Where’s Oscar?
Adorable Oscar, the star of the Disneynature movie Chimpanzee, has gone AWOL.
In fact, according to the movie’s director, Mark Linfield, Oscar hasn’t been seen since the filmmakers left his forest on Africa’s Ivory Coast last September.
“We don’t know where he is,” Linfield told USA Today on Monday. “Since we left the Ivory Coast, researchers haven’t seen him. We have our fingers crossed for him.”
Oscar came to the attention of the film crew when his mother disappeared and the orphan chimp was adopted by the alpha male of the group – a situation that’s very unusual in chimpanzee society where the males generally want to pass their own genes along to a new generation, rather than looking after the offspring of another male.
It’s quite possible that Oscar has just moved to another part of the forest. “It’s a big forest and chimpanzees wander far and wide,” said Linfield.
We may never know.
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In case you haven’t seen it, here’s the trailer for the movie: