Story By: John Feng, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report
Video Credit: AsiaWire / Lehe Ledu Theme Park
This footage seen more than 13 million times online shows an intelligent chimpanzee imitating its handlers by washing one of their T-shirts with a brush and a bar of soap.
Male chimpanzee Yuhui, 18, has left viewers marvelling in disbelief after zookeepers at Lehe Ledu Theme Park in Chongqing Municipality in south-western China shared footage of him imitating the otherwise mundane household chore.
Yuhui, who lives with his younger sister, 17, in the enclosure, can be seen walking up to a small pool of water where a white T-shirt has been left for him, together with the brush and soap.
In the footage taken on 28th November, the intelligent primate picks up the tools at his disposal and begins washing the item of clothing by dipping it in water and scrubbing it – just like his human handlers do.
He is so thorough that he even runs it through the soapy water a second time before reportedly wringing it dry later on.
Zookeeper Xu Zhengkun local media the T-shirt was left as an experiment, which proved to him and his colleagues just how smart and capable their resident chimp was.
He said: “We didn’t teach him, but he likes to watch us when we wash our own clothes outside our dormitory.
“He would watch happily, and we realised he was really interested in this act of doing laundry.
“We put the clothes there as an experiment. He picked up the brush and soap, then started washing.
“I took a look at the clothing afterwards. It was quite clean.”
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