Was Marina Chapman Really Brought Up By Monkeys?

Is Marina Chapman a survivor or a fantasist? We meet the Bradford woman who claims she was raised in the jungle by monkeys – and who still enjoys nothing more than grooming her family

Marina Chapman says she isn't as mobile as she once was. It's not so easy to climb trees these days, let alone swing from them. Well, she is about 60 or 62 years old – maybe older. She's not sure. Chapman is tiny, sinewy, bendy. At times she doesn't look quite human – a bit simian, a bit feline and quite beautiful.

Perhaps it's not surprising that Marina Chapman seems different from the rest of us. In her formative years, she says, she grew up with monkeys. Only monkeys. For around five years (again, she's unsure – there is no reliable means of measuring) she says she lived deep in the Colombian jungle with no human company. She remembers learning to fend for herself – eating berries and roots, nabbing bananas dropped by the monkeys, sleeping in holes in trees and walking on all fours. By the time she was rescued by hunters, she says, she had lost her language completely. And that's when life really got tough. She claims she was sold into a brothel in the city of Cúcuta, lived as a street urchin and was enslaved by a mafia family, before being saved by a neighbour and eventually moving to Bradford, Yorkshire. Which is where we find her today.

To read more on this story, click here: Was Marina Chapman Really Brought Up By Monkeys?



You may be interested in reading: Woman Says She Was Raised by Monkeys - Daughter Helps Share Her Incredible Story.

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Woman Says She Was Raised by Monkeys - Daughter Helps Share Her Incredible Story

When Vanessa James was a little girl, her mother would tell her bedtime stories of growing up like Tarzan in the jungle raised by a colony of monkeys.

As James got older, she learned those accounts were not fantasy but part of her mother's unbelievable history.

Between the ages of four and ten, Marina Chapman's family consisted of 20 or so Capuchin monkeys, native to the jungles of South America. Her memory of how it all started is hazy-she remembers sorting peas in her village when in an instant a hand covered her mouth and she awoke in the jungle.

"All she can remember is being chloroformed with a hand over her mouth," James, told London's Sunday Times this past week. "It's assumed that the kidnap went wrong,"

Two days after fending for herself, she was approached by a colony of monkeys who taught her by example to forage, feed, and survive as one of their own.


"Acting entirely on instinct, she tried to do what they did: she ate what they ate and copied their actions, and, little by little, learned to fend for herself," according to a press release for the Marina's memoir, The Girl With No Name, to be released in 2013 by Pegasus Books.

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As Chapman adapted to jungle life, she lost any language she had learned in her early years, and instead developed an inhuman ability to scale trees and to communicate with creatures native to the forest. After more than five years, she was discovered by hunters who sold her into slavery in exchange for a parrot.

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A year later she escaped, narrowly avoiding a life of prostitution. She then lived off the streets in Colombia, relying on her stealth knowledge gleaned, in part, from her education in the jungle. In her 20's while working as a household staff for a Colombian family, she was brought on a trip to Bradford, England. There she met her future husband at a church, a bacteriologist named John Chapman, and she never left. Together they raised two children. She worked as a cook, and later in social services helping at-risk youth.

Over the past five years, her daughter Vanessa, now a 23-year-old film composer, has been devoted to transcribing her mother's memory, matching the nuts and berries, and wildlife in Chapman's jungle recollections, with those native to the area she was abandoned in. Recently, mother and daughter traveled back to Colombia to find Chapman's long-lost family, reconnecting with some surrogates who took her in in her teens. She even tried re-entering the jungle before being stopped by military officials.

There have only been a handful of modern-day accounts of feral children surviving this unique upbringing and ultimately assimilating back into human life. In 1999, a young boy was rescued in the Uganda jungle after being raised by monkeys. It took him eight years to learn to speak again.

Today, Chapman is in her mid-50s, though she has no document proving her exact age. Her English writing is weak and her daughter provided much of the translations for Barrett-Lee's formulation into memoir. According to James, the most glaring sign of her mother's past is the fact that she rarely, if ever, cries. "I guess it's an emotional effect of her earlier life," said Vanessa in her interview with Times.

Chapman's memoir, The Girl Without a Name, authored by both mother and daughter, as well as Barrett-Lee, was purchased by publishers in the U.K., Holland, Australia and Italy this past February. It's slated for release in the U.S. by Pegasus books sometime in April of 2013.

Vanessa and her mother both declined an interview with Yahoo! Shine, opting instead to wait for the book's publication. It's unlikely interest will subside six months from now. For Marina, the chance to tell her story is second only to the opportunity to help young victims of kidnapping. She plans to donate a portion of the proceeds of her book to charities to combat child trafficking and slavery in Colombia.

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Capuchin Monkeys, Do These Primates Make Good Pets?

The first thing you must do if you’re thinking of having Capuchin monkeys as pets is to check the laws for exotic pets in your State.

It is extremely important to know that capuchin monkeys, like other primates, can transmit certain diseases to humans. After rabies, Hepatitis is the most common. Capuchins can also be infected with more common ailments quite easily from humans since their immune systems are not as strong as ours.

Monkeys are messy, and most capuchin owners use diapers for their monkey’s entire life.  Since they can live for as long as 35-40 years in captivity, that’s a lot of diapers!  They may also need to be bottle-fed for their entire lives.  Capuchins are mostly kept on leashes both inside and outside of the home.  Capuchin owners treat their monkeys like babies and commonly dress them up.

Capuchins can grow to weigh up to 4 lbs but the average weight is 2 pounds.  They grow twelve to twenty-two inches in height and their tails are also usually the same length as the body.

These monkeys can become quite troublesome and aggressive when they reach sexual maturity, which can be difficult for the owner to handle.

To read more on this story, click here: Capuchin Monkeys, Do These Primates Make Good Pets?


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Drunk Monkey Chases Men at Brazilian Bar After Drinking Leftover Rum

This is the bizarre moment a drunk monkey picked up a kitchen knife and began terrorizing men in a bar.

The capuchin became aggressive after drinking leftover rum at the venue in Paraiba, Brazil.

It grabbed a foot-long knife and began chasing the male drinkers – but not the women.

The bar owner was forced to call the fire brigade as the monkey rampaged out of control.

Fire chief Lt. Col Saul Laurentino said: “It was a bar staff oversight that ended with the monkey drinking some rum and taking the knife.”

A video posted on YouTube shows the animal scraping the roof tiles with the blade before it dashed off.

Firefighters eventually managed to capture the animal after the incident earlier this month and released it into a nature reserve, it was reported by Ninemsn, which cited a Rede.

But the feisty capuchin had to be caught once again after it began terrorizing nearby residents.

Officials are now trying to decide whether to release it into the wild again or place it in captivity.

A recent study found that capuchin monkeys can have quite a temper and will punish others who get more than their fair share.

Researchers found they will yank on a rope to collapse a table that is holding another's food.

Chimpanzees, meanwhile, will only do so if they feel a crime has been committed by another monkey, such as stealing the food.

A video last year also showed a capuchin lashing out in anger at being filmed.

This is the dramatic moment a drunk monkey picks up a kitchen knife and begins terrorizing men in a bar.

Monkeying around: The capuchin became aggressive after drinking leftover rum at the bar in Paraiba, Brazil.

Locals managed to film the animal scraping the roof tiles with the blade before it dashed off.

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Police in Bangkok Arrest Thai Pet Shop Owner After Finding Hundreds of Protected Animals in a Warehouse

Bangkok - A pet shop owner was arrested after Thai police found hundreds of protected animals, including rare lions, in his warehouse near Bangkok, authorities said Monday.

Police Col. Ek Ekasart said police found 14 albino lions from Africa, hundreds of birds, meerkats, tortoises, peafowls, capuchin monkeys and other species from overseas and Thailand.

They said Montri Boonprom-on, 41, faces charges of possessing wildlife and carcasses and could face up to four years in jail and a fine of 40,000 baht ($1,300).
Ek said Montri owns an exotic pet shop at Bangkok's renowned Chatuchak weekend market and was previously convicted of wildlife trade.

Thailand is a hub of the international black market in protected animals. While the country is a member of a convention regulating international trade in endangered species, Thai law does not extend protection to many alien species.

Police also found a hornbill and a leopard, both protected by Thai law, which were packed in a box and were scheduled to be delivered to clients on Monday.

"We have been monitoring the location for a few days after the neighbors complained about the noise from the animals," Ek told reporters during the raid in a residential area of Bangkok's Klong Sam Wa district. "And if you looked through the gate, you could spot lions in the cage."

Montri told reporters the lions were shipped legally to Bangkok from Africa and were waiting to be moved to a zoo in Thailand's northeast. He did not explain why only 14 lions remained at his warehouse, while the documents showed he had imported 16.
The animals were confiscated and will be under the care of the Department of Natural Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation.

A Thai man spays water to clean the lion's enclosure after a raid at a zoo-like house on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand Monday, June 10, 2013. Thai police and forestry officials searched and seized a number of imported and endangered animals including 14 lions from Africa and arrested the house's owner. (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong)

Lions rest inside an enclosure after a raid at a zoo-like house on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand Monday, June 10, 2013. Thai police and forestry officials searched and seized a number of imported and endangered animals including 14 lions from Africa and arrested the house's owner. (AP Photos/Apichart Weerawong)

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