Posts Tagged ‘apes’
Recent chimpanzee deaths caused by environmental pathogen
Project Chimps recently shared the sad news of two deaths of chimpanzees at its sanctuary in Morganton, Georgia. The organization fears there may be more deaths to follow as the cause is now known to be the bacteria Yersinia. Executive Director Ali Crumpacker reports: “My team has been under a tremendous amount of stress to…
Read MoreChimps Ahoy: Hierarchy and Roles – Part 1 of 3
Chimpanzees are complex. Their social group dynamics thrive off the strength of their interconnecting web of relationships known as hierarchy. At Project Chimps, caregivers use three “levels” of hierarchy to help them discuss such a dynamic web: high-ranking, mid-ranking, and low-ranking.
Read MoreChimps Ahoy: Hierarchy and Roles – Part 2 of 3
The Chimps Ahoy group was really fun to watch! A majority of my time was spent watching a lot of grooming and napping—the two most common affiliative behaviors. This may seem like an uneventful behavior to some, but I got plenty of information on the relationships that the chimps had with each other.
Read MoreChimps Ahoy: Hierarchy and Roles – Part 3 of 3
From the beginning of my internship, we had our eyes on Justin and Rocko as possible enforcer candidates. Justin and Rocko are very dominant chimps that would usually be found around Kirk to show their high rank status.
Read MoreMeet Jennifer: An Unsung Hero
Jenny isn’t one of our most famous residents, but we wanted to bring her into the spotlight. If you read on, you’ll find out why we consider Jenny a chimp hero!
Read MoreHealth Update: Latricia (Jan 2021)
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.
Read MoreHealth Update: Gertrude (Jan 2021)
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.
Read MoreCoronavirus Response Update
As the threat of the Coronavirus continues, Project Chimps’ executive director, Ali Crumpacker, outlines more of the measures we are taking to ensure the short-term and long-term health of the chimps and our Project Chimps family.
Here are some of the things we are doing now, with the caveat that the situation is extremely fluid and that some of these actions may be revised in the days and weeks to come, in keeping with government and industry recommendations.
Read MoreChimps Leo & Ray’s Excellent Adventure
The day started out routinely, with our team checking on the
chimps, feeding their breakfast and cleaning their enclosures. But then the radios start squawking as the chatter between caregivers becomes an excited cacophony.
The message finally became clear: “Leo is outside!”
Chimpanzee Caregiver Samantha Jones recounts the story of former research chimps Leo and Ray’s brave first steps into the forest at Project Chimps.
Read MoreFocus on Chimps
Project Chimps sanctuary now hosts a one-day wildlife photography workshop. In the first session, held in Oct. 2019, eight participants get to went behind the scenes to photograph chimpanzees in the scenic Blue Ridge Mountains.
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