St. Louis Man Attacked by Chimp in Africa Improving | News

JOHANNESBURG (AP) -The uncle of an American graduate student mauled by chimpanzees at a South African sanctuary says the man’s parents are flying from the U.S. to visit their critically injured son.
Carl Oberle of suburban St. Louis says his 26-year-old nephew,
Andrew Oberle, remained hospitalized on Saturday.

Doctors are reporting improvement in the condition of an American graduate student attacked by chimps he was studying in South Africa.
In a statement, Mediclinic Nelspruit said Andrew F. Oberle, who had been in critical condition since Thursday’s attack, was stable enough Sunday for doctors to bring him into the operating room to clean and stitch his multiple bites and attend to fractures and other injuries.

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Oberle remains in intensive care, but is no longer in critical condition.
Two chimpanzees at the Jane Goodall Institute Chimpanzee Eden in eastern South Africa pulled Oberle under a fence into their enclosure.

Oberle, 26, is studying anthropology at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He was on his second study visit to the sanctuary for abused and orphaned chimpanzees.

Officials say the University of Texas at San Antonio anthropology graduate student was badly injured Thursday when two chimpanzees pulled him under a fence. The attack happened while he was giving a lecture at the Jane Goodall Institute Chimpanzee Eden.
Carl Oberle described chimps as his nephew’s “passion” and says he knew each animal by its “name and face.”

A conservationist who runs the sanctuary says investigators will have to wait until Oberle has recovered enough to provide details to try to determine what prompted the attack.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)