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Last Saturday, we had the opportunity to travel to South Arica to visit a chimpanzee sanctuary called Chimp Eden.
This facility has three enclosures in which several different chimpanzee social groups live. Visitors are able to view chimpanzees up close and personal. Of course the chimpanzees are behind a fence as they can be quite dangerous. Although chimpanzees are not naturally vicious animals, males will aggressive defend their territory, even against humans. Therefore, Chimp Eden is a “hands-off” facility, in which there is minimal interaction between the chimps and humans. The chimpanzees do respond to their names and come to the fence several times a day to be given fruit, but even staff members do not generally enter the enclosures. This type of system allows the chimpanzees to live in a setting which mimics as closely as possible their natural environment. It is also less stressful for the animals, as chimpanzees are quite smart (as intelligent as a six year old human child) and thus recognize they are being watched.
This facility was started because many chimpanzees need to be rescued and rehabilitated. Chimpanzees, which only live in the forests of equatorial Africa, are being displaced because much of their natural habitat is being destroyed at an alarming rate. Their forests are being cut down for several reasons, including the need for more farm land for the ever increasing human population, as well as logging for the production of firewood and wood products. In addition, many chimpanzees are captured and sold in the exotic pet trade, or to entertainment companies to perform in circuses and for television.
Chimpanzees and bonobos (also sometimes called pygmy chimps) are the closest living relatives of humans. Our two evolutionary lineages split from a common ancestor as recently as six million years ago. We are so close in fact, that chimpanzees and humans share over 96% of our DNA. Because of this close evolutionary relationship we, as humans, can learn much about ourselves from studying the biology and behavior of our animal “cousins”.
4 comments:
Always found chimpanzees to be very interesting but ever since that woman was attacked last year, very scary. It certainly has never been the animals fault only man's. It's good that they have places such as Chimp Eden to protect them.
Very nice entry with lots of well-explained info and cool photos. I like the last picture, where the closest chimp looks like he is thinking, what are these people doing? as he scratches his chin, very human...
How fortunate you are to have visited Chimp Eden! My enjoyment of the sanctuary remains strictly vicarious by means of the addictive "Escape to Chimp Eden" TV series and the Jane Goodall Institute/Chimp Eden website, which offers daily observation notes, among other treats.
One of the Chimps at Chimp Eden was a little disturbed from being mistreated for many years. He actually bit off the index fingure of our guide at Chimp Eden. As it turns out, this Chimp, named Cosi, was related to the chimp that attacked the woman in CT. They were both bred by someone living in Montana. Obviously, chimps are wild animals and have not been domesticated and should not be keep as pets or as "friends", as was the case in CT.
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