Male and Female Chimpanzees Reunited, at Last

Project Chimps is working to create a fission-fusion society for former research chimpanzees who are now living in sanctuary.  But recreating the social structure of wild chimpanzees in a captive setting is no easy feat.

It begins by reuniting male and female chimpanzees who were artificially separated into same-sex groups in the lab.

Creating a fission-fusion society

In what sociologists call a “fission-fusion” society, chimps have choices about who they consider family and friends. They can decide who they want to eat dinner with and where they want to make their daily nest. They also can decide where to go for some alone time.

In the wild, these societies include 50 to 150 chimpanzees in the larger group. Individuals will then migrate from one family subgroup to another when their needs or interests warrant the trip.

I did not fully appreciate how complex this arrangement can be to replicate in a sanctuary. On paper, it looks easy: build a really big habitat, bring in an expert team of behaviorists, put a bunch of small groups of chimps inside, and watch everyone become a big happy family.

I was wrong. It’s complicated.

Project Chimps’ forested, 6-acre Peachtree Habitat first opened in January, 2018. Shortly after, we moved two small groups of chimps into the sanctuary’s Cedar Tree Villa to begin co-habituating: a group of six males led by Bo and a group of nine females led by Latricia.

Our socialization team then got to work slowly introducing the males and females in supervised, one-on-one sessions.

All 15 of these chimpanzees are in their teens (young adults in chimp years) and it appeared that few of them, if any, had lived with the opposite sex before.

 The chimps meet one-on-one

The early stages of the introductions went very  slowly as each male-female pair (54 possible combinations) met multiple times – first seeing one another from separate rooms and, eventually, coming together in the same room.

Our team experienced a few hurdles along the way that brought them back to the drawing board. They found solutions and the introductions moved forward. Then backward. And then they moved forward again.

One-on-one intros became two-on-two, then three-on-three. And finally, this week, all 15 former research chimpanzees were in one large room together.

Pant-hoots and screams of excitement

It was not a quiet day here at Project Chimps. There were screams of excitement mixed with anxiety and threats. An invitation to play turned into a squabble. A lover’s flirtations were interrupted by jealous intervention.

Mike Seres is our Manager of Chimpanzee Socialization and heads our introduction program with the support of a few of our chimpanzee caregivers.

Mike stayed with the chimps all night on their first night together. He did not sleep; he did not leave. He was there to observe and reassure them until the he was relieved by another team member the next morning. In the wee hours of the morning, Mike went home to sleep and, finally, the chimps slept too.

After an exhausting 24 hours of group interactions, the entire villa went into a deep slumber with males and females sleeping in small groups together. It was the first major step forward toward our vision of a fission-fusion society at Project Chimps.

Into the forest, together

We kept the chimps inside Cedar Tree Villa for two days to observe their group interactions. On day three, it was time to let the group outside to explore the forest of the Peachtree Habitat.

The morning meeting for the team included discussing various “what if” scenarios. What if someone doesn’t want to go back into the group home? What if someone doesn’t let another chimp come home? What if they all get along and become a happy family?

I watched the event from the roof of a nearby villa. I couldn’t see the door open, but I could hear the chimps. The sounds of excitement were ear-piercing. The chimps in every villa responded with loud hoots and screams, not knowing quite what was going on with their neighbors.

And then the males and females of Cedar Tree poured out across the yard.

Excitement and a little mayhem ensued

One…three…twelve chimps came running across the habitat towards the play structures and the chimps in the other villas.

What was once Charisse’s preferred post was also Jason’s. They had never been outdoors together at the same time and a playful squabble ensued as to who would get to sit on the post. Charisse won.

The confusion from the other villa was clear. The other chimps had never seen these two groups out in the habitat at the same time. The cries of surprise were deafening.

The Cedar Tree chimps answered back but their principal focus was one another. Buttercup made a gesture to play toward Jason but was perceived as teasing, so a chase ensued.

Jennifer thought Stirlene was heading her way to flirt and offered him a toothy fear grimace. He continued toward her but turned sideways at the last moment to give her a bump with his rump. Stirlene kept moving as if to say, “Nope, not interested, but we’re cool.”

Settling into a new “normal”

Eventually everyone found their spot in the habitat and began to forage and crunch on nuts scattered for them by caregivers earlier in the day.

Emma, the perpetual introvert, found her own spot out of the view of any other chimp. She sat on a bench alternating between contented food grunts and dramatic alarm calls.

It was a big day for Emma and she clearly needed the alone time. But it didn’t last. Eddie found her a little later and together they looped back to Cedar Tree Villa as the temperatures started to drop in the wintery afternoon.

All’s well that ends well

In the end, none of the “what ifs” came to pass. Twelve of the 15 chimps went outdoors and all 12 headed home before the dinner bell rang. They rejoined Bo, Genesis and Gracie inside and all 15 chimps settled down for the evening.

This first integration process took nine months from start to finish. Caregiver Tawnya, who worked side-by-side with Mike, beamed with pride as she told me that she felt like she had “birthed a villa.”

Next, Marlon Meets Jurita

Introductions are now underway in Chimps Ahoy Villa with Marlon’s group of five males and Jurita’s group of ten females.

When our new “group” building is finished in early 2019, the integrated groups in Cedar Tree and Chimps Ahoy will move in together to form a family unit of 31.

This is just the beginning of creating a fission-fusion society at Project Chimps – for all 200 chimps that will eventually call this place home.

We’re happy that, today, we have 15 chimpanzees living as one big, mostly happy, new family.