Posts Tagged ‘great apes’
A Harvest for chimpanzees
There’s no denying that chimps love to eat! Here at Project Chimps, their diet consists of fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. In addition to daily breakfast and dinner services where each chimp gets a full meal, caretakers also scatter different food items like cabbage, nuts, seeds, carrots and tomatoes over their enclosures for lunch and dinner enrichment. This allows the chimps to engage in one of their natural behaviors — foraging.
Read MoreGrand Opening of the Chimp Trails
The chimp trail system has been many years in the making. Its strengths lie in its accessibility, safety, and navigability.
Read MoreOutside Looking In: Enrichment
We all have these preconceived notions of what we think we know about chimps, myself included. It’s not our fault, really; we only know what we are taught. But trust me when I say that no carefully crafted nature documentary or Hollywood film could do them any justice.
Read MoreAural Hematomas in Chimps
There is normally not a lot of space in this area of the ear so when it fills, it can be very tight and cause an uncomfortable amount of pressure. If due to trauma, there could be bacteria trapped inside and potentially lead to an abscess. As the body tries to fix itself, it sends a lot of its helper white blood cells and tries to remove the blood and repair the aural hematoma.
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 MoreLearn about chimpanzee conservation
Chimpanzee populations are now under more distress than ever before. A population that once totaled more than 1 million now teeters around 200,000. What can you do to help?
Read MoreHealth Update: Precious (Nov 2020)
Precious arrived in sanctuary in 2018. During her exit exam from the New Iberia Research Center, her diagnostics showed that she was in the early stages of chronic kidney decline. We vowed then to offer Precious whatever she needed to be comfortable in sanctuary as her condition progressed.
Read MoreHealth Update: Jamie (Nov 2020)
Jamie is spry for her age. While she is active and agile, the team noticed that something was just a little off – she was drinking a lot of water. While subtle as that symptom might be, it indicated there could be something going on that needed to be investigated.
Read MoreDo you like your vet?
We don’t take the chimps to the vet, I go to them – kinda like a house call. It makes it a little harder to know what they think about my sudden appearance in their space, and I sure hope the chimps learn to like me.
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