Chimps, like humans, enjoy a good movie. Their abilities to comprehend films helps us understand chimpanzees and how they think.

Frances Millgard celebrated an extraordinary milestone in an extraordinary place. Frances, a resident of Young Harris, Ga., spent her 103rd birthday getting her first up close and personal look at chimpanzees during a tour of the Project Chimps sanctuary on March 7. She and her son, Jack, were given a guided tour around the forested habitat, stopping to view chimps at observation windows.

Napping is a daily routine for chimpanzees. Every day is different depending on their activities. By observing their napping behaviors, we are able to understand the chimps a bit better.

Every chimp living at Project Chimps is unique. They all have different personalities, each has their own particular routines, and they even have various tastes for foods. However, one thing all chimps can agree on; white grape juice is not the same as red grape juice.

Where might you find a chimp dentist? One is closer than you might think! Like a lot volunteers at Project Chimps, Dr. Joe Dufresne wears many hats. On an average day, you might find him painting or helping with some other type of maintenance work, and he has even served as the driver of the transport truck that brings new chimpanzees to the sanctuary.

There is normally not a lot of space in this area of the ear so when it fills, it can be very tight and cause an uncomfortable amount of pressure. If due to trauma, there could be bacteria trapped inside and potentially lead to an abscess. As the body tries to fix itself, it sends a lot of its helper white blood cells and tries to remove the blood and repair the aural hematoma.

Just like humans decorating a bedroom, chimps create their own spaces too. Each chimp has a specific preference when creating their nests. Knowing this helps us understand unique qualities among chimps and their habits.

In early November Trish’s swell became quite enlarged and as stated, that is not unusual; a very large swell can be natural depending on where the chimp is in her cycle. But Trish stopped eating some of her food, which was our first sign that she was not ok. Upon closer inspection, her swelling was not even, and we believed she had an abscess.

Gertrude has a history of abscesses (four have been observed since arriving at Project Chimps in 2016) and they have always resolved on their own without further intervention. But four in four years is too frequent to be coincidence and the pattern had to be investigated.

Chimpanzee populations are now under more distress than ever before. A population that once totaled more than 1 million now teeters around 200,000. What can you do to help?

If you know anything about chimps, you know you can’t make a chimp do anything it doesn’t want to do! If you need to, for example, listen to Kareem’s heartbeat with a stethoscope, that is absolutely not happening unless Kareem wants you to. This is where Positive Reinforcement Training, or PRT, comes into play.

Precious arrived in sanctuary in 2018. During her exit exam from the New Iberia Research Center, her diagnostics showed that she was in the early stages of chronic kidney decline. We vowed then to offer Precious whatever she needed to be comfortable in sanctuary as her condition progressed.

Jamie is spry for her age. While she is active and agile, the team noticed that something was just a little off – she was drinking a lot of water. While subtle as that symptom might be, it indicated there could be something going on that needed to be investigated.

We don’t take the chimps to the vet, I go to them – kinda like a house call. It makes it a little harder to know what they think about my sudden appearance in their space, and I sure hope the chimps learn to like me.

Chimpanzees eat their food in multiple ways. Each method is unique to that chimp. This helps humans learn more about the chimpanzee as an individual.