For everyone’s safety, humans have very little physical contact with the chimpanzees at the sanctuary. We are always separated by caging, chimp-proof glass, or electric fence. Staff and a select group of volunteers who have gone through extensive safety training are permitted to have what we refer to as protected physical contact with the chimps. Here are just a few of our safety rules outlined in the training packet for Level III volunteers (the only volunteers permitted to interact with the chimps):
Never let your fingers or any other part of your body penetrate the caging.
Never lean on the caging with any part of your body.
Never put yourself in a position where a chimpanzee is able to pin or grab you. Pay attention to where your body is in relation to the caging at all times. Remember that the chimpanzees can grab clothing, hair, hoods, scarves, shoelaces, etc.
Never take your eyes off the chimpanzee you are serving or interacting with. At the same time, use your peripheral vision to monitor all other nearby chimpanzees.
We consider the chimps our friends, but they are wild animals, and they are powerful and unpredictable. We take these, as well as our many other, safety rules very seriously. In this video you’ll a see a few of the different types of contact interactions that trained caregivers have with the chimpanzees.
It’s easy to understand why safe methods are used but is it ever apparent that the chimps are frustrated by the lack of physical contact?
Hi Francoise! They don’t seem to be. They get all the physical contact they could ever want from each other, which makes us happy. 🙂
This is the reason, why I prefer other apes like orangs or gorillas to chimpanzees. They have this extremely mean side, brutally attacking for no specific reason , just because they like it. I don`t blame them, after all they are animals, but still I would not want them around me.
I saw some videos of mountain gorillas recently and they are really gentle giants, even the silverback would not hurt you, when you respect his space. After you get their trust they come close and even snuggle with you and nothing serious ever happened. Lately people are not allowed to come close anymore, not for safety reasons, but to avoid to transmit diseases.
I admire your work, you must be some truly altruistic people.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Martin. It’s true that chimpanzees can be brutal. They can also show love, tenderness, and empathy. They experience grief, joy, anger, jealousy, mirth, boredom, fear…. They’re much like humans.
A distinction worth noting is that between wild chimpanzees and captive ones. Field researchers studying chimpanzees in the wild rarely get seriously hurt by those chimps. By keeping chimpanzees in captivity against their will, however, we have set up an us vs. them dynamic. Humans will always be the captors and chimpanzees will always be the prisoners. (In fact, captive chimpanzees and human prisoners show some notable behavioral similarities.) Even here at the sanctuary, where the chimps’ caregivers love and respect them and wish they didn’t have to be here, we are the ones carrying the keys.
The Cle Elum Seven and many, many other captive chimpanzees have endured a lifetime of brutality at the hands of humans. It is only their enormous capacity for forgiveness that allows them to grant humans any kindness at all.
Thanks for answering. I am aware that we owe a lot to chimpanzees. I am especially grateful on a personal level: For many decades I was carrying around the hepatitis C virus . Due to the new remedy that is available for a few months now (Harvoni) I finally got rid of this potentially lethal chronic disease. I am virus negative for 6 months now, and I hope it stays like that!!
Thank you very much my hairy friends, you gave me my life back!!
Martin from Germany