Going Ape: Cute Chimps Get Up To Mischief In Guinea

Cute baby apes hang upside down while older chimps get to grips with swinging from trees.

The animals were rescued by the Chimpanzee Conservation Center - which serves as a sanctuary and a rehabilitation project in the West African country.

The playful apes were taken-in as babies after being orphaned because of chimpanzee trafficking.

Usually their mothers have been captured to be sold as pets or have been shot so that they can used in bushmeat.

French photographers Séverine and David Greyo flew to Guinea in 2013 to carry out voluntary work at the sanctuary.

David, 41, had mixed emotions on the visit.

He said: "At first I was very sad because they are victims of trafficking and should be living in nature.

"They have the same intelligence as a six-year-old child. so they understand a lot of things and we can have a real contact with them and see their different personalities.

"The chimps are also impressive because of their force and dangerousness.

"When we see them in a group in nature we don't know how people can still have one of them as pet or be eating them.

"Each year new young chimps are confiscated by the authorities and brought to the sanctuary.

"We estimate that for poaching one baby like them, 10 other chimps have been killed. This trafficking is a threat that weighs down on the wild chimpanzees in Africa."

The Chimpanzee Conservation Center is based in Guinea's Haut-Niger National Park, and has the ultimate goal of releasing the animals back into the wild.