On 13 July 1987, Monkey World's first chimpanzees Paddy (d. 2016), Busta, Jimmy (d. 2021), Micky, Sammy (d.2022), Taffy (d. 1989), Beth, Cindy and Zoe (d.2021) arrived at the park.

In April 1998, Monkey World rescued a young female chimpanzee named Trudy, who had been filmed being beaten by Mary Chipperfield.

In January 2008 the group performed what The Guardian called "the world's biggest rescue mission of its kind," when it saved 88 capuchin monkeys from a laboratory in Santiago, Chile, where some of the animals had been kept in solitary cages for up to twenty years.

[6] The operation was carried out at the request of the laboratory, and with help from the Chilean Air Force, who flew the animals to Bournemouth airport with special permission from the British government.

[8] In September 2018, Monkey World rescued a female chimpanzee named Toprish (d. 2023), who had been stolen from the wild for the illegal pet trade before being left at a zoo in Turkey.

In October that same year, Monkey World rescued another female chimpanzee named Naree, whom Alison Cronin first encountered with Jim in 2003.

[9] In February 2020, Monkey World rescued a 37-year-old chimpanzee named Kalu, who had been kept as a pet on a stud farm in South Africa until her owner's death.