Jamie spent her childhood living with a trainer. Her records are scarce, but she was most likely used in some form of entertainment before being purchased for use in biomedical research at around the age of nine. It’s heartbreaking and infuriating to see chimpanzees (or any wild animal) robbed of their natural lives, their childhood, and their family and social structures in order to provide so-called “entertainment” for humans. While we cannot change the histories the chimpanzees have experienced, or the fact that they will be in captivity for the rest of their lives, we do our best to provide them the space to be themselves, exactly as they choose in every minute of the day. A safe, dignified and loving home in which their “chimpanzee-ness” can come out.
We give the chimpanzees a variety of enrichment each day to keep their curious and intelligent minds engaged as much as possible, but whether they play with it, nest with it, tear it up or ignore it, it’s their choice. Jamie is highly intelligent and most likely as a result of her unnatural history, she is also very human oriented in her interests. She will often choose to use enrichment in ways that the other chimps don’t. But that’s the key – she gets to choose. When Jamie first arrived here she periodically chose to wear clothing that was included in enrichment, but over time her desire to do this has faded away and thankfully been replaced by chimp like activities such as walking the perimeter, playing with her friends, and being the boss of us all. But given her unnatural history, it’s only, well, natural that she would still incorporate things that are familiar to her in her play from time to time.
So while supervising the cleaning of her home from atop her barrel, this was one of Jamie’s choices:
An upside-down-Jamie-on-a-barrel is always a happy Jamie.
If you’d like to learn more about how you can help end the exploitation and abuse of great apes, please check out our advocacy program, Eyes on Apes, and sign up for our Take Action Alerts. Just as Jamie once did, there are others who need your voice.
Jackie says
It is so wonderful that the chimps have choices and to be themselves. Love to the Boss Lady!
Lorraine says
she does look so cute upside down with her bandana….
Kathleen says
First, Jamie is so stylin’ with that blue bandana on her ankle. She is too much, naturally!
Second, thank you for Eyes On Apes. Your information is well organized and I refer to it often when writing letters on behalf of chimpanzees in entertainment. A wonderful resource!! Always happy to speak up for those chimpanzees who are exploited and suffering.
Francoise says
THANK YOU for the biggest laugh I’ve had today and might have anytime soon. A laugh filled with heart-warming affection for Jamie’s wonderful personality and that she can choose to tie a purple bandana around her ankle if she damn well pleases. Some would see it as “cute” but that would be wrong. Like you say, it’s purely about choice.
And what a great choice that was. I’m still smiling….
Doug says
Slightly off topic for this blog entry but “choices” reminded me of a question which has occurred to me when reading blog posts in the past. If I understand correctly, two important values for the sanctuary are providing the chimps choices and encouraging “chimpanzee-ness”. Your sanctuary expresses both of these values in the ways you feed the chimps, for example creating forages and even growing a garden so that they can see their food grow. Why then does the sanctuary not include meat in the chimps’ diets? Your enrichment guideline page states that meat is not allowed because “The chimps at CSNW get plenty of protein from nuts, seeds, beans, and primate chow.” Of course they do not need meat for protein but they also do not need to eat tomatoes grown outside their enclosure but the sanctuary goes through the trouble and expense of the garden because of the experience it provides for the chimps. Wouldn’t then providing meat be an equally exciting and “chimp-like” experience? All wild chimpanzees consume meat in some form and in fact the acquisition and sharing of meat includes some of the most advanced expressions of intelligence and culture in wild chimps. If the sanctuary wants to encourage “chimpanzee-ness” or even just to provide the chimps with new food items they are sure to love, then why not include meat? If it is a matter of the expense then I bet someone would donate money specifically to buy them some steaks. Is there another reason I am missing?
Diana says
Good question! Thanks for asking it, Doug. There are a few reasons for our decision to not include meat in their diet. Probably the number one reason is that we, as a sanctuary that takes care of animals, come into contact with farmed animal sanctuaries frequently, and we respect that, in a philosophical sense, every life has value. And we are aware of the conditions that the vast majority of farmed animals live in in order to produce meat. That philosophy, combined with the fact that chimpanzees do not need to consume meat in order to be healthy (if we had a lion sanctuary, we would be in a different position), has influenced our decision. We recognize that very little of what we give the chimpanzees in the way of food matches what they would be foraging for on their own in the wild – tomatoes, quinoa, peanuts, and tea, for example, provide a great deal of variety in the chimps’ diet, but are very different foods than their wild counterparts are eating. Chimpanzees hunting for meat is such an amazing sight to see in terms of their culture, and the chimpanzees here to get the inadvertent “opportunity” to hunt – they (well, mostly Jamie) go after the birds, snakes, mice, squirrels, etc. that share their habitat. With the exception of frogs (Negra!) and, every once in a while insects, the chimpanzees do not consume the animals they hunt, even if they are successful in killing them. If you look at access to meat in different groups of chimpanzees in the wild, it varies quite widely from group to group and individual to individual, and I would bet that the lowest ranking chimpanzees living in groups that overall do not do much hunting rarely eat meat. I hope that helps to answer your question.