MONKEY'S UNCLE; ZOO ADOPTS BABY CHIMP.

Byline: Steve Carney Staff Writer

After three surprise births of chimps, the Los Angeles Zoo was preparing for today's arrival of a fourth - but this one by jet, not the stork.

Born just 10 weeks ago, Zoe the chimp was abandoned immediately by her mother at Lion Country Safari, a 600-acre preserve in West Palm Beach, Fla.

She needed a new home, and the L.A. Zoo accepted the fuzzy bundle.

``Since we have two baby chimps here, and since we have the facilities and expertise, they decided to send her here,'' said Judy Shay, Los Angeles Zoo spokeswoman. ``She was one of those surprise babies, too.''

Zoe's mother, Doll, a 31-year-old former laboratory chimp and mother of seven others, supposedly had a tubal ligation in 1997, said Fred Volpe, director of marketing for Lion Country Safari. But then Zoe came along. When she arrived Aug. 9, Doll inexplicably refused to have anything to do with her.

The L.A. Zoo has 5-month-old Jake and 6-month-old Jean, both fathered by Shaun, an adult chimpanzee whose vasectomy obviously wasn't successful. Another of Shaun's unexpected babies, Toshi, was killed in the summer by older chimpanzees' roughhousing. Fear of a similar tragedy persuaded zoo keepers to raise Jean, Jake and Zoe apart from the older chimps.

Officials at both zoos said it will be better for Zoe to grow up with Jean and Jake than alone with human handlers. Socializing early with other chimps will help her get along with her own species later and someday be a mother herself, said Michael Dee, general curator of the Los Angeles Zoo.

``We have two keepers anxious to get her. It's really going to be a kick watching them work with three chimps,'' he said. ``It's like triplets. A lot of attention has to be paid to these guys.''

Zoe will arrive in style in the cabin of a Spirit Airlines jet, with her fare donated by the Fort Lauderdale-based carrier.

The little simian and her entourage will leave Fort Lauderdale at 12:30 p.m. and arrive in Los Angeles about 9:10 p.m. ``They have a four-hour layover - poor chimp - in Detroit,'' Shea said.

Because the infant Zoe has to be hand-fed, she couldn't make the trip to Los Angeles the way most exotic animals would, isolated in the cargo hold. Spirit received permission from the Federal Aviation Administration to bring her in the cabin.

``She's as cute as a button, as far as chimpanzees go,'' said Mitch Pizik, Spirit's vice president of public relations. ``You don't get an opportunity like this often. We decided to have a little fun with it.''

There will be palm trees and African drummers at the departure gate. Zoe will be accompanied be two ``baby-sitters'' from the zoo in what Pizik called tribal gear - ``a lot of skin, a lot of grass, a lot of bones.'' The flight crew will serve animal crackers and chocolate-covered bananas to other passengers on Zoe's flight, who also will get commemorative T-shirts.

In the event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure, other passengers need not fear that Zoe will swing from one oxygen mask to the next. She'll be riding in a plexiglass carrier, Pizik said.

Dee said Zoe will be quarantined for a month in Los Angeles, then join her new playmates. She will stay for at least 18 months, then perhaps be sent to a zoo elsewhere to live, he said.

``That first six months is critical,'' Dee said. ``I think they'll be fine. They'll grow up treating each other like chimps. We want her to feel like she's a chimp and not a person.''

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Photo: Zoe, a 10-week-old chimp rejected by her mother at a Florida animal park, is being flown to the Los Angeles Zoo today.