A RESCUED chimpanzee is settling into a new life in Dorset after being plucked to safety from the Middle East.

Kiki is a nine-year-old female chimp, who started her life in the forests of Africa before hunters killed her family and smuggled her to Lebanon.

She is now getting used to her new home at Monkey World, the ape rescue centre near Wool, after being brought to England by a team which included centre director Dr Alison Cronin.

The day the Monkey World team arrived in Beirut to organise the rescue, the Lebanese government collapsed.

Yet in spite of political turmoil, the British and Lebanese authorities worked to ensure Kiki was safely transported out of the country. Monkey World was assisted by the Animals Lebanon organisation.

Dr Cronin said Kiki is settling in well at Monkey World and is already meeting her new adopted family of 18 other chimpanzees. She has made friends with several other adolescent females and has also met the dominant male in the community, Hananya.

To date the centre has assisted 19 different governments around the world to stop the illegal smuggling of monkeys and apes from the wild.

Chimpanzees are an endangered species that are threatened with habitat destruction and bush-meat hunting.

Dr Cronin said: “Sadly Kiki’s story is not uncommon as this brutal illegal trade in man’s closest living relative is documented throughout the world.

“It is amazing to see that after being stolen from the wild and kept in a small cage in solitary confinement for nine years, her instinct to live with others of her own kind is so strong.

“Family and friends are the most important part of a chimpanzee’s life and here at Monkey World we give them families and their lives back again.

“It is great to see Kiki making so much progress so quickly.”