As chimpanzees age, their needs can change. At the Oregon Zoo’s new Primate Forest, care staff work closely with the chimp family to keep them healthy and thriving in their golden years.
Jane Goodall visited my school in the early 80's, she inspired everyone to care about animals. I'm so proud that the Oregon Zoo continues her work supporting chimpanzees and their needs. My heart is full...
This zoo has gone above and beyond for all the animals in their care. It really is all about the animals. As it should be. Thank you Oregon Zoo for all that you do for these amazing creatures and for educating the public. And posting all these adorable videos of course!
Just like humans, aging chimpanzees need different care and specialized attention. Wonderful to see these elder and geriatric chimps receiving the utmost care to meet their needs.
omg, I saw this title and wondered....could they be? and then I heard the name "Leah" and recognized her name, they are the same chimpanzees that were at the zoo when I did volunteer work there in the mid-1970s. Wow. Back then were were all in our prime and now all of us are elders. Jane Goodall gave a presentation and talk in Portland and visited the chimps on that same trip. I was able to see that talk, but later meet one of the chimps that was being taught sign language, I was in the primate kitchen and a keeper came in with Charlie, one of the chimps in this group. He touched my arm and signed "chase me" which I think was a pretty common response to meeting a new person. I am 5'2" and 110 lbs so not actually much taller than he was--he was pretty intimidating but it was amazing and I didn't feel unsafe. On other days Charlie had rushed to get water to spit at me as I tried to get through the locked door beside his cage before he actually threw fresh shit on me. It was one of his few distractions from total boredom. Before Jane had begun coming to the zoo, the chimp group lived in a small, bare concrete room with some straw on the floor. The front was heavy caging, then there was a narrow corridor for staff between the cages and the glass where the public watched them. There was no privacy for them during zoo hours and the young of the primates were raised in those conditions as well. Orangutans were kept similarly but as a pair (I believe Thelma is still there too!). In the early 70s, there was a small group of people working out of a little building that housed the Portland Zoological Research Center at the back of the zoo where you wouldn't notice it. They and staff at the Honolulu Zoo were just starting to experiment with behavioral enrichment for zoo animals for the first time. It eventually revolutionized the way zoo animals are kept around the world and the Portland Zoo was one of the first zoos to try it and definitely the first to expand the program to engage many species in various activities--harbor seals, otters, polar bears, servals, Diana monkeys, mandrills, gibbons, and Hairy and Thelma the orangutan were some of first animals to have some very creative innovations designed around their natural behaviors, but also to research how fast they learned certain tasks. The Diana monkeys had a whole system of obtaining poker chips from one machine when it lit up; the poker chips could be fed into another machine to exchange for a piece of food. All kinds of social behaviors were observed that nobody had really anticipated because the Diana monkeys could do things like give their child a poker chip that it could "cash in" for food. Grad students designed the research projects and I just helped them by collecting behavioral observations. At the same time these chimps were beginning to be able to occasionally come out of their cells and they were learning ASL. Now look at you guys and gals! How far we all have come from those days. I need to go visit them soon. I got a million stories, I tell ya 😂, but all true! ohh no! now I remember the time Hairy the orangutan got out of their enclosure and someone came face to face with him in the primate kitchen.
Just what I'd expect from this amazing facility. The chimp family is certainly getting up there and I'm happy to see them spending their golden years in a state-of-the-art enclosure. I'm quite impressed with how well the chimps are getting by and I hope they've still got a few years in them. :)
its a wonderful retirement home for large, hairy, happy pensioners .. can i send my nan here i think shed fit right in ! amazing work this zoo does and some of videos are very Punny ;)
