Chimpanzee movie cracked#

The adoption was captured on film by Martyn Colbeck, a British cinematographer whose wildlife productions over 25 years include Planet Earth and Frozen Planet.įilming was gruelling physically. Sometimes other females or older siblings will adopt them, but genetic tests proved that Oscar and Freddy are not related.

Chimpanzees are so dependent on their mothers that they generally cannot survive if they are orphaned before the age of five. Oscar was just two and a half when orphaned. He said: 'I have never seen a male like Freddy take up the role of a mother like that.'

Chimpanzee movie cracked#

He allowed tiny Oscar to ride on his back, bending his knee to help him climb up, cracked nuts for him, delicately groomed him and shared his nest at night, his massive, muscular arms cradling the sleeping baby.įilming took place primarily in the Taï Forest, a Unesco World Heritage Site in Africa's Ivory Coast, where Professor Christophe Boesch, a renowned chimpanzee expert and the film's principal scientific consultant, has studied chimps for 33 years. But when the baby was left terrified and vulnerable after his mother was killed – possibly by a leopard – the film-makers and scientists watched in amazement as Freddy began to show an altruistic, gentle side he had never before displayed.

To become the alpha male within his group of 37 chimpanzees, Freddy had displayed great aggression towards other males in the group, while appearing not to notice the presence of Oscar. Chimpanzee is delighting scientists because such an adoption is so rare.