A chimp escaped from a zoo and was gently coaxed into surrender by its keeper and ridden home on a bicycle. The video provided a brief, heartwarming moment in war-torn Ukraine.
The ape, named Chichi, was seen bounding away on all fours on Monday from Kharkiv’s zoo, which had recently been restocked with animals after being heavily shelled in the early days of the war with Russia.
Zoo workers tailed the scampering simian as she wandered the city streets and a nearby park, the Guardian reported.
According to Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspline, the AWOL ape ignored her keepers’ initial appeals and made it past Kharkiv National University and to the city’s Svobody Square.
The zoo employees pursued her in vain until it began to rain.
Chichi allowed a zookeeper to wrap her in a yellow raincoat as the rain fell, and the two embraced.
Three people are seen in the video from the square guiding Chichi back toward the zoo while the chimp sits on a bicycle seat.
The animal was safely returned, according to zoo director Oleksiy Grigoriev.
Watch the video:
Chichi was one of the hundreds of animals evacuated from the zoo as Russian forces advanced on Ukraine’s second-largest city in the early days of the war.
According to Oleksandr Feldman, the zoo’s owner and a Ukrainian businessman, over 100 animals were killed by Russian shelling before the evacuation was completed.