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Kennedy’s First Time Outside

When you spend your life in one place, a new environment isn’t just intimidating. It’s terrifying. Even if it’s the one you were born to be in. This is what many former research chimpanzees experience who never got to go outside. So when the opportunity is placed right in front of them, wouldn’t they be excited? For some, yes. For others, it can take a little while to warm up to the idea. That’s what we saw leading up to Kennedy’s first time outside.

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Alpha Kareem Diagnosed with Probable Cancer 

Project Chimps is sharing the sad news that Kareem, a celebrated alpha male at the sanctuary, has been diagnosed with a terminal illness. Dr. Jim McClearan, DVM was on site yesterday to check in on Kareem and to inform the sanctuary staff of the distressing report. 

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Chimps Living in Harmony

Group of six chimpanzees sitting on a wood climbing structure outdoors

Project Chimps’ facilities team, care staff, and dedicated volunteers have been working tirelessly to make the south yard of the outdoor habitat a fun and enriching place for the former research chimpanzees in our care. Their hard work was worth it – the chimps are thriving outdoors. And they’re having a blast!

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One Chimp’s Journey to Sanctuary – part two

Kareem’s story starts with the heart-wrenching fact that, like many chimpanzees who were born in research facilities, he was pulled from his mother at just a few days old. It’s difficult to think about the devastation that Kareem’s mother must have endured when her baby was pulled from her loving arms. Caregivers swaddled him in diapers and placed him in the lab’s chimpanzee nursery.

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One Chimp’s Journey to Sanctuary – part one

Kareem was only 5 years old and living at the now-closed Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP) in New York City. It was 1994 and a compassionate caregiver named Nancy was trying to lure Kareem back into his small cage after a day of innocent play in the lab’s nursery playroom. Kareem was tired of going back into a tiny cage each time his play sessions were over, so he held back.

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