When Cute Goes Wrong: The Brutal Truth About Chimpanzee Pets | Predator Pets

Well, yes, they're cute. All right, aren't they a little unusual looking? Yeah Chimpanzees share 98% of our DNA their intelligence playful nature and the resemblance to human babies Once made them popular entertainers and even popular pets Out of all kinds of creatures that you could have as pets Chimps are probably the worst pet that you can ask for for the chimps benefit You may get the greatest joy in the world by having a chimp, but what is the chimp get out of it? Martine Colette is the founder of wildlife way station an exotic animal sanctuary that a colony of 40 chimpanzees now called home chimps need chimps They need to grow up in a colony with young chimps and old chimps and in between chimps and chimps of personality cranky champs and happy champs and dominant champs and subordinate champs and chimps learn by watching and baby chimps learn everything by watching the adults and they grow up with chimpanzee skills Which then allows them to take the rightful place in the world of chimpanzees Having worked closely with chimpanzees for more than 40 years primatologist Bob Ingersoll agrees I Mean it's like being a human You could build me the nicest apartment on the on the planet I could live here in this apartment and have a beautiful view like I do But if I didn't have anyone to talk to or anyone to express my my humanness to That would be a pretty harsh existence Chimps need other chimps just like humans need other humans Bob was part of the controversial NIM research project in the 1970s in which researchers explored captive chimpanzees ability to learn language Chimps are chimps bats are bats and and they Behave with their genetic predisposition, but on the cellular level, they're very similar to us So it makes sense to me that those animals are thinking just like us. I Actually had two years of experience before I met Nim and Nim came back to the University of Oklahoma in September of 1977 so I knew all of his brothers I knew several of his other siblings that were twins several female and male chimps But I took to Nim quickly and and I saw Nim as a needy Chimp that needed a friend and I wanted to be his friend Bob worked very closely with Nim and his siblings teaching them American Sign Language He eventually learned that chimpanzees are not as similar to human beings as we'd like to think The first and foremost chimps need to be with other chimps Secondarily they need an area a place where they can be together. That's comfortable to them and in captivity That's very difficult I mean I work with a number of sanctuaries and and that's always our problem that no matter what you can't give them freedom We do what I call the illusion of freedom as best we can but at the end of the day They're still in captivity. And like I keep saying captivity is the enemy In most US states it is now illegal to own a chimp and since 2015 when captive chimpanzees were classified as an endangered species they can no longer be used in invasive testing a few years ago the United States, you know put a moratorium on that and then ended it and NIH and and The government agencies that own the chimps that that were part of all that are now in the process of retiring them Chimp Haven has been established, which is the National Chimp Sanctuary in in Louisiana there are several hundred chimps there and probably several hundred more that will be going there so so chimps in the United States are at least the ones that were institutionally held by either the government or Pharmaceutical manufacturers or drug companies or hospitals They're now in the process of retiring those animals the pets on the other hand and the entertainment chimps Not quite so lucky. Most of my colony is from biomedical research and I am pleased and proud to say Chimpanzees are amazing They are very philosophical They do learn they Adapt well, and we probably have the biggest group of chimpanzees in the western United States here and There are bigger chimpsanctuaries in Florida and in Louisiana and They have of course Bigger grounds and big opportunities than we do here but Based on all the knowledge I have had We've had only one really really tragic Chimp that came to us. He was a self mutilator and He would bite and rip and destroy anything From the end of his fingers to as far as he could reach with his mouth on Both arms and hands and down his legs and it took us five years Before we could stop that type of behavior But stop we did well actually he did we gave the opportunities we gave Different options and he adjusted and adapted and towards the latter part of his days The last few years of his life. He lived in a group of chimpanzees And I'm thrilled Many chimps now living in sanctuaries came from private owners who learned that baby chimps may be cute But adolescent and adult chimps can be deadly No, I wouldn't say that a chimpanzee was necessarily a predator in the sense that a big cat or a lion or or any of those, you know our crocodile or Barracuda fish or whatever, you know our predators but in the wild chimpanzees cooperatively hunt they eat monkeys they Hunt monkeys they hunt bush buck and that's fairly natural. I Think that's also, you know I'm interested in chimp cognitive behavior and and when you when you understand what they do in the hunting situation in the wild It's fairly complicated. They send out points. They they they talk amongst each other they move the animal to the tree that they're going to you know, do whatever so the planning and and the advanced thinking and those sorts of things that you see in that context are are are Complicated and They are definitely preying on those monkeys Those who do choose to take on chimpanzee ownership rarely keep their dangerous pets for more than a few years very seldom Very seldom by the time a chimp is five six years old sometimes seven It's already becoming a chimp It's assertive and it wants to do this and unless you understand chimp And you are a good and a kind trainer You're not gonna be able to teach this chimp what you need him to do Because you're not treating him in that manner. This is your this is your pet this is your baby and they can be dangerous as You've heard about some of the accidents that happen throughout the world. They're pretty brutal in 2009 Charla Nash was severely mauled by her friends exotic pet. She lost both her hands her nose ears and her sight There's someone on the way What is the monkey doing The easily visible muscles on this chimp with alopecia show just how strong these chimpanzees are Combine that strength with almost human intelligence and the chimp can be a formidable threat Chimps are dangerous because most people Do not understand what is a chimpanzee In the world of chimpanzees might is right, you know, there is a very definitive Hierarchy and so on and so forth. There is order in a chimp colony It may not appear so for somebody standing outside and watching some of the behavior, but there is order But chimps are dangerous. They have five times As strong as you are They have an intellect or a five six and occasionally even a seven-year-old child That's very bright They can plan they can figure they can create situations where they Will pre-plan things so and they're also they can be very volatile and So somebody done something gains them. They're explosive involved volatile and they have teeth this long And I've got arms and they can do serious damage to people Due to recent changes to legislation Sanctuaries are also seeing an increase in surrendered pet chimps Well, I think that those people that own chimps are less out there now. I think that those people Should be examining the next step which would be sanctuary The pet chimps Especially I think because I work at the Center for great apes. I know what they do and I know it's righteous I know that they've taken animals in that that didn't you know? You wouldn't think would have a chance to be integrated into a group and then become a chimp, but I've seen it happen And and I know people that have turned their chimps over to us who come we don't we don't deny them access They get to come and visit We don't disallow them from coming to visit their ex pets but we have a number of people that that had chimp pets that that realized their mistake and have Rectified that by turning their chimps over to us so I mean the reality is that this is ending slowly, but surely and it's Fewer and fewer chimps are sold in the United States per year. There are probably around 400 chimps that are still Kind of up in the air in terms of what's going to happen where they're going to go and slowly But surely we are attempting to move the chimps that aren't in an accredited situation into an accredited situation Chimpanzees that come to sanctuaries from private ownership Situations often have a hard time learning how to be chimps again the chimps who have never seen grass or trees or Sky or birds, I mean They're startled by it and they're a little leery of it. They can be fearful to step outside But a chimps got a great brain and it's curious and it does step out Eventually in it. It will sit and it will look and it will figure things out and it'll watch by example Most chimpanzees raised in captivity still enjoy and even seek out human contact we here believe in creating an atmosphere where The chimps are trusting of their keepers and of their supervisors of their people So you can bring them along? You can make them feel secure you can Give them options of friends. They can choose their friends who they want to hang out with you give a chimp an opportunity And you help it along in the areas where it has not been comfortable They settle very nicely There are a number of chimpanzees that have been in situations that are so egregious that I can tell you about one named Clyde Who lived for 35 years in a box in a garage? That's just wrong. And so When an animal like that comes to the Center for Great Apes, we we read As best we can the behavior of that animal and we do what's best We think for them if they solicit our our attention we give it to them if they solicit our Grooming for example, not all of us But the ones of us that have been clearly trained and checked out so that we don't lose our hands or fingers or whatever We do that what we do More than anything though is we try to interject that chimp in with other chimps We tried to introduce them together and we've been fairly successful at the center Some captive chimps even prefer being with humans to being with other chimpanzees there are a couple of cases that and One in particular a chimpanzee that I'd a beloved chimp to me that passed away a few years ago named Denise She just didn't get along with chimps She didn't have that opportunity to be a chimp when she was young and she didn't like chimps She grew up in the home. She drank beers and cigarettes Use cigarettes and when she came to us, it was very tough and she was a tough lady. She didn't like chimps She wanted to be with humans and at the end of Denise's life for the last two years We did the best we could to make her life as as fun and as positive Still being around other chimps just not in direct contact because it it didn't work out for her But for the most part we tried as best we can to get chimps with other chimps and it's a beautiful thing when you see A chimp that's never been with a chimp Grooming one another rolling around to be in a chimp and when that happens, we don't interject we purposefully move away from that we attempt to Let them be chimps. We don't Approach them if they approach us and they solicit our you know, like hey Bob come over here And you know because chimps know how to you know, get your attention Like that for example, or or you know Or whatever, you know, they get your attention then you know it and then you you know You decide whether or not, you know, that's something that's appropriate or not The consensus among great ape experts is that chimpanzees need to live like chimpanzees Martine believes that even captive colonies should be able to live as wild chimps You know, it's interesting. I believe in a case of chimpanzees. I think every chimp group anywhere in the world Should be allowed to reproduce every five six seven years Because a baby in a chimp Colony is a glue that keeps them together. It is the joy they are So alive They are so interested in a baby and there are aunts and their uncles and there are kids to play with and there everybody loves a baby and I think the quality of life For chimps is greatly enhanced when every so often there's a baby so I think I Believe although we don't do it But I personally believe We should allow decent sized groups of chimps to have a baby every so many years Chimpanzee family groups may seem similar to humans and their babies may seem just as adorable as human babies But all that we have learned about chimps tells us that no matter how much they resemble humans They are simply not meant to live as humans Well, I am against captivity in the sense that for these animals that shouldn't be captive But I also understand that they came they came to be in the situation they are over time and from a time when we don't have the viewpoint we do now and So some of the chimps are caught up in that they're for the most part. They're aging out I mean we have a lot of 40 50 year old chimps that are Passing away in sanctuaries and as they pass away the numbers dwindle and ultimately I think that Those situations will end there won't be the surplus of animals that we had in the 60s and 70s and 80s when there wasn't a moratorium on breeding and that sort of thing find a nice sanctuary and Place that animal in a nice sanctuary to allow this animal to have an opportunity to grow up to be a chimpanzee