PG Tips chimp in rehab as she’s too human – The Sun SHE is a Seventies icon – an advertising star so famous she makes today’s meerkats look like a bunch of extras. But Choppers, one of the talented chimps from the PG Tips family, has been left traumatised after years of being treated like a HUMAN. And, according to her new keeper, the tea makers could not give a monkeys — refusing to pick up the bill for her care. The 42-year-old chimp was watched by millions in the 1970s, playing the role of Ada in the classic adverts. But she was left psychologically scarred by her spell in the limelight and has had to endure a spell in simian rehab to help her mix with other chimps. Sharon Redrobe, new chief executive of Twycross Zoo, where Choppers has lived all her life, said: “She’s been damaged — it’s not a good start in life to be treated like a human because they don’t learn ape behaviour and find it difficult to adjust to being with other chimps.

“We’ve tried to get in touch with PG Tips but they are owned by Unilever now — they’d rather they had nothing to do with it. “But they still use a monkey in their adverts, which is a direct link to the old PG Tips ads. “It would be nice if they would put their hand in their pocket and contribute towards Choppers’ care, especially as she was such a big part of their marketing strategy.” The iconic TV adverts, featuring the Tipps family, first aired in 1956 and were a huge hit for the brand. By 1958, PG Tips had risen from fourth place in the British tea market to first. Much-loved Choppers starred in perhaps the most famous commercial of them all from 1971, where two chimps playing father and son removal men accidentally dropped a piano down a flight of stairs. Kitted out in a frilly pink pinny, she offered consolation cuppas to the bumbling piano movers played by her ape pals. Now, 40 years on, it is hard to imagine that the hunched, greying great ape shuffling around her cage once delighted millions of TV viewers. But Choppers has had a difficult few years.

She was left bereft last July when her advert co-star and lifelong pal Louis died, aged 37. Sharon said: “When he died, Choppers was obviously sad. They had been together for their entire lives. However it presented a good opportunity to get her mixing with other chimps.” But after living with Louis for so long, co-existing with other animals was a struggle for poor Choppers. Sharon, who took over the running of Twycross last year, added: “A lot of our chimps at the zoo have been hand-reared but Choppers and Louis’ TV past made it extra difficult to integrate them with others. “They were introduced to other chimps a long time ago, before I came to the zoo, but there had been a fight and the plan was dropped. “When we first introduced Choppers to other apes this time around, it was obvious there were problems.

She liked to smile, something she learned from humans, but baring your teeth in the chimp world is known as a ‘fear grin’ and can provoke aggression.” It took three years of hard work to help Choppers bond with the other chimps — yet Unilever, the multinational giant that now owns PG Tips, has refused to pay. Last night a spokesman for Unilever said: “We haven’t featured chimpanzees in any PG Tips advertising for over a decade and now use the iconic Monkey character as our brand ambassador.” Sharon said: “We worked really hard but it is worth it. There is definite progress. “Choppers has started hooting and grooming other chimps, which is wonderful to see. Now that she’s picking up chimp behaviour, she seems so much happier.” Choppers has improved so much, she is now housed with a group of friends, as the Twycross team slowly expand her social group. But despite the progress, Sharon is adamant her chimps will never be thrust in front of TV cameras again. She said: “It happened — you can’t deny the past. But I absolutely would not use chimps in entertainment any more.

It makes me so disappointed that in 2013 we still have performing chimps out there.” The new Leonardo DiCaprio film, The Wolf Of Wall Street, has come under fire from animal rights groups for scenes including a young chimp called Chance, who wears a variety of outfits and rollerskates. Sharon said: “Movie makers and people like Leonardo DiCaprio ought to know the impact this work has on the animal concerned. “Whenever you see a chimp on film or TV, that’s a baby — they are baby animals that have been taken away from their mothers.” Sharon’s leadership of the zoo is a world away from that of Molly Badham, who co-founded the park in 1963. Back then, the zoo was a welcome blaze of exoticism in the quiet suburbia of Leicestershire. On a summer’s day, crowds would flock to see the legendary tea parties, where chimps would dress up in their finest clothes and tumble on to stage riding tricycles. And Molly revelled in her chimps’ cheeky antics, saying: “They were very proud of their clothes. “I remember one wanted to wear the shoes it had all the time.

“Another could pour tea without spilling it. And they loved riding their tricycles. The tea parties used to be a highlight, both for the chimps and visitors to the zoo.” In the early days, Twycross funded its scientific work by training chimps for the famous PG Tips adverts. And Molly insisted the apes enjoyed dressing up for their television work. She said in 2003: “They were having a ball. They were juveniles and so very curious. They were enjoying themselves and having fun.” But the zoo now actively promotes conservation — it is also known as the World Primate Centre — and the animals’ enclosures are matched as closely as possible to wild habitats. Sharon said: “Back in the day, they didn’t know the harm they were doing. But in 2013, it’s wrong and we know it’s wrong. “When people see chimps on TV adverts they think they are cute and funny, like dogs and cats. “They don’t think about them as the intelligent, wonderful animals they are. “It also distracts from the facts.

In 20 years, the UN and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature are agreed that great apes will be extinct in the wild.” While the outlook is grim, Twycross is doing all it can to ensure their own chimps live out their days in comfort. And after her troubled life, Choppers has finally found some peace, with care and comradeship from both humans and fellow apes. Her eyes light up as her keepers feed her fresh broccoli — but tea is most definitely not on the menu. OSCAR: The cutest chimp ever to be filmed. Disney’s 2012 documentary Chimpanzee followed baby Oscar in his first year of life in the Ivorian jungle. It made a star of the primate and £23million for the film company. Extraordinary footage showed Oscar separated from his troop but he was adopted by a fully-grown male. BUBBLES: Owned by pop legend Michael Jackson, Bubbles lived an seemingly charmed life on the star’s sprawling Neverland Ranch in California. But Bubbles became disturbed as he grew older, displaying fits of rage and even biting ranch visitors. He has lived in a Florida sanctuary since 2005.

CHEETAH: Cheetah was at one time Hollywood’s most famous chimp, starring in the Tarzan movies of the early 1930s. He died in 2011 at the age of 80, spending his twilight years at the Suncoast Primate Sanctuary in Palm Harbor, Florida. It was claimed Cheetah enjoyed finger painting and American football. Chimpanzees are our closest living relatives, sharing more than 98% of our genetic blueprint. In the wild, chimps live in large communities of several dozen animals. An estimated 100,000 to 200,000 chimpanzees remain in the wild. Chimpanzees can be taught to use some basic human sign language – and can retain over 100 words. They rarely live past the age of 50 in the wild, but chimps have been known to reach past the age of 60 in captivity.

PG Tips chimp Louie dies aged 37 at Twyford Zoo | Daily Mail Online comments Goodbye Mr Chimp: Louis as his alter ego Brooke Bond, which became a household name in the 1980s He was never a household name, yet he was the very definition of a household face. Louis the chimp, who has died at the grand old age of 37, was famous up and down the land as Brooke Bond, the secret agent just as debonair as Sean Connery’s 007 — with even more chest hair — in the Eighties adverts for PG Tips. It may be stretching a point to suggest Brooke Bond became as iconic as his human alter ego, James, but then again, it may not. With his catchphrase ‘The name’s Bond. Brooke Bond’, he was voiced by the suave actor Michael Jayston, and became an instant hit when he first appeared in 1981.

Little wonder that six years ago, the PG Tips chimp adverts, which ran from 1956 to 2001, were voted the most memorable in TV history, narrowly ahead of the aliens advertising Cadbury’s Smash instant mashed potato, who laughed so rudely at earth people peeling potatoes with our metal knives, boiling them for 20 of our minutes, and then smashing them all to bits. Moreover, we didn’t have to get used to a series of different faces playing Brooke Bond, as with 007. It was always Louis. And yet the fame never went to his head. ‘He was quiet and calm, which is quite unusual for male chimps,’ said Dr Charlotte Macdonald, curator at Twycross Zoo in Warwickshire, where Louis died on Monday following a short illness. ‘He was sociable and popular with the keepers.’ Scroll down for video Dignified: Louis passed away at his home at Twycross Zoo in Warwickshire following a short illness on Monday Golden age: Louis became famous as the debonair Brooke Bond - the secret agent even hairier than Sean Connery His 43-year-old partner, Choppers, is bearing up well, Dr Macdonald added.

‘They were together a very long time, and chimps can pine just like humans, but she’s eating well, which is good.’ Choppers was not, of course, offered that time-honoured British palliative to ease the shock of a long-term companion’s death — a cup of sweetened tea. RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share But like Louis, she also appeared in the PG Tips commercials, and therefore played a part in one of TV’s longest-lasting and most effective campaigns. Perhaps the most affectionately remembered of all was the one in the Seventies (not featuring Louis) in which two chimps cast as father and son removal men accidentally dropped a piano down a flight of stairs. The pay-off — using dubbed human voices — entered the annals of popular culture . . . ‘Dad, do you know the piano’s on my foot?’ ‘You hum it, son, I’ll play it.’ Instant hit: Brooke Bond's catchphrase became almost as famous as his human alter ego WATCH: BROOKE BOND STARRING IN A PG TIPS AD FROM THE 1980S Such was the impact of those adverts that another of them is said to have undermined the popularity of the tandem bike.

Also dating from the early Seventies, it parodied the Tour de France in the days when the British were nowhere near as strong in the venerable race as they are now, and thus considered it ripe for mickey-taking. A chimp playing a sexy Frenchwoman made eyes at another, playing a stricken cyclist, who asked, in a Yorkshire accent: ‘Can you ride tandem?’ 'Sociable animal': Louis, pictured aged five playing with a Rubik's cube, was popular with his keepers That gave rise to a catchphrase which remained the bane of cyclists’ lives for some years on British highways and byways. The tandem, which had once been considered rather a dashing machine, practically overnight became a joke. It was another marker of a clever and enduringly powerful campaign, which was inspired by the chimps’ tea parties held at London Zoo in the Fifties. TV advertising was born on ITV at precisely 8.12pm on September 22, 1955, during a variety show hosted by bandleader and DJ Jack Jackson. Viewers saw a tube of Gibbs SR toothpaste embedded in a block of ice.

Within months, the PG Tips chimps were added to the burgeoning mix of commercials to promote a brand of tea which Brooke Bond (the company, not the chimp) had launched in Britain in 1930. Two years after the adverts were launched, PG Tips had moved up from fourth place to be the top-selling tea in the UK. The idea of ‘talking’ animals was an instant hit — as were their costumes — and while it is the norm now, at the time it was a delightful innovation. It helped, too, that the chimps were voiced over the years by luminaries such as Peter Sellers, Cilla Black and Bob Monkhouse. But the real stars, of course, were the animals themselves. In 1977, Mail photographer Mike Hollist photographed a preview of the latest commercial at Twycross. ‘Molly Badham, the director and founder, had turned Twycross into a world-leading centre for primates,’ he recalled. ‘These chimpanzees were absolutely amazing. Molly directed the event. She talked to them, gave them things to hold and things to do.

They were terrific show-offs really, and there was a bit of misbehaviour, but not more than you’d expect from a group of children. ‘In fact, working with them that day, I found that after a while I forgot they were chimpanzees and looked at them as if they were children. You can find as much emotion on a chimp’s face as you can on any six-year-old child’s.’ Stars: Chimpanzee actors Kip and Louis with Molly Badham who founded Twycross Zoo and trained the animals Monkey business: The PG Tips ads were part of a clever and enduringly powerful campaign But just as the chimps’ tea parties once held at London Zoo fell prey to growing sensibilities about the perceived exploitation of animals, so too did the PG Tips commercials. In 2001, following complaints by animal rights activists, the axe fell. The decision reflected the political correctness of the times, but it was still widely lamented. It is hard to imagine similar anxieties now if, for instance, those infernal Russian-accented meerkats were killed off.

But then TV commercials do not burrow into our affections as they once did, possibly because we can now wield our remote-control units to wind forward through the breaks. The irony is that there are infinitely more adverts on British TV now than there were in the heyday of the PG Tips campaign — when advertising was offered by only a single channel — yet they are infinitely less influential. My children know perhaps three or four catchphrases or jingles from TV commercials, yet at their age I knew at least 50. And I remember them just as keenly now. Most people over the age of 45 are still aware that Double Diamond works wonders, that nothing beats the great smell of Brut, and that Mackeson looks good, tastes good and by golly it does you good. Success: Adverts like this one for Hamlets cigars were hugely popular in the Seventies Even those who celebrated the end of those PG Tips ads, feeling that they demeaned the chimps, would surely have to admit that they were brilliantly conceived and executed. And while there is much dynamism in the advertising industry still, most TV advertising now is either vacuously inane, or too complex and cynical for its own good. Where is the simple humour?

In the Seventies, TV advertising’s golden age, humour sold enough Hamlet cigars and Cinzano Bianco to sink battleships. Significantly, those were the years when several men destined to join the ranks of Britain’s finest film directors were cutting their teeth on TV commercials. The Cinzano adverts starring Joan Collins and Leonard Rossiter, which — like those for Hamlet — celebrated cack-handedness, were conceived by Alan Parker, who later brought us the movies Midnight Express and Mississippi Burning. Music, too, was used more effectively than now. It used to be said the definition of an intellectual was someone who listened to Rossini’s William Tell Overture without thinking of the Lone Ranger, and something similar might also be said of Tchaikovsky’s Dance Of The Reed Flutes, from The Nutcracker, which to the over-45s is far better known as ‘Everyone’s A Fruit and Nut Case’ from the Cadbury’s advert. Witty: Adverts like this one for Cinzano used simple humour to sell products As for Dvorak’s New World Symphony, for millions of us that evokes only one thing: a young lad pushing a bike loaded with loaves of Hovis up a steep cobbled street.

That seminal 1973 advert, incidentally, was directed by a certain Ridley Scott, who went on to create Gladiator. We don’t yet know whether any of this generation of commercial directors will end up being knighted for services to the British film industry, like Sir Alan Parker and Sir Ridley Scott. Perhaps some will. But they are plying their trade in less creative times. So, as we celebrate the memory of Louis the chimp and his simian mates, we should also celebrate not only one of the great advertising campaigns, but an entire era when TV commercials looked good, tasted good and by golly — if only by giving us so much collective pleasure — did us good. Twycross Zoo - HinckleyTimes What's On Twycross Zoo Popular attraction Twycross Zoo was established more than 50 years ago by Molly Badham and Nathalie Evans. In 1972 the attraction became a charitable trust. Nowadays the zoo is known for having the largest collection of monkeys and apes in the Western world, and is known as The World Primate Centre. The zoo attracts around 500,000 visitors a year.

Windsor Safari Park Eddy Powell was an established and respected elephant keeper at Twycross when one day approached by Billy Smart, what happened next was to lead to a whole new chapter in Eddy Powell's life Previous text In the out of high season periods we would take Iris and Linda out for walks around the grounds or just to sit on the grass whilst they would relish the taste of fresh grass to eat and tear great tufts of plant life from the hedgerows. These were the times that I know I was a real keeper, just me and Linda out for a stroll, sadly these events were not as common as I would and I am sure she would have liked but available time was short in those days. The turnover of staff was quite high so covering was always the order of the day. CAUTION - CONTAINS ADULT THEMES Osca and the hang over Having been at Twycross Zoo for a few months, I was living in a caravan with Jimmy No2 in the chimp house and Ray who looked after at this point birds of prey and covered for John V. in the reptile house and big cats.

One night Jimmy was asked to go over to Coalville to look at a chimp in a circus that was possibly being offered to the zoo as part of the breeding programme. He asked if Ray and I would like a trip out, nothing else on a trip to the circus sounded good. We all piled into the zoo's mini van, well I clambered into the back, being the tallest it was a tight fit, but I was the new boy so I did not mind, I was going out with the boys so what the heck. We arrived and watched the show for free having found Sid Dash the owner, who on the close of the show invited us back to his caravan. Here we all squeezed in around a fold up table at one end. Me, Jimmy, Ray, Sid and next to him Osca his huge adult chimp. Out came a bottle of whisky and tumblers. They kept all talking about chimpanzees which although I tried to follow, being so young and having never worked with them, this just went over my head.

As the night wore on I just kept sipping this glass orange fowl tasting stuff, but not wishing to look a wimp in front of Jimmy and Ray I carried on, later on that week I found out they had planned to get me drunk and so they kept filling my glass up to the top, saying something about they had to drive home. All I can remember about the rest of the evening was this chimp kept playing with his willy that by the size of it, put most men to shame, and every now and again we had to put our hands over our glasses and move them quickly to one side to stop semen from landing in the glass. The ride home in the back of the van was one blur with my head spinning and feeling sick and the boys saying "Not long now" "Soon be home hold on". Next morning I was awoken by Jimmy getting dressed further along the caravan. Feeling like death and having never felt so ill before, I managed to put some clothes on and crawl up to the Elephant house. I could not be late as Reenie might catch me and the time keeping was very strict in those days. One did not want to be carpeted by Reenie or worst still Molly!

On arriving at the Elephant House, David was already there. He took one look at me in disbelief, Oversalty I looked a right state. He said "What are you doing here?" I said I had come to work, thinking that was a stupid statement as I worked there every day along with him! "Its your day off" he said. Then the lights went out as far as I was concerned. I awoke the following morning with one big hangover and went to work as the day before, to be told by David that I had passed out as soon as he said it was my day off and had fallen backwards onto the hay bails and slept there all day and in the evening when Rennie was doing her rounds she went ballistic ordering Ray and Jimmy to carry me back to the caravan and put me to bed. To this day the smell of any spirit makes me feel sick, John Voce later told me that they were concerned that night that I may have had Alcohol poisoning and were tempted to call a doctor. Model trains and Donkey rides One day a large lorry pulled up on a piece of grass next to the childrens play area. A nice new white and blue cab unit, behind there was a forty foot black box trailer.

Throughout the day people were opening up the sides hinged at the top and hanging a canvas wall around it , doubling its size. The next morning as I walked past on my way up to the elephants, a large sign had been placed in front of the this new building, proclaiming a new model railway experience. Having always loved model trains, I could not wait till dinner time to sneak a look. Throughout the morning I could see a lot of activity in and out of this structure, as I walked from one section to another. Lunchtime came, having eaten the meal quickly I walked around to the donkey rides to use chatting to Bernard Chapman to see if I could spot someone, on the off chance of having a look inside. As I walked past a tall black haired young man walked out, closely followed by an older man looking like Arthur Lowe, but without the glasses and more hair. Seeing me they waved and said "hello". This was my chance. Walking over, I stood in front of the sign and read it, seeing this they both asked if I was interested. On hearing that I was, they invited me in. The younger man introduced himself as Lawson Phillips and his father. This was the beginning of a year long friendship.

On walking inside I was met with extensive railway layout built on the lorry floor with the public walkway around the sides and back. There were about thirty trains all working at once, computer controlled, everything down to the last detail like little men sitting on a loos and smoke and sound from the engines. They were working flat out to open to the public the next morning. For the rest of the summer I was always to be found inside the exhibition at every opportunity, whenever I crossed the park and passed it a cup of tea was had and sometime I might watch it for a few minuets or over their lunch whilst Mr Phillips or Lawson were working on their own, much to the disapproval of Rennie or John Voce if they caught me. Lawson and I would hit the local towns two or three nights a week in his car, this was a welcome break from the same faces day in and day out. All too soon the summer season ended and one day the cab unit came to take the packed up exhibition away. All through the year Bernard Chapman brought every day a lorry load of donkeys for the childrens rides. Bernard also had the concession for Donkey rides on Blackpool beach which he ran with his sons.

Each day he or one of his sons would turn up at nine thirty. I would get to know names of some of his donkeys but he had so many that changing them from day to day it was quite a lottery. They would stand there all day untethered just waiting for a child to turn up, on the busy days there was a steady stream of young smiling faces. On the quiet days if one child turned up all of the donkeys would walk around the track with the one with the child on its back, just for something to do. We had a new giraffe house built at the far end of the zoo to where the old Dutch barn giraffe house was, it was made out of corrugated sheets of asbestos with a domed roof. The problem was how do you get four giraffes from A to B? The bosses and vets all put their minds to it and came up with the idea of walking them up there. The day before the move, lorry loads of scaffold were brought onto the zoo and an army of men worked into the night to construct a barriered walkway snaking up and around the zoo, using scaffold poles and hessian to the new house.

Next morning all staff were up and starting work at six, feeding and cleaning out before the move was due to start at nine. Those of us that could just do feeding and basic cleaning out or some pens were left it till it was all over we thought by about lunchtime? No one had a day off so it would be that much easier. Those that could grabbed a cup of tea and gathered around the old giraffe house. This building was to be replaced with a new gorilla house for Bongo and Joe. It was just opposite the bottom kitchen. A crowd of staff were gathered together and the vet along with John Voce, Reenie and Miss Badham were briefed on what was going to happen. Ted Sampson would open the doors and lead the group up this walkway, tempting them with fresh branches of their favourite trees. All the rest of us were to keep the public quiet and back from their path. Ted slowly opened the doors of the barn leading out onto the drive. David Brown and ??/????? were the only others near to the barn, talking softly to the four Giraffes. Jerry the seventeen foot male and his two mates and a calf.

All the giraffes just started to walk around their inside pens in an uneasy gait, they had known since the day before something strange was going on and were in no hurry to find out what ,or it was intended for them. By mid-day they had showed no sign of leaving the security of their home as that saw it. Now and again Jerry would stick his head out of the door, stretching his long neck out over the high fence inside but keeping his body safely in the pen out of harms way. He would look both ways and then slowly withdraw his head and carry on pacing around his sleeping quarters. Every time the head was seen peering out the congregation outside would die to a hush. Ted by this time was getting tired and his soothing tones started to become one of a more forceful tone, instead of asking them to come out he was telling them in his voice. "Come on you old bugger, you have a nice new home to go to" shaking a bucket with a few cow nuts in the bottom. "Come on Jerry donï¿½t be a silly sod" Ted had a way with words, not being a keeper but a farm hand before he came to the zoo.

As it was getting near to lunch time feeding and watering of some animals I suggested to several other keepers that I would feed the sections and they could stay put. I did not think this was going to be a quick thing and I was getting bored! I fed and watered the elephants and then made my way around the other pens of other keepers till all were seen, stopping on my way around to give Lawson and Bernard an update and sneak a quick tea. As I got back to my position on the barrier Pauline one of the monkey house keepers told me that sandwiches had been sent around in lieu of cooked dinner, not being there I had missed out! On taking the empty trays back to the animal kitchen I could see that there was still no sign of the giraffes willing to take a step out into the new world. Other staff were busy talking to members of the public or reading books to pass the time. By this time it was one Oï¿½clock and the sun was shining and the ones that were near their charges could sit on the grass and watch and talk to them.

Others like myself were finding it hard to just stand there waiting, so on the pretext of going to the loo I shot off to find Lawson to beg him to go to the cafï¿½ and get me something to eat, I knew if I went past the front of the house Miss Evens might see me going into the cafï¿½. Returning after fifteen minutes refreshed, I sat on the grass thinking what a lovely day it was, Sun shining no litter picking or scrubbing out pools or moving muck heaps. At about three there was a sense of movement by the doors of the giraffe house. Looking down the walkway I could see Jerry standing half in half out of the door, there was a deafly quiet as if all the other animals in the park could sense what we needed was quiet at this time, no howling monkeys, no honking of sea lions, no squarking of parrots just quiet. Ted slowly backed way from the door tempting the large frame of the old friend of his out. As they had not been fed it was more then likely that these tempting treats were beginning to work. Once all of his body was out of the doorway you could slowly hear the noise of the zoo returning.

Slowly Jerry moved away from the door into the centre of the yard. ??????// moved in behind him to tempt the females out with branches. Fifteen minutes passed and slowly one by one each one edged its way out, feeding on the tempting green leaves by wrapping their long tongues around a branch and stripping the leaves in one pull back of its head. Once all were out into the yard / drive phase one was over. Next was the most hazardous, getting them to walk not run, up to the new house. We all stood very still, slowly Jerry started to follow Ted. Reenie ordered more branches to be taken further up along the outside of the track and left in piles and left awaiting Ted to reach that point. Slowly the others followed being coaxed by ?//////? And David. Once Jerry had reached the end of the first part of the drive lined on one side with the pets corner and the other by the chimp house, he stopped looking around him. He was going no further. To walk this few hundred yards had taken nearly a hour! Ted again started to get frustrated and started calling him names of uncertain parentage. Mostly the public got bored of waiting nearby and would carry on looking around the rest of the animals.

This was what was making Jerry unsettled about moving further up into the scaffolded part of the track. As the females reached him they all started to just walk around in a circle not paying much attention to the greenery being offered. Walking up the yard behind them were a larger number of keepers to act as a barrier, stopping them from turning back to their old house. Suddenly Jerry decides to see what lies up ahead and starts to walk purposely along the walkway Ted trying to keep up. The females not wishing to follow stop circling and stand watching Jerry, Then one starts to follow, after a few steps stops and turns around, clearly starting to panic she starts running towards the line of keepers, who all raise their arms without talking, the only voice is that of the Vet telling everyone to stand their ground. With the raising of the arms the other two animals start to jog towards where Jerry had stopped, now just yards away from the entrance to the outside enclosure of the new giraffe house. Slowly the startled third animal moves in their direction. The Keepers numbers build as it passes them they climb inside the barrier.

Just past where Pauline was standing it stops and starts moving around in circles, Pauline had climbed through by now, The giraffe now in sight of the other just stopped in a state of bewhildment just started to lower its neck (a sure sign of stress). The vet said "We must keep her moving to join the others" as he said this the giraffe started to panic and ran a few paces further along the path, then around from one side to the other. As the keepers were keeping up with it, lashed out with one of its back legs and caught Pauline on the leg. She screamed and fell to the ground. At the sound of her screaming the giraffe walked up towards the others, a number of the girl keepers rush to attend to Pauline sitting on the ground. The rest of us follow the giraffes, by this time making their way over the temporary bridge into their new home. Having removed the sleepers from over the moat we all went back to see Pauline being helped to her feet. As she was only just in reach of the blow it had only bruised her leg. Any nearer and she would have broken it.

We pulled her other leg about it the next day, by which time she was hobbling around the kitchen. For most of my time at Twycross I had a habit of eating Mars bars! I would go to the shop and see Pinky the shop manageress and buy a box of 25 each week. Morning noon and night I would be walking around eating these things when not smoking. The hardest part was keeping them from Iris and Linda who after finding out I always had one in my pocket would try to frisk me, probing my clothes trying to work out where I had hidden them that day to confuse them. Mars Bars in ones under pants is not to be recommended as the heat from your body makes them go all soggy!! After living in the caravan for three months, the zoo bought a farm next door and I moved into a cottage half a mile along the road from the zoo entrance. Living there with me was Steve Scott and a succession of other male keepers but none of these stayed at the zoo long. For evenings entertainment we and the girls who lived in the girls staff house would walk down to the Moores Pub down in the nearest little village of Norton-Juxta about a mile away.

These evenings were fine till one had to walk back in pitch black on a moon less night with no pavements and having one too many, most night someone would end up in a ditch or hedge, with just as inebriated people trying to pull one another upright again. About once a week we would walk it further along to Twycross itself, to a night club, or we would gut stay in with the girls in their sitting room and listen to mostly Motown records, like ï¿½Stoned Loveï¿½ Always hoping Miss Badham would not come in, although we were allowed to be there one always felt guilty, But Meg would keep us in line. One day the girl I was going out with from Tamworth came to the zoo with a friend that Lawson was going with. I get the in for free as it was my day off and the idea was they were looking around the zoo with me till Lawson finished work then he wold drive us all out to Tamworth and have a night out. In the late afternoon I needed to go back to the farm cottage to change for the night.

The two girls said they would come back with me ,( no doubt to check out what my pad was like, although I had my own room it was basic but our home for the time being). I went upstairs to change leaving the two girls in the sitting room, I had just had a quick bath when I heard Miss Badham screaming for me to get down stairs. With just a towel I ran downstairs thinking something was wrong at the zoo, that needed my attention. On reaching the sitting room there was Miss Badham very red faced (normally she had a pale face with the makeup on, eyes glaring at me. I thought she was going to explode. She shouted at the top of her voice for the girls to leave that instant. Asking what I thought I was doing. Me standing there naked apart from this towel around me I tried to explain but she was having none of it. "What would my mother think?" "Whilst I lived under her roof I was not to have girls of any sort in the cottage" And she went on and on about my mother would expect her to be my mother up there. Then she explained that she had spotted me leaving the zoo in the direction of the cottage with the two girls.

I was then told to go and put some clothes on and take the girls home. "What were their own mothers think. One was nineteen and the other mid twenties. By the time I had got dressed and made my way back to the zoo, the two girls were talking to Lawson, I red faced apologised, helping Lawson to close the railway we went on our way. Twycross had an extensive educational side in those days taking exhibits out into the wider community as well as in-house. One night I had to accompany the lady education officer out to a trip to Leicester prison. We loaded up the white transit with display boards and boxes of eggs, fur and feathers. Next in went a cage with a Cockatoo, a bow with a rock python in, another with a giant iguana, then I was handed a lead with a leopard cub on the end. Now up to this point I had never handled any large cat before. This cub started to tangle itself around my legs, rolling on its back and clawing at my legs playing. Picking it up and placing it on the middle of the passenger seat as I climbed aboard.

Going through my head was the thought of us have this thing climbing all over this lady who was doing the driving whilst we were going along. But this was the first trip that I had done out with the animals like this and she must have done it before, so I should keep quiet. Before very long into the journey, my playful charge was biting my hands or legs in a playful manner, that still hurt all the same. Every now and then it would launch itself out of my hands and I would just catch it in time before it landed on the steering wheel. After what seemed years we arrived at the doors of the prison. On having the van inspected by a prison pock his head through my window looking in the rear of the van and having the cub grab his hat in its mouth, he shouted for the gates to be opened. In we drove being waved around to a door and parking up. We off loaded in a fashion, as having this over grown kitten keep lying at my feet every few steps it took a long time to remove the boxes from the back of the van into a large hall. By this time I was wishing it was a fur coat I was minding!

The lady started the evening by introducing us in turn, and then speaking on each object we had brought. It is funny how bored cats can get in new and strange places! I thought all the smell and other faces of the inmates would keep her happy but no. Halfway through the evening the lady put the snake around my neck and picked up the iguana to show the audience. Being rather cold and feeling by this time my hot sweaty body the snake at first just hung there, then it started to awake and coil itself around my leg, chest, neck and being eight foot long down the other leg, whilst I was trying to stop the leopard from using it as a new play thing. The leopard spent the whole time eating me or trying to spring at the Cockatoo. The lady seeing me going blue un-wrapped the snake. Being neither too sure or brave an ought to get anywhere near the iguana the cub stayed around my side of the table. After the talk all the audience were if interested and not all were, were asked to come forward and touch the animals, strangely very few came towards me and the cub, on seeing my hands by this time covered in blood and scratches.

The drive home in the dark seemed to make the cub sleepy for which we were both relieved, as erratic driving in the dark was not to be looked forward to. On reaching the zoo all the animals were put in their cages and the rest of the boxes unloaded. I meanwhile going back to the caravan had the micky taken out of me by Ray and Jimmy. Having to throw away all my clothes for those that were not ripped to shreds were covered in blood. I only agreed to go on those trips again if I could take something less dangerous like one of the alligators or fully grown gorilla! Windsor Safari Park Next Now celebrating its 50th year, Twycross Zoo is renowned as a specialist primate zoo and has a wide variety of monkeys and apes including the UK's only group of bonobos. We have breeding groups of many endangered primate species so we often have babies and toddlers playing around in our orang utan and bonobo groups, and in many of our monkey groups. Set in more than 80-acres, we have around 650 animals of almost 150 species to see, including many endangered animals and native species in the Zoo's Nature Reserve.

You can walk with our ring-tailed lemurs in their new walk-through enclosure; see our giant tortoises sunbathing in their new grass area and watch our penguins take their daily walk. Our keepers present regular talks and feeds where you can learn a bit more about some of our animals such as the chimpanzees, penguins and coatis. Twycross Zoo's award winning Education Department offers a variety of discovery opportunities for many different types of groups and parties. Amongst others, the Zoo holds the Learning Outside the Classroom Quality Badge, all sessions are curriculum linked and all are designed to best engage all age groups. Our world-class Himalaya Centre delivers fantastic food in a 300 seat all-day restaurant overlooking a Himalayan themed snow leopard enclosure and shopping in the Bazaar. It also plays host to unrivalled conference facilities in Windows on the Wild and fine art in Twycross Gallery. We also have several other eateries on site, including the Twycross Fish Bar, the Dome and indoor picnic facilities in Cockatoo Cafï¿½.

We are open 364 days a year from 10.00am (we only close Christmas Day) The Zoo is located only four-miles from junction 11 of the M42/A42 (which links the M1 and M6) making it readily accessible from anywhere in central England. We offer free parking. PG Tips chimps: The last of the tea-advertising apes By Neil Heath BBC News, Nottingham 9 January 2014 The PG Tips chimps were loved by the public and helped make the tea brand one of the UK's most popular. But while the nation laughed, were the animals' lives being damaged? Choppers the chimpanzee - the last surviving star of the TV ads - has only recently started taking part in grooming sessions, an important ape behaviour. But for years she shunned her own kind, preferring the company of human beings. The chimpanzees, trained by Twycross Zoo, in Leicestershire, were dressed up in clothes and lip-synced with the voices of actors like Peter Sellers and Bob Monkhouse. They also appeared in children's shows Tiswas and Blue Peter, and visitors flocked to see their infamous, messy tea parties.

According to the zoo, 42-year-old Choppers is the last surviving PG Tips chimp after her co-habitant Louis died in their Twycross enclosure in July Twycross Zoo - ITV Central News | ZooChat Leicestershire Did anyone see ITV Central News the BBC News and This Morning what Sharon Redrobe said about the chimps that were on the PG Tips Adverts some 30 years ago It makes me sick how someone who didn't know Miss Badham and Miss Evans could speak the way she did OK it needed change but back in the day they were the only females to run a zoo successfully and it made money all of which got put back into the zoo. If you missed it look on ITV player and you will find it and if you put tea chimps into google I am sure you will find it Leicestershire Hi Miss Redrobe put the information over wrong in the days they are talking about late 50's early 60's you could have a wild animal as a pet be it any of the big cats, chimps or anything. The chimps were donated by people e.g. the people who owned Tojo.

The chimps that were used were NOT Babies they were what I would call toddlers and as I have stated all of the chimps were donated it was a case of you found somewhere that could house a chimp or have them put to sleep, why do you think there are cases of big cats being seen in the wild. The last adverts that featured chimps were played by the French and Italian chimps. SmallestGiraffe said: ↑ I agree the chimps have paid for the way they were treated as babies, but as mentioned a couple of times in the article that sort of thing was of its time and i'd hope that now a lot more people are better educated and that sort of thing wouldn't happen now. Chimps are such amazing creatures as they are, they really do not need to be dressed up or playing the piano to prove that Click to expand...

Cheshire, UK Jane Doe said: ↑ Did anyone see ITV Central News the BBC News and This Morning what Sharon Redrobe said about the chimps that were on the PG Tips Adverts some 30 years ago It makes me sick how someone who didn't know Miss Badham and Miss Evans could speak the way she did OK it needed change but back in the day they were the only females to run a zoo successfully and it made money all of which got put back into the zoo. If you missed it look on ITV player and you will find it and if you put tea chimps into google I am sure you will find it Click to expand... Why? Do you disagree with her view that the way young chimpanzees were treated created later problems? Leicestershire Why I disagree is because they were not damaged. Chimpanzees naturally like to get attention but they still new how to be chimps. Some of the chimps that came to the zoo had already got problems.

Miss Redrobe didn't now enough about them and how they came to the zoo, I personally think she made a very big deal about it because she ended her interview with "we will be building a 3 million pound chimp complex If we can raise the money" so I think she made a big deal of it just to get people to come to the zoo and spend money. If people want to have a go at anyone think about Monkey Word. The apes that are damaged are those that are on holiday beaches abroad they have their teeth pulled out so they do not bit anyway the chimps at the zoo now how to be chimps. Behind You! (to the left) Jane Doe said: ↑ Why I disagree is because they were not damaged. Chimpanzees naturally like to get attention but they still new how to be chimps. Click to expand... No they didn't -they spent most of their days inactive with little interaction between Chimps. Also twos' and threes' is nowhere near a natural grouping for Chimps -how could they act like Chimps when they were not in group sizes big enough to encourage natural interactions and behaviour?

Jane Doe said: ↑ Miss Redrobe made a very big deal about it because she ended her interview with "we will be building a 3 million pound chimp complex If we can raise the money" so I think she made a big deal of it just to get people to come to the zoo and spend money. Click to expand... I don't think that's really a bad objective really, have you seen the Chimp enclosures at Twycross recently? There's nothing particularly good or modern about them, though it's great to see the Chimps finally in larger groups and good to know the zoo is trying to improve things. Whilst not denigrating Molly & Natalie's achievements in anyway it's wrong to look at everything they did as beyond criticism. Quite plainly, what was acceptable in the 1970's was, with hindsight, not in the Chimps best long term interests. england Jane Doe said: ↑ I personally think she made a very big deal about it because she ended her interview with "we will be building a 3 million pound chimp complex If we can raise the money" Click to expand... Thanks for the information on the existing Chimps at Twycross.

I hadn't realised that a large proportion of those they still have were actually born there. I guess quite a lot of them would have been handraised though, as I've very rarely seen a mother Chimp with baby on many visits there over the years. The new Chimp complex is still/back on the cards then, at some time in the future. This wasn't mentioned in the above article, only in the interview I guess- which I didn't see. I really hope they can raise the funds for it- IMO it would be the single most important new build the Zoo could undertake and its still of maximum priority. I'm quite confident virtually all of the existing Chimps could be brought together as a single large 'clan' - the relative(I do say relative) ease with which they amalgamated some of them into somewhat larger groupings virtually proves that. India Jane Doe said: ↑ The thing I object to is the fact that those chimps that were used were not babies they were what I would class as toddlers, plus all of those chimps that were used for the adverts had been donated to the zoo because their owners could not look after them any more.

If the adverts had not happened then there would be no Twycross Zoo read molly's zoo. Click to expand... I'm pretty sure that many of the chimps (and certainly most of the other primates at the zoo) were bought directly by the zoo owners from dealers and pet-shops. There's nothing wrong with that -- that is the only way things worked back then -- but it would be incorrect to try and say that Twycross only got chimps through "donation". And for my edification, who is Sharon Redrobe? england Chlidonias said: ↑ I'm pretty sure that many of the chimps (and certainly most of the other primates at the zoo) were bought directly by the zoo owners from dealers and pet-shops. And for my edification, who is Sharon Redrobe? Click to expand... Some of Twycross' early Primate species would certainly have come from animal dealers- a number of their early Monkey species and the initial pairs(1.1.) of Gorillas and Orangutans(2.3) would have been from those sources as were two (0.2) of the later Gorillas also. Probably some of the original Chimps too.

Very few primates were available in Petshops even in those days, a few of the commoner monkey species, the odd chimp and even a young Gorilla and Orangutan in Tysley's Pet Stores in Birmingham- though close to Twycross, neither of these went there. Sharon Redrobe is a vet and the new CEO at Twycross, replacing the previous(former) Director who was hired by the original owners but who 'resigned' a year or so ago after what appeared to be inside pressure. India Pertinax said: ↑ Sharon Redrobe is a vet and the new CEO at Twycross, replacing the previous(former) Director who was hired by the original owners but who 'resigned' a year or so ago after what appeared to be inside pressure. Click to expand... I thought she might be the CEO but couldn't remember. What I'm getting from this thread is that she has said (in summary) "Hand-raising chimps as humans for entertainment purposes was a bad idea and the result was many individual misfit adult chimps. This is not something which would be done nowadays.

We would like to get all these chimps together and socialised, and we would like to raise enough money to build an actual proper chimp enclosure at Twycross". Is that about right? I'm not sure what the fuss is if that is the case. Leicestershire Shorts said: ↑ No they didn't -they spent most of their days inactive with little interaction between Chimps. Also twos' and threes' is nowhere near a natural grouping for Chimps -how could they act like Chimps when they were not in group sizes big enough to encourage natural interactions and behaviour? I don't think that's really a bad objective really, have you seen the Chimp enclosures at Twycross recently? There's nothing particularly good or modern about them, though it's great to see the Chimps finally in larger groups and good to know the zoo is trying to improve things. Whilst not denigrating Molly & Natalie's achievements in anyway it's wrong to look at everything they did as beyond criticism. Quite plainly, what was acceptable in the 1970's was, with hindsight, not in the Chimps best long term interests. Click to expand...

Miss Badham & Miss Evans did what they thought best built up Twycross on a shoe string, there is still 1 original house and that is the old giraffe house. The Amazon house which was the Reptile house was the first house to be purposely built Mrs Boardman new the roof was knackered but no she still spent a fortune on it and now the roof has finally given up that is why it is closed until further notice. I feel everyone just wants to call Miss Badham & Miss Evans there are things I have been told that don't sit right with me that the new team have done, all Miss Redrobe wanted was to make it look bad on Miss Badham for what she did years ago and we all know that wouldn't happen now, she only did it to get the 3 million that is needed. It was always Miss Badhams wish and intention to build a purpose built chimp complex but it never happened because 1 was her age and finally it was decided she should retire and let someone bring it up to date, so what happened Mrs Boardman was brought in and what did she do spend, spend, spend, and now there is Miss Redrobe and all she wants to do is slag Miss B off.

There is no point me sticking up for Miss Badham because everyone has already made up their minds. Swansea , UK With regards to the aquisition of chimps by Twycross in the early days , there is a lot of information available in the recent Chimpanzee studbooks . From memory , Twycross received many wild-caught baby chimps , a lot of them were moved on to other zoos after a relatively short period . MY INTERPRETATION of this is the tractable ones that could be worked with were kept , whilst the others were moved on . I could be totally wrong here I admit . I am not necessarily condemning this . As others have said , what was acceptable practice was very different then . Even Gerald Durrel purchased wild-caught baby apes for Jersey and collected chimps in West Africa . India Jane Doe said: ↑ There is no point me sticking up for Miss Badham because everyone has already made up their minds. Click to expand... you're being a bit over-dramatic. Nobody on here, as far as I can tell, hates Miss Badham or Evans, or thinks badly of them as such.

It is just that what was done forty years ago in the zoo world isn't what would be done today. It's as simple as that. It is the same for any older zoo in the world. I found the news video (here: Chimps were 'damaged' by TV adverts | Central - ITV News ) and there's nothing even remotely bad in it. The CEO is simply saying that chimps wouldn't be used like that by Twycross today, that they end up "damaged" as she put it, and that they want to get all the chimps together into social groups which is the way chimps should be, and for which they need to raise money to build a proper facility. On a side note, the piece showed clips from the PG Tips adverts. I hadn't realised those are the exact same adverts that I used to watch as a kid on tv in New Zealand! I loved those ads!! The nature of the times indeed. Leicestershire Well I knew Molly Badham all of the chimps in the early days were given to them because the owns could not handle them, because they were pets it was not against the law for people to have tropical animals like a cat or a dog.

You are making Miss Badham sound like Mary Chipperfield Bele said: ↑ With regards to the aquisition of chimps by Twycross in the early days , there is a lot of information available in the recent Chimpanzee studbooks . From memory , Twycross received many wild-caught baby chimps , a lot of them were moved on to other zoos after a relatively short period . MY INTERPRETATION of this is the tractable ones that could be worked with were kept , whilst the others were moved on . I could be totally wrong here I admit . I am not necessarily condemning this . As others have said , what was acceptable practice was very different then . Even Gerald Durrel purchased wild-caught baby apes for Jersey and collected chimps in West Africa . Click to expand... Leicestershire If people read her books they would see. Where are they thinking of putting it all ? It is common sense chimps would not be used like that now so she was just having a dig. I know a lot of things that have happened under the new management that would never have happened in Miss B & Miss E's Day. There was plenty of money until the previous director used it all.

Chlidonias said: ↑ you're being a bit over-dramatic. Nobody on here, as far as I can tell, hates Miss Badham or Evans, or thinks badly of them as such. It is just that what was done forty years ago in the zoo world isn't what would be done today. It's as simple as that. It is the same for any older zoo in the world. I found the news video (here: Chimps were 'damaged' by TV adverts | Central - ITV News ) and there's nothing even remotely bad in it. The CEO is simply saying that chimps wouldn't be used like that by Twycross today, that they end up "damaged" as she put it, and that they want to get all the chimps together into social groups which is the way chimps should be, and for which they need to raise money to build a proper facility. On a side note, the piece showed clips from the PG Tips adverts. I hadn't realised those are the exact same adverts that I used to watch as a kid on tv in New Zealand! I loved those ads!! The nature of the times indeed. Click to expand...

Question: When the ads. finished, keeper Molly Badham welcomed them back to which zoo?
Answer: Twycross