter a complete stranger was something wholly different. Would the chimp have flashbacks of his time when he and his family were being experimented on? Would he be scared that she was here to torture him again? Could he ever trust or love a human?
The answer was yes. Ponso was so welcoming when he first met Estelle that it truly showed how opening and loving these animals are. To use such a trusting soul to experiment on is certainly not something that anyone should condone. When an animal can hug you because he's been lonely? That's when you should reconsider if using them for experiments is really worth it.
Ponso spent the day with Estelle laughing and smiling. Before anything further is done concerning Ponso, they need to investigate him a bit more without causing any stress or panic. He's an incredibly old chimp, so reintroducing him to a completely new chimp troop might actually hurt him more than you would expect. They're incredibly social creatures, but money needs to be raised, and Ponso needs to be nursed back to health, both physically and emotionally before anything is done.
Please watch the video below of Ponso being fed by his loving humans, and please SHARE this story if you think animals should not be used for research!
