The grounds of Chimp Haven in Louisiana are home to two chimps. The sanctuary has sent many former research chimp to retire.
Images provided by Chimp HavenThis week has been dramatic for two Chimpanzees named Pancake and Huey.
For over two decades, Pancake and Huey have been devoted to each other. They got loaded onto a truck at a research facility in Texas, where they have lived since they were young. They traveled for hours to a place in Louisiana where the hoots of hundreds of Chimpanzees echo over pine trees.
The Chimp Haven welcome center is where the two Chimps are now hanging out, it is also the official retirement home for research chimp owned or supported by the federal government.
Amy Fultz was working at a Texas research facility in the 1990s when she dreamed of creating a sanctuary for retired research chimps.
I think we have all aged in different ways. Fultz says that Pancake and he have put on a bit of weight. After twenty years of being together, it makes sense to have them as the Chimps.
The government has entered a new phase in its effort to retire its former research chimps after the arrival of Huey and Pancake. All of the Chimpanzees that were deemed eligible have been sent to this sanctuary.
The majority of the government-supported Chimpanzees at research facilities have chronic, progressive health problems that make them too fragile and ill to ever move.
Nine of these remaining chimp are probably healthy enough to relocate to Chimp Haven, but they are not because they are part of a socially-bonded pair with another sicker chimp. The companions of the sicker chimps may make the move when the sicker chimps die.
The process of sending Chimpanzees to the sanctuary is done, but there is still a group that is in a tight social bond that will be reconsidered when we can.
Some animal welfare advocates are questioning how the decisions have been made. They say more chimp should be given the chance to live the rest of their lives at a sanctuary.
If you look at the medical summaries for some of the Chimpanzees, a lot of them will say that moving them will cause a sudden heart attack. At 16 years old, you could die from a heart attack. That isn't a reason to keep them in the labs.
35 Chimpanzees are at the Alamogordo Primate Facility in New Mexico, and the National Institute of Health wants them to stay there.
The three oldest Chimp Haven Chimps are all 61 years old and are believed to have been captured in the wild in the 1960's. She moved from a research facility to the sanctuary when she was 50.
Chimpanzees are at Chimp Haven. The sanctuary has hundreds of primate.
Images provided by Chimp HavenSince 2015, the National Institute for Health has been trying to retire all of its research Chimpanzees. The agency had already reduced this type of research with Chimpanzees, which are close biological relatives to humans.
Francis Collins was the director of the National Institute of Health when he said that their likeness to humans made them uniquely valuable for certain types of research.
The effort to move former research chimps to the sanctuary became complicated because many of them have diseases that could be worsened by life changes.
Anderson says that the transfer process can be dangerous because of the physical stress of the trip on a truck, as well as social adjustments to a new community.
The agency developed a standard way of assessing the health of Chimpanzees, which included a review byNIH veterinarians whenever a research facility determined that a Chimpanzees was too fragile to move.
According to Fultz, an average of 36NIH Chimps a year have been transferred to Chimp Haven.
330 Chimpanzees live on a 200 acres property with natural, wooded areas surrounding them. The staff of more than 50 employees care for the Chimps and enrich their lives.
Chimpanzees in the wild live in groups of 20 to over 100. Chimp Haven has an average group size of 11. Fultz says that they do work towards integrating the Chimpanzees into larger groups.
Sometimes Chimpanzees know each other and sometimes they don't; for example, Pancake knows some Chimpanzees at the sanctuary and Huey has a son living there.
Chimp Haven and the sending facility have to coordinate a lot of the social planning.
A primate is at Chimp Haven in Louisiana.
Images provided by Chimp HavenChimpanzees are usually housed in smaller social groups. Chimpanzees can live in large enclosures with access to the outdoors and climbing equipment. Care providers at research institutions can become quite attached to the Chimps if they have known them for decades.
Fultz was asked how manyNIH Chimpanzees would come to the sanctuary in the next couple of years. They make the decisions about who can come. We will wait for their decisions in the future.
Conlee believes that the government has a legal obligation to retire chimp to the federal sanctuary and not leave them at research facilities, that is one of the issues being litigated.
Chimp Haven has the expertise to provide that higher level of welfare. The cost, in addition to the welfare of the Chimpanzees, is also present.
Chimp Haven costs less to support than a research facility as the sanctuary needs to raise some of its own funds. The average cost of an animal at the sanctuary is around $26 per day, compared to around $124 per day at a research facility.
A recent census of the Chimpanzees in the United States found over 1,300 of them living in research facilities beyond the ones that take care of theNIH Chimpanzees are a significant fraction of the Chimpanzees in the United States.
The Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Georgia has 30 Chimpanzees, none of which are managed by the National Institute of Health. According to Lisa Newbern, all of them live in social groups and are not involved in research studies. While the center does evaluate opportunities to donate chimp to zoos or other appropriate places, Newbern said, they also have a limited number of animals that are likely unsuitable for donation.
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