She had lost nearly half her body weight. The staff named her Wounda, which means “close to death.”
“When I saw the photographs of Wounda, as she came to the sanctuary, I didn’t see how she could have possibly have lived,” Jane Goodall said later.
The sanctuary’s vet, Dr. Rebeca Atencia, refused to give up. Wounda was given what is thought to be the first chimp-to-chimp blood transfusion in Africa. Slowly, she grew stronger.
In 2013, she was finally ready for a new home: a forested island sanctuary called Tchindzoulou, on the Kouilou River, where rescued chimps can live safely in the trees.
Jane, who had never met Wounda before, came along for the trip. She talked to her on the boat to calm her.
“None of us could predict exactly what she would do once the cage door opened,” Jane says in the video.
Wounda stepped out. She went to Rebeca first. Then she climbed back onto her crate, turned to Jane, and wrapped her long arms around her. She held on, and Jane held her back.
“It was a very, very touching moment,” Jane said. “One of the most amazing things that’s ever happened to me. The warmth of her embrace is something I shall never forget.”
Wounda went on to become the alpha female of her island group. In 2016, the chimp they once named “close to death” gave birth to a daughter.
Her name is Hope.
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