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Paintings by chimps at Adelaide Zoo will be auctioned to help pay for the primates' new enclosure.

Zoo officials hope the rare primate prints - painted over several months by three creative simians - will sell for thousands of dollars.

The chimps use their fingers and lips as brushes and smother paint on the canvases to create one-off pieces.

Zoos SA spokeswoman Belinda Redman said the art would be sold to raise funds for a new chimpanzee home at Monarto Zoo, which will be opened later this year.

Primate keeper Nicole Feeley said for the past year staff had been presenting canvases with non-toxic paint to the chimps.

A compilation of their works will be displayed at Monarto from next Sunday, when worldrenowned primatologist Jane Goodall will dedicate the new chimpanzee enclosure and open the art exhibition.

"It's just basically a behaviour enrichment activity for them so it's not something that they do every day because otherwise that would get boring," Ms Feeley said.

"We don't train them to do it otherwise it's not an enrichment activity. We basically show them and they watch us do it ... it's quite a funny thing to watch them enjoy painting and getting paint everywhere and getting into it."

Budding artist Tsotsi has taken a particular liking to his craft.

"Tsotsi is the main chimp that really seems to get into the painting and the others will either take it or leave it," Ms Feeley said.

"There's one thing that they painted in the den that looks like a love heart. I say Tsotsi did it for me."

Two artworks will go under the hammer at a zoo function on October 31, while several others will be sold in a silent auction lasting until December 31.

"We hope the painting will attract bids in the thousands of dollars range," Ms Redman said.