Most visitors to Chimp Haven enjoy viewing our chimpanzees wandering happily through our two forested habitats but what they don’t realize is how timid the chimps can be when the doors to the habitat are opened for the first time. Many chimpanzees are hesitant at first and stay close to the buildings and walls but eventually gain confidence and start to explore. A small few choose to remain in the safety of the bedrooms and rarely, if ever, venture outside. One such chimpanzee w
as an elderly male named Juan. Each day, he happily food grunted as the rest of his group headed outside for their morning food toss but he remained inside. This continued until his group moved to a new habitat for the first time. During what seemed to be a normal food toss, I was shocked to see Juan emerge from the doorway and walk down the wall and sit up against a mesh window. Juan, too, seemed surprised with himself and was too busy food barking to eat amongst all the excitement of being outside. But this was only the beginning for Juan and his newfound sense of adventure.
A few days later, after seeing Juan appear a couple more trips outside during food tosses, I was surprised to find him outside again in the afternoon as I was distributing a PM vegetable to the chimpanzees. I walked up to him to give him a carrot but he immediately started walking down the wall of the habitat towards our water-filled moat. I kept calling his name but he seemed to be on a mission and refused to even pause as he continued down the wall. I was concerned for Juan as he had not been to the moat before and could potentially get into trouble and I wasn’t the only one. Two of his closest friends, Gay and Jimoh, had noticed him start down the wall and were following at a close distance. Luckily for all of us, Juan reached the end of the wall and stopped to stand and survey the water. After what appeared to be a brief moment of reflection, he turned and made the same determined march back up to the bedrooms where he finally stopped to enjoy his carrot. Now Juan has moved to an open-air play yard, but he spends a fair amount of time outside and he’ll give a friendly food bark for anyone who will stop and talk to him. Well, provided you share some juice with him.
~Mark Lewis
What a lovely story!
— From Gev
Good blog Mark!!
— From Jennifer Whitfield
Thanks Mark… Love this, did great job, sharing about one of my favorite ole guys.
— From Barbie
Mark, thank you for offering a glimpse into both your world as a caregiver and that of lovely Juan!
— From Raven Jackson, DVM
Great insight into what a chimp goes through when his whole world changes. Isn’t that the guy who broke a leg?
— From Lynn & Daryl
Nice job Mark. Thanks for sharing the daily happenings.
— From Christine Sumner