Woman survived after 'watching herself being eaten alive by chimpanzee'

A woman opened up about the horrifying moment she watched herself being "eaten alive" by an aggressive chimpanzee.

Back in 1994, Angelique Todd was working as a volunteer zoo keeper in Port Lympne Zoo Park near Folkestone, Kent.

During her time there, the researcher and biologist struck up "quite a good relationship" with a 33-year-old male chimp named Bustah.

However, the relationship took a sudden turn when Bustah grabbed Todd's coat and pulled her arm into the cage while she was feeding three chimps during lunchtime.

Speaking to Our World in 2004, Todd said: "Male chimpanzees in captivity in general, you have to be careful with them, they are one of the most dangerous animals in the zoo. They can be very aggressive, very feisty so you always are cautious."

Despite being on good terms with the chimp, Bustah was allegedly in a "dangerous" mood on the day he attacked the zookeeper.

"He saw his opportunity and he took it... these kinds of events, you go in slow motion, you're in shock, you're trying to survive,” Todd said.

The zookeeper thought that she could just take off her coat but that didn't work, so she tried to pull her arm back. However, the captive animal’s strength was too much for her.

"I couldn't provide any resistance, he was just so strong. It was pure survival," she said, adding that she was "watching [herself] being eaten alive".

Todd was attacked by the chimpanzee in 1994. Credit: Xia yuan / Getty

The primate bit off Todd's thumb and index finger and severed her arteries, causing her to lose a "huge amount of muscle mass"

"I still have tooth wounds on either side of my arm but this is much, much improved," she said during the documentary.

But in the aftermath of the horrific attack, the biologist revealed that she was not outraged with Bustah, and believes that he must've gotten "over-excited" from seeing her.

"I think what he wanted to do was just get hold of me," she said. "I think initially, it was just 'I can get hold of her, I can see a hole, there's a way that I can grab her' and that's what his initial reaction was.

"After he bit my thumb off, obviously the blood started spurting out, then it became kind of like a feeding frenzy," she added.

Todd continued to work at the zoo after the terrifying incident. Credit: Anne-Marie Frei / 500px / Getty

Todd continued to work at the zoo after the terrifying incident and often came face-to-face with the Bustah for "counseling" reasons. However, she revealed that the chimp was unable to look at her in the eyes after the incident.

“He just had his head on the ground all the time and whether one interprets that as remorse or that he knows that he did a bad thing, I don't know,” she said.

Despite sustaining life-changing injuries, Todd ended up pursuing a career as a biologist and researcher and worked in the African jungle for the World Wide Fund For Nature.

She later adopted the nickname "The Gorilla Whisperer" due to her closeness with the wild animals, and her inspiring work was featured in the nature documentary, My Gorilla Family.

Featured image credit: Guenterguni / Getty