It was not even the first email that orthopaedic surgeon Dr David Wheatley had received with non-human X-rays.

His neighbour Dr Greg Muir, a vet working with Rockhampton Zoo in Queensland, had previously sent over a handful of primate X-rays, and Dr Wheatley had provided some orthopaedic advice.

This particular scan was of a chimpanzee — later named Cassie — who had fractured her femur when her mother dropped her just hours after she was born.

But this time, Dr Muir asked Dr Wheatley to personally treat the chimp.