In what is believed to be the first recorded kidnap and ransom involving apes, a gang in central Africa has abducted three chimpanzees and demanded a six-figure payment from their shelter to ensure their safe release. The criminals even sent chilling “proof of life” videos to the shelter in the south of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from which the chimps were abducted during a night raid two weeks ago, The Times reports. All three animals were rescued from the wildlife trafficking trade, in which collectors pay top dollar for live exotic creatures or their body parts. One of the videos sent to the shelter shows 5-year-old female Monga with her arms tied above her head as younger abductees Hussein and César try to hide from their captors. “You can see how terrified they are,” said Franck Chantereau, founder of the Jack primate rehabilitation center in Lubumbashi, where the animals were taken. “They had all been given a second chance, but now this fresh horror.”