Spencer Seker was teaching three years ago in Iraq. Back then if you remember everything was quieter and it was much safer than our current days.

One morning in Kurdistan (Northern Iraq) since his hotel was next to a zoo he knew the owner of, Spencer decided to go and check it out.

There he got into a room where a chimpanzee jumped straight into his arms. The chimp was alone, and there was no-one else in the room. He felt bad for the animal so he stayed the whole morning. He came back the next day, and the next day, and developed a special bond with the animal.



The way he describes it is that “Mano” was so human, he just couldn’t leave his new friend behind.



“Mano” was taken from Africa by traffickers and brought to Iraq. From Spencer’s perspective, “This is not right”.



After leaving Iraq he got Jane Goodall involved, and together they found a chimpanzee sanctuary in Africa for Spencer’s friend.



You would think that the story would finish here but by then ISIS was in Iraq, meaning the chimp was in a war zone.

Well, the story finished well, they got “Mano” out of Iraq and where he belongs but it took them three years.

The journey was so touching that now Spencer published a book about it.



It is important to raise awareness on the cruelty of traffickers and zoo in general.

So make sure to share.



YouTube video from “Your Morning” show.