Sophia

Sophia may be one of the younger chimps at the sanctuary, but she’s also full of attitude and spunk! She’s spent the last few years learning to stand her ground among the older members of her group. Just like younger siblings learn to speak up or get left out, Sophia learned she needs to do the same!

One example of this newfound confidence is when there was some drama in the group at breakfast, causing one bag of chow (a high value item) to fall to the ground. Sophia glanced over at her groupmates to make sure they were all distracted before hurrying to grab the chow and run outside. From there, Sophia curled up on the ground as if she was taking a nap, but really she was hiding the bag of chow under her head! She was able to eat about half of it in secret before the other chimps discovered her and took the remaining chow.

Sophia has been focusing more on her relationships with the other chimps in her group, which is always positive. She and Krystal spend a lot of time embracing or grooming each other. She’s also become closer friends with Torian and rank-rising Tristen — recently, Sophia and Tristen were having so much fun that they refused to come down for their morning chow, choosing instead to groom each other for over twenty minutes!