Outcry, so young chimps will get a bigger cage

BECAUSE of the outcry by animal-rights groups, Poko, Rhamba and Gombe - the three young chimpanzees trained to pose with visitors daily - will be getting a bigger cage.

Mr Harrison said that although the cage in which they live is by no means 'squalid and small' - it measures 2 m by 2 m by 3 m - the zoo will be building a bigger one.

Unlike the open closure of the other chimps, Gombe (above), Poko and Rhamba are caged up so keepers can produce them for photo sessions. -- ALAN LIM

'To be honest, it is in relation to what has been going on,' he said.

The three chimpanzees, raised by their keepers from young, have been kept apart from the rest of the chimpanzees which live in an open enclosure.

They have been kept confined so that it is easier for the keepers to produce them for photography sessions.

When the issue of the zoo's practice of using apes for photography was raised briefly at the annual World Zoo Organisation conference last month, Mr Harrison had said that he would review the zoo's policy and the way it keeps its animals.