Liberian lab chimps finally retire

South of Liberia's capital, Monrovia, 65 chimpanzees live on 6 uninhabited river islands.

The chimps are the remainders of a group of about 400 ex-test subjects of a US funded research project and have survived decades of invasive experiments. Now cared for and fed twice a day, their current situation belies a dark past. Richard Ssuna is a vet, working with the Humane Society International, caring for the animals.

Richard Ssuna: "Some of the chimps you are seeing here were probably in their lifetime - the time of doing the research - could have experienced about 400 biopsies, meaning 400, anaesthetised 400 times."

The research into diseases such as hepatitis B was funded by the New York Blood Centre (NYBC) and carried out at this centre from the 1970s.

But medical testing wasn't the only problem for the chimps. In 1989, Liberia exploded into a 14 year long civil war, and the chimps nearly starved to death. Research staff used their own money to feed the primates.

Richard Ssuna: "Essentially the caregivers, the staff from the biomedical research had to dig deep in their pockets and provide very basic rations, which of course, you know, led to severe suffering."

Then, in 2015, the NYBC withdrew funding, provoking global outrage. When the Ebola epidemic hit Liberia, the US financial giant Citigroup stepped in to provide funds, until an agreement was reached between the NYBC and the Humane Society International for the ongoing care of the chimpanzees.

Richard Ssuna: "You know, we cannot release them back in the wild because of all the tests that were done on them. They could, you know, have a devastating effect on conservation of other chimps, free-ranging chimps or wild chimps."

With the lifespan of chimpanzees up to 60 years, support will need to continue for decades, as they cannot be released fully into the wild.

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