Cancun chimp photo: A picture is worth a thousand questions

CollegeHumor recently ran a funny photo of a chimpanzee sitting on a street curb with a tourist in Cancun, Mexico, making an obscene gesture with both hands at the photographer.
The post gives no information about the photo (shown above), except a funny headline and caption. It says, “Chimp Didn’t Choose The Thug Life, The Thug Life Chose Him.” You can tell where it was taken because there’s a sign for the Barcelo Costa Cancun hotel.
A chimp in Cancun is odd, I thought. Plus, there’s a guy in the photo with his arm around the chimp. I wouldn’t do that. Chimps are strong and can get very aggressive. A woman had her face ripped off by a pet chimp in Stamford, Conn., in 2009.
I wanted to find out more about the photo and the chimp. I did a reverse image search on Google but couldn’t find the origin of the picture. It’s been posted many times online since at least May 2012. But as is usually the case with such viral photos, finding out where it came from can be very difficult.
The photo has been posted to websites like Daily Picks and Flicks, EgoTV and DayLOL.com.
A search of Cancun chimp yielded information about the ape.
Koko the chimp and her owner were detained and arrested by officials from Profepa, the environmental inspection agency for Mexico in September 2010, TripAdvisor reported. Koko had been a fixture on the Cancun scene, with tourists paying to take photos with the animal. The chimp was known for sharing drinks and smoking cigarettes.
Endless Tours provided more information about Koko and her owner in May 2011. Hopefully Koko is in a better place now.