Health Update: Ray

By Gregory Rodriguez

Chimps are amazing animals. Not only are they our close relatives but they have interesting ways they go about taking care of themselves when they are wounded.

Meet Ray

Ray is a 14 year-old chimpanzee who resides in the Chateau with 18 other chimps – that’s a big group of chimps!

Recently he cut his lower lip; we don’t know how he did it but he presented the injury to staff. Which got us curious about just how long chimps could heal versus humans. I had the opportunity to learn interesting chimp facts about wound recovery by interviewing Dr. Lauri Crimmins, the chimp vet.

Lip Service

Ray loves to train, which for a lot of caregivers is a relief! Training allows caregivers to physically examine chimps like Ray for lacerations and other wounds. Dr. Lauri was the first to notice Ray had gotten the laceration on his bottom lip. The cut was 3.5cm (1.3in) or about the length of one grape!

One interesting chimp fact about Ray, is that he really doesn’t need the types of medication we humans would need for such a wound. In fact, Dr. Lauri didn’t prescribe him any. After a day of observation, she saw the wound healing without further infection!

Speedy Recovery  

Another interesting chimp fact is that his healing process is a lot quicker than ours.

Chimps are known to care for each other when they are wounded, and their regular grooming habits allow them to keep wounds clean. Dr. Lauri closely monitors the chimps in her care. She even took a couple pictures of Ray’s healing process! Ray’s bottom lip took about one month to fully heal.

Genetic Cousins

Here’s another fun chimp fact that helps put Ray’s rapid healing process into perspective. Although humans share about 98.7% of their genetic makeup with chimpanzees, we still don’t share that healing factor that allows them to recover faster than us! If only I could have healed my broken arm as quickly as Ray healed his lip…I probably would have been more of a daredevil though!

You can help make sure Ray and our other chimps heal in a comfortable environment by donating today!