She said: “The animals used to escape but we didn’t use to publicise it! The chimps would escape quite a lot, they have always been cheeky monkeys. When they first went on to the island they got out by breaking the glass in the chimp house. They are strong, big animals, but if you know them they aren’t too bad. There’s a lot more health and safety these days, we just lived with it.”
Husband Fred, 83, added: “It was only ever five or six, but it was always the same ones and it was always at lunch time. They would start walking in the grounds but never far from the island. You wouldn’t want them out but generally speaking the keepers were able to handle the chimps.”
