Zoe goes wild

Ball is known for her glamourous looks and celebrity lifestyle, but she left it all behind in England to help a little known conservation charity in Africa.

The radio and television presenter travelled to Zambia with the Tusk Trust and was one of a team who moved orphaned and abandoned chimpanzees from their temporary sanctuary to a new purpose-built 2,000-acre forest reserve.

It was a job she had begged to do.

"I had seen a film comedian Alan Davies had made for ITV's This Morning on a cheetah project in Namibia when I was on the show with Jamie Theakston. I had mentioned to someone in the green room afterwards that if they ever needed anyone to do another film, I would do it," she said.

It was perfect timing as the Trust was looking for a celebrity to present a series of films about the Chimfunshi chimpanzee and wildlife orphanage set up by Dave and Sheila Siddle.

The couple began the orphanage after rescuing Pal, a baby chimp who had been confiscated from poachers and handed over to them, severely malnourished, wounded and close to death.

Once their success in saving Pal became known, the couple were frequently given animals, as there is nowhere else to take confiscated and rescued chimps in Zambia.

Despite the desperate plight of the chimpanzee in Africa they are not indigenous and cannot be released into the wild.

Today there are 70 chimps at Chimfunshi.

Zoe said: "I begged and begged to do this film but then when I got out there I was worried the chimps would hate me and not come anywhere near me. I thought they would have to cut the film together with me standing on one side and the chimps on the other."

When she arrived the orphanage, she was shocked by what she found. Tired, hungry and emotional, she was met by the sight of rickety concrete buildings in a courtyard full of geese, peacocks, monkeys and even a hippo.

When she found three huge spiders in her bed, she broke down and wept. But when she walked into the bush and met her first chimps, who instantly clung around her waist, she soon knew everything was going to go well.

The project was the largest single relocation of chimpanzees ever undertaken and was funded with a £100,000 grant from the Tusk Trust.

Eight South African vets oversaw the moving of 56 animals, who were the victim of poachers and smugglers who hoped to sell them to pet shops, from the Chimfundhi orphanage to the reserve.

Zoe built up a close bond with some of the animals during her ten-day trip, particularly a baby chimp called ET, who was her favourite.

He had lost a finger, thought to have been shot off by poachers who killed his mother.

She said: "The chimps smell like fruit. It is quite surprising. They smell like slightly rotting fruit, it is a distinct chimpanzee smell, a lovely smell.

"They are incredibly strong when they get big. They probably have seven times our strength. I thought chimps stayed small but when they are big they are like gorillas."

More tears flowed for Zoe when it came to say goodbye to the animals as they happily ran off into their new home. She was so moved she became a patron of the Tusk Trust.

Zoe travelled to Zambia with Charles Mayhew, the co-founder and trustee of the Tusk Trust, who until recently lived in Sussex.

He said: "Zoe chose herself for the job which was wonderful. Most of the celebrities that help us are akin to older generations but Zoe is really popular among younger people which is great."

Charles and Zoe spent ten days in Zambia in April.

He said: "The amazing thing about the work of Dave and Sheila is that they were told it was impossible to get unrelated orphaned chimps to form cohesive communities and they have proved them wrong."

Speaking to This Morning presenters Judy Finnigan and Richard Madeley, Zoe, who is married to DJ Norman Cook, aka Fatboy Slim, said she discovered she was pregnant on the day she returned from Zambia.

Now five months pregnant, she showed off her now-obvious bump with excitement and pride.

With typical frankness she said she thinks the baby was conceived in Mexico and laughed at the side-effects of pregnancy she has been experiencing for the first time.

"I have creams for everything", she said.

But with a resigned sadness she told how her enthusiasm for impending motherhood got her into trouble recently when she accidentally told a national newspaper journalist that she is expecting a boy, will probably call him Woody after the film director Woody Allen, and is going to have the birth at the private Portland Hospital in London rather than an NHS one.

She said: "I had just had my 21-week scan and was very excited, I had forgotten the journalist was coming to interview me. I ran into my house, my brother was there, and I just said everything about the baby.

"I asked her not to use what she had heard because it was a very personal and private moment but she did and I was very angry and upset when I saw it. I just have a big mouth.

"I'm only five months. I still have a long way to go with this baby and anything can happen."

The public can help support the Chimfunshi Chimps by adopting one of the animals for £25.

Donors receive a photograph of "their" chimp, a Tusk T-shirt and a year's membership of the Tusk Trust.

For more information call 020 7978 7100 or go to website www.tusk.org