Eugene Cussons (born July 6, 1979) was the Managing Director of "

Chimpanzee The chimpanzee (; ''Pan troglodytes''), also simply known as the chimp, is a species of Hominidae, great ape native to the forests and savannahs of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed one. When its close rel ...

Eden" as well as Rescue Director of the

Jane Goodall Institute The Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) is a global non-profit wildlife and environment conservation organization headquartered in Washington, DC. It was founded in 1977 by English primatologist Jane Goodall and Genevieve di San Faustino (1919-2011). Th ...

(JGI) in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. He is also the host of

Animal Planet Animal Planet (stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American multinational pay television channel focusing on the animal kingdom owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. First established on June 1 ...

's '' Escape to Chimp Eden'', author of the book ''Saving Chimpanzees'' and is the Executive Director and Ambassador of the "Generation Now" movement.

Early life

Eugene Cussons was born in the

Transvaal Transvaal is a historical geographic term associated with land north of (''i.e.'', beyond) the Vaal River in South Africa. A number of states and administrative divisions have carried the name ''Transvaal''. * South African Republic (1856–1902; ...

province of

. For generations, the Cussons family has been deeply rooted in the African conservation ethic, and Eugene grew up with a special appreciation for African wildlife. He studied business management and economics at the

University of Pretoria The University of Pretoria (, ) is a multi-campus public university, public research university in Pretoria, the administrative and ''de facto'' capital of South Africa. The university was established in 1908 as the Pretoria campus of the Johan ...

. Cussons had a successful career in the corporate world developing software for

financial trading A financial market is a market in which people trade financial securities and derivatives at low transaction costs. Some of the securities include stocks and bonds, raw materials and precious metals, which are known in the financial markets ...

applications before building Chimp Eden. Deciding he did not want to be desk bound for the rest of his career, Cussons returned to the family

game reserve A game reserve (also known as a game park) is a large area of land where wild animals are hunted in a controlled way for sport. If hunting is prohibited, a game reserve may be considered a nature reserve; however, the focus of a game reserve ...

to combine his management skills with his love for the outdoors.

Chimp Eden

Cussons opened Chimp Eden in 2006 in collaboration with the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) in South Africa, as the Managing Director of Chimp Eden and the Rescue Director of JGI South Africa. Cussons has focused Chimp Eden's efforts on rescuing chimpanzees from areas no one else is willing to venture, such as war-torn countries like

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

and

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

. Personally rescuing the chimpanzees, Cussons brings them back to Chimp Eden, where he is caretaker. In a January 1, 2013, press release, Cussons announced he was resigning as Manager Director of Chimpanzee Eden and that all the responsibilities will be transferred to the JGI South Africa. The Cussons family will continue to provide the essential support services to the sanctuary and the Umhloti Nature Reserve would remain under the guardianship of the Cussons family. Cussons announced he is looking forward to his new role as Executive Director and ambassador of the "Generation Now" movement.

''Saving Chimpanzees''

In July 2011, Cussons published his book '' Saving Chimpanzees''. In the book, Cussons describes some of the ventures he had saving chimpanzees. In January 2013, the second edition of the book was released with an extra chapter where he describes the terrifying incident at Chimp Eden in June 2012, an attack of two chimps on a researcher. Cussons provides insight and describes the events, reasons and consequences of the attack on the student.

Generation Now

Cussons is the Executive Director and ambassador of the "Generation Now" movement. Generation Now is a global movement representing change in mindset towards conservation, education and humanitarianism.

Personal life

Eugene Cussons and his wife, Natasha, have a daughter named Haley. The family calls Chimp Eden home and their house is located on the family game reserve. Cussons is also a certified pilot, boat skipper, skydiver and rock climber. He's an expert off-road driver and held the position of head instructor for the Land Rover Experience in South Africa. Cussons has appeared on ''

The Ellen DeGeneres Show ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' is an American first-run syndicated talk show that was hosted by Ellen DeGeneres. The show ran for nineteen seasons from September 8, 2003, to May 26, 2022, in which it broadcast 3,339 episodes. It was produced by ...

'', ''

The Jay Leno Show ''The Jay Leno Show'' is an American prime time talk show hosted by Jay Leno that was broadcast by NBC from September 14, 2009, to February 9, 2010. The series was a spiritual successor to his previous late-night talk show ''The Tonight Show wit ...

'' and ''

Martha Stewart Living ''Martha Stewart Living'' is a magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), ...

'' to promote his show ''Escape To Chimp Eden''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cussons, Eugene Primatologists University of Pretoria alumni Living people 1979 births