It was two years before Oberle could look in the mirror and smile. But he falls asleep to the TV to avoid reliving the experience when the nights get quiet and dark. Oberle said he has never had a nightmare about the attack. Chimps in the wild are commonly missing a hand or an eye from their brutal infighting. Chimpanzees are known for aggression and dominating their rivals in territorial battles. Kraemer, the plastic surgeon, said he’s treated patients who were mauled by bears and crocodiles but Oberle’s injuries were the worst he has ever seen caused by an animal. He spent another month in the hospital at SLU and then six weeks at the Rehabilitation Institute of St. He tried to look around but couldn’t move.ĭoctors worked to stabilize Oberle, keeping infections and pain under control so he could be transferred to SLU Hospital in August 2012. He tried to talk but couldn’t because he was still on a ventilator. When he looked down, all he could see were bandages. Oberle woke up more than three weeks later in a Johannesburg hospital after an induced coma. Then there was the sensation of being lifted up, his vision obscured by blood. The chimps kept attacking until a manager scared them off by firing a gun in the air. He felt their hot breath on his face and heard the crunch of bone in their teeth. Oberle remembers screaming, the horror of recognizing his attackers and begging them to stop. In June 2012, Oberle was leading a tour of the sanctuary when two male chimpanzees escaped their enclosure. “When I watch chimps at the zoo, my heart races a little bit, but I still feel they’re the coolest and most beautiful animals in the world,” Oberle said. He misses the work and visits zoos as often as he can in St. Oberle’s original goal was to finish his graduate work in anthropology and become a zoo director focusing on the conservation of animals. Another liked a worker’s earrings, and fashioned her own out of blades of grass. She mimicked him by taking a piece of bark and “writing” on it with a twig. One of the chimps, Jessica, would watch Oberle take notes as he observed her. His family thanked people in South Africa, the US and elsewhere in the world "for your prayers and well wishes."Ĭhimp Eden gained fame through an Animal Planet TV series called "Escape to Chimp Eden".At the sanctuary, Oberle studied a group of chimpanzees to learn more about the social hierarchy of males and females, and how they differ in their use of tools. The masters student in anthropology and primatology at the University of Texas at San Antonio, was doing research at the sanctuary for abused and orphaned chimps. "It is truly a miracle that he survived this brutal attack," said Mr Oberle's parents, who flew to South Africa after the mauling. Two chimpanzees violently attacked Mr Oberle because they thought he trespassed on their territory.Ĭhimp Eden director Eugene Cussons shot and injured one of the chimpanzees while trying to break up the attack. "We would like all to know that Andrew is recovering from his ordeal, although he still remains in a critical, but stable condition," said Mary Flint and Andrew Oberle senior said in a statement. THE parents of an American student mauled and badly injured by two chimpanzees in South Africa have described his survival as "truly a miracle".Īndrew Oberle, 26, who is in a critical condition in hospital, lost an ear, several fingers and toes and a testicle when he was attacked last Friday after entering a restricted enclosure at the Jane Goodall Institute Chimpanzee Eden in the northeast of the country.
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