The group is ready to go outside for the first time together! I wonder if Rosemary will finally be brave enough to go into the habitat with the support of the boys?

Waking the villa up after their first night fully together is another one of those moments that you aren’t ever quite sure what you are about to walk into. Will they have slept peacefully, or will they have stayed up all night getting to know one another and investigating other’s nesting habits and nighttime behaviors

The day started off with much brainstorming and reflection on how the introductions had gone so far. To recap, we have one group of mixed chimps and two groups of unmixed chimps. We could keep going by adding individuals to the mixed groups, but that could have resulted in anxiety in the separated groups as their numbers dwindled and all the higher-ranking chimps departed. Without the democracy of their leaders, the remaining chimps could have gotten out of hand – like unsupervised teenagers.

Missed the earlier entries? Start here. Eight chimps are happily living in a mixed group now– Lindsey, Roxy, Kyrstin, Tabby, Luke, Kirk, Armond, and Greg! Our next goal was to get Rocko added in. The chimps had other ideas. Rocko was not sure about coming into the mix. All five of the remaining males were…

With our now united group of 6 chimps (Lindsey, Roxy, Kyrstin, Luke, Kirk, and Greg), it was time to bring in the enforcer, Armond. Armond is, well, the bouncer, the tough guy, the one you don’t want to mess with. It was important to get him into the mix and accepted by the small group of females before we add any more.

None of us were expecting it to happen, including Greg! Greg recently turned 40 years old and has never lived with females. What would an older gentleman like him think of the fairer sex when they came together?

Luke hasn’t had enough of the females yet – he wanted a lot more! As the chimps learn what we are up to with the intros, some volunteer to participate and others skedaddle out of the area, content to be last if possible. Luke very firmly insisted that he was going to be at the head of the pack. Our alpha, Captain Kirk, decided to join him.

During howdies, high-ranking female Lindsey wanted to make sure that high-ranking male Luke understood that she was the boss so she tossed some, well, a really nasty handful of debris, at him through the mesh. Luke decided that he couldn’t let that pass but chose a bit of a milder approach and just gave her a good stream of spit.

Cute freckle faced Neal is the youngest chimp in this group of boys – and therefore the most likely to want to play with new friends. As anticipated, he was a bit rowdy when the girls moved into Chimps Ahoy.

Maverick seems to be a real Casanova. But he picked the most unlikely female to woo, in my opinion. Maverick has come a long way since his arrival at Project Chimps last fall. He had a bit of trouble accepting fellow male chimp Justin and needed Kirk (the alpha), Armond (the enforcer) and the sensible…

Nine months into the pandemic, it is clear that Covid-19 will be a factor long-term. That leaves sanctuaries like Project Chimps to make the decision around moving forward safely or remaining at a standstill. We have made the decision to move forward-safely. We continue to watch the bulletins coming to us from the Zoo and…

Search the internet for “chimpanzee life expectancy” and you may read that chimpanzees live 50-60 years in captivity and a little less in the wild, or something to this effect. Now search human life expectancy and you may get lost in the search results as it varies vastly among countries and cultures, but you may find that some humans can expect to live to 100-115 years now!

We have recently partnered with The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) on a new venture called the Chimpanzee SAFE Program. Chimp SAFE (Saving Animals From Extinction) is a collaborative effort between zoos, sanctuaries and various field partners to raise awareness of the conservation status of chimpanzees while also promoting efforts to fight the extinction of a species that we all love.

Chimpanzees see all the colors that humans see. While the chimpanzees at Project Chimps do not communicate with sign language, we know from other facilities that chimps have signed their recognition of objects, designs, and colors in murals painted in their bedrooms. We have done a few, but now are inviting YOU to participate as well.

A chimp that is playing and having a good time builds excitement levels that reach a certain threshold where it sometimes becomes aggressive behavior. Play then turns into chimps smacking each other. They are so strong that when their hands come down for a smack, they may nick each other. Sometimes a bigger wound can occur – like a fingernail might get pulled off.