Cancun's Illegal Chimpanzees: Coco and Bryan

It is an attraction that Mexican authorities and campaigners would rather not exist at all. Yet tourists, often unaware of the private cruelties and illegal trading, flock to pay their dollars for a souvenir. This is the exploitation of wild, sometimes endangered animals, as props for beach photographers. Cancun and Playa del Carmen have been hotspots for this lucrative business, but awareness and arrests are stamping out the practise.

José Adolfo Caram had long been the target of activists. He was a common sight in the heat of Cancun, parading his 21 year old female chimpanzee, Coco. Tourists awwwed and giggled over her exploits. She could smoke a cigarette or drink a beer. For $10, she would pose for a photograph. For $20, she would be staged in risque positions, like cupping the breast of a woman for the camera.



It was all viewed as very innocent by those onlooking. It was all a bit of fun. It was cute. When asked, Caram explained that he had rescued her from a laboratory, paying extra, as Coco was a prime candidate for experiments. She was his life. All of his money went on her care. He loved her like a daughter. Friends and family would flock to defend him, when anyone expressed any doubts. They all repeated the party line. Coco loved doing this. It was all she knew. Everything was alright.

But the truth was far murkier. By Mexican law, Caram had to be caught in the act of animal cruelty, before the police could intervene. He was very adept at rushing away, when the patrols came into view. Then, last September, he was spotted close to Barceló Hotel, on Boulevard Kukulkan km 4, in Cancun, with a line of tourists awaiting their photograph. The police swooped in.



Caram was not able to produce a single document as evidence of his legal procurement of Coco. An examination of the chimpanzee showed that her teeth had been removed. Caram was immediately arrested and faces up to nine years in prison, along with a hefty fine. Coco has been confiscated, along with the van that he used to transport her.

It is feared that Coco has been a victim of the illegal trafficking in chimpanzees. Native to Africa, hunters will shoot dead the mother and any other adult chimp that gets in their way. Four or five adults may die, simply to be able to pluck the baby from where it's clinging to its mother's corpse. The infants will then face arduous journeys, often across the world, in small boxes. Many do not survive.


Baby chimp rescued from traffickers.
Those which do face a life of beatings and sedatives, in order to keep them calm before the tourists. Some are forced into human clothes, in which they over-heat; or into boots and shoes, which may deform their growing feet. They are estranged from their own kind and forced into unnatural acts, like walking on two feet. They are worked for long hours and encouraged to imbibe anything that the tourists offer, including harmful food, cigarettes and alcohol. At puberty, many chimpanzees become too strong and aggressive to handle, so they are killed.

PROFEPA, the Federal Attorney's Office of Environmental Protection, is currently investigating precisely how much of this common scenario has applied to Coco. In the meantime, she is being housed in a local zoo.


Coco.
Last year, we told you the story of another chimpanzee, which had also been owned by Caram. (Xcaret - The Secret Sanctuary.) Three year old Bryan was in a terrible state. His baby teeth had been smashed out with a blunt instrument. This had been so brutal that shards of them were deeply embedded into the infant's gums. But it did prevent him from ever biting a tourist. After his rescue, Bryan lived safely at Xcaret EcoPark, before being flown to more suitable premises, at Monkey World Ape Rescue Centre, in Great Britain.

It is always nice to know how these stories pan out, so we contacted Monkey World's Animal Manager, Jeremy Keeling, to ask on the progress of Bryan. "Bryan's doing great now. He's a lovely, little lad. He still has his moments, sitting in the back of the room rocking, but overall he's doing great."


May 2011: Bryan (right) enjoying a quiet moment in the sun with foster mum, Sally (left).





Bryan has a home for life at Monkey World. At eight years old, he is being looked after by chimpanzee foster mum, Sally, and a team of human care staff. His adult teeth have all grown, fine and strong. He enjoys playing with foster auntie, Lulu, and the other rescued infants, Ash and Rodders.

Eventually it is possible that Bryan will be introduced to one of the three larger chimpanzee troops. But this is all future speculation. For now, Bryan is happily settled in Sally's group and there are no imminent plans to move him.

Meanwhile, Mexico takes seriously its signature on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES), which includes the protection of chimpanzees. Hesiquio Benítez, the director of International Relations for the National Biodiversity Commission (CONABIO), explained that wildlife trafficking has been a growing concern for some time. He said, "There is considerable illegal transport of wildlife, and according to some estimates, the amount of money involved in the activity may approach that of arms trafficking."

CONABIO and PROFEPA have joined forces, with advice from national and international specialists on each species, to come up with the National Strategy for Combating Illegal Wildlife Trafficking. This has come into force over the past six months and the seizure of Coco was just part of that.


Hesiquio Benítez of CONABIO
Mexico, along with Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Philippines, formed a delegation, last month, which took such issues to the United Nations. In April, 2011, a Resolution was passed at the 20th Session of the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, which was held in Vienna.

The Resolution renders it a legal requirement, under international law, for individual governments to work together in combating wildlife trafficking. It also calls for those governments with lax national laws to substantially tighten them up. The hope is that, with UN backing and the raising of awareness, then the cruelties and brutality of this issue will soon be a thing of the past.

Xcaret - The Secret Sanctuary

For the majority of people, Xcaret EcoPark is a tourist attraction. It is the place for lying around in paradise, swinging on hammocks over white sand beaches; or snorkeling in the pristine, turquoise waters of the Caribbean.

Some may turn up to swim with dolphins or nurse sharks. Others to don an oxygen helmet and follow a guide along a seabed trek.

However, for many animals, Xcaret is much more than that. It is a sanctuary and relief from past abuses. It is life and the hope of a wonderful future.

This isn't a facet of the EcoPark that is greatly publicized. The majority of those animals rescued are not on public display. They are nursed back to health in private, then helped to readjust to a more natural, compassionate world. If possible, they will be rehoused or else released back into the wild. Xcaret will only keep them if they are indigenious to Mexico and if it is in the interests of the creature to stay; or, of course, if there is nowhere else for them to go.


For example, let's examine the case of Bryan the Chimpanzee. Bryan was approximately 18 months old when he arrived at Xcaret. It is believed that he had been born in Africa, where the likelihood is that he would have been torn away from his mother, then watched her killed for bush meat. The usual route is for him to have been smuggled into Mexico via Cuba.

Once here, he was put to work on a Cancún beach, as a photographer's prop. At only a few months old, he had his baby teeth knocked out, so that he wouldn't bite the tourists paying for a photograph with him. This is known because later health checks found fragments of the teeth embedded in his gums.

Such things are not tolerated in Mexico and, fortunately, he was spotted and reported to the Animal Protection Society of Cancún. Bryan's owner refused to co-operate with the authorities, but eventually the baby chimpanzee was seized in a joint operation between the Animal Protection Society and PROFEPA (Procuraduría Federal de Protección al Ambiente (Environmental Protection Agency)).

Chimpanzees are not indigenious to Mexico. There are primate sanctuaries in the country, but they are set up to deal with local species, like howler and spider monkeys. Chimpanzees are very different. They may be cute and loveable, doubling as surrogate human babies, before puberty, but once those hormones kick in they change.

They have 9 times the strength of a human man, coupled with aggressive, territorial tendencies. In the wild, chimpanzees live in families overseen by a powerful alpha male. To human eyes, this regime can seem brutal in its violence, as the alpha male puts down any pretenders to his crown. But this is their nature and these instincts are what would out as Bryan grew.

In anticipation of this, many chimpanzees are locked away or simply killed, as soon as they grow out of the cute baby stage. But Bryan's rescuers also had to anticipate this. If no home could be found for him, then whichever Mexican sanctuary took him may have to look after him into adulthood. No facilities were ideal, as no sanctuary had families of chimpanzees into which Bryan could be introduced. He was also mentally traumatized and in bad health. He was half-starved. The cost of looking after him, even in the short term, would run into the thousands. It was in full knowledge of these issues that Xcaret EcoPark invited Bryan in.


Spider Monkey at Xcaret
Xcaret has a number of sanctuaries within its expansive site. Butterflies, birds, endangered marine turtles and manatees are amongst those species with their own special areas. Xcaret works closely with national and international experts in ensuring the best conditions possible for the fauna that they rescue. They also have Monkey Island, which is home to rescued primates. The spider and saraguato (howler) monkeys there are local species and can be viewed by the public. Xcaret's site explains how they came to live in the EcoPark:

In February 2003, 20 saraguato monkeys arrived to Xcaret. 11 of them were in danger because of the destruction of their habitat by the cattle industry. Other 9 saraguato monkey babies were donated by the PROFEPA (Federal Office for the Protection of the Environment). Today we have 22 saraguato monkeys due to 2 births that occurred inside the park.
Xcaret - Monkey Island

However, neither of these species are chimpanzees.


Saraguato Monkey at Xcaret
For another 18 months, Bryan lived at Xcaret EcoPark. He was taken there without the need for sedatives and he was treated with such care, that he never required them for calming down during his stay. He was restored to full health and blossomed as he became well fed. There was also a program of behavorial correction, helping him become a chimpanzee again, instead of his unnatural pseudo-human habits. It is important to note that this wasn't done with punishments, but with rewards.

Little by little, Xcaret's compassionate people worked with love to salve Bryan's troubled mind. By the time he was three, he looked and acted like a different chimpanzee, as happy and settled as he could be without a family of his own. All of this time and expense, he was never exhibited to the public, because he isn't Mexican. He was there to be given sanctuary, not to make money for the park.


Bryan at Monkey World.
Finally, a permanent home was found for him. After arduous months of bureaucracy and paperwork, Bryan was flown to England to the world-reknowned Monkey World. This is a sanctuary for over 240 primates, including 60 chimpanzees, rescued from across the world. Their primates have generally been traumatized and/or physically hurt, so the staff have a long history of caring for them. The chimpanzees are housed in families and environments as natural as possible. Here experts can access the needs of each individual chimpanzee and act accordingly.

Jim Cronin, the American born owner of Monkey World, was asked about Xcaret, while Bryan was there. He replied, "I think Bryan couldn’t be in a better place. We have worked with many organizations, but Xcaret is the most professional we have treated with. We are really happy. We can notice that Bryan was very well fed, they really took care of him and, above all, it seems to me that everybody there loves Bryan."

Once in England, Bryan was placed in the 'nursery', where an older female chimpanzee named Sally immediately adopted him as her own. Within days, he had been accepted by all of the others, instantly gaining a mother, an aunt, brothers and sisters. At three years old, his life could move on from the pain of the past and start again. He will be able to live there for his entire life, surrounded by his adoptive family, in a suitable environment. You can read about him on the Monkey World site.

An English tourist recently filmed Bryan playing with a seesaw in the nursery at Monkey World. He's watched over by his Aunt Lulu and appears to be having a lot of fun.



It is wonderful to know that Xcaret EcoPark played such a vital role in Bryan's rescue. Yet it's not just Bryan who benefits, as the work there goes on. The species of manatees indigenious to Mexico are on the brink of extinction. At the request of PROFEPA, Xcaret took in a couple of manatees rescued, in a critical condition, from a polluted lagoon. The pair are now thriving in their permanent home in the EcoPark, cared for by manatee experts.

The local flamingos are also considered endangered, but a special program at Xcaret has seen 55 live births amongst its population of 96 adults. The Flamingo colony grows and grows. Just two more examples of the amazing work done at this EcoPark.

So next time you are relaxing on their beach, sipping a cocktail, and trying to decide between the Shark Adventure or a meander through the Mayan Village, allow yourself a extra smile. You know that your entrance fee is being put to good use, not just in creating a stunning tourist attraction, but in saving lives behind the scenes.

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