Santino (20 April 1978 – 14 December 2022) was a male
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 ...
held at
Furuvik Zoo in
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
. In March 2009, it was reported that Santino had planned hundreds of stone-throwing attacks on visitors to the zoo.
Biography
Zookeepers noticed that Santino had dragged a large quantity of stones from a moat around his enclosure, and that the Chimpanzee had even broken chunks of concrete into crude discs.
He made the piles of stones only on the part of his island facing the crowds. Dr. Mathias Osvath, a cognitive zoologist from
Lund University
Lund University () is a Public university, public research university in Sweden and one of Northern Europe's oldest universities. The university is located in the city of Lund in the Swedish province of Scania. The university was officially foun ...
, together with Elin Karvonen, studied the phenomenon, and their studies suggest that Santino's behaviour showed that planning and premeditated deception are not uniquely human traits.
To control his behaviour, and keep his hormone levels down, zookeepers castrated Santino. Afterwards, Santino had been observed to be more playful and was described as growing a "Buddha belly".
Santino was
shot after escaping his enclosure in December 2022, and later died from his injuries.
Media coverage
On 19 March 2009, Santino and his attacks were mentioned as a part of "when animals attack our morals" on ''
The Colbert Report
''The Colbert Report'' ( ) is an American late night television, late-night Late-night talk show, talk and news satire television program hosted by Stephen Colbert that aired four days a week on Comedy Central from October 17, 2005, to December ...
.''
See also
*
List of individual apes
This is a list of non-human apes of encyclopedic interest. It includes individual chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, bonobos, and gibbons that are in some way famous or notable.
Actors
* J. Fred Muggs (a chimpanzee born 1952) was a "co-host" ...
References
*May 2009 ''Scientific American''
{{Notable apes
1978 animal births
2022 animal deaths
Individual chimpanzees
Primate attacks
Individual animals in Sweden
Art by primates
21st-century Swedish painters
Swedish male painters