Things have changed at CSNW.
Many, if not most, male former laboratory chimps are what people in the zoo world refer to as behavioral non-breeders. In short, they were raised in such unnatural ways (e.g., in human homes or in nursery peer groups) that they never learned “normal” sexual behavior. This isn’t to say that they don’t express any sexual behavior at all. Willy B, for example, loves to watch videos of female chimps on our phones – especially Jamie – which puts us in a somewhat uncomfortable position at times. And Diana and I worked with a chimpanzee that was notorious for getting women to bend down towards him so he could look down their shirts. But a large number of them don’t copulate. In fact, none of the groups that I’ve cared for long-term over the past 20+ years has included a male that does.
Until now.
For whatever reason, this wondrous ball of fluff named Terry defied the odds and loves to express his natural behavior on a regular basis with Dora. Which is great. But because sanctuaries don’t allow breeding, it raises the stakes of our contraception program. Terry was vasectomized, but that may need to be checked down the road as they do sometimes fail. Or the females in his group could be put on oral contraceptives as we have done with other groups during intros or for ongoing medical reasons. Stopping in for the chimps’ birth control always delights the folks at the local pharmacy.
Diana’s been on a kick lately trying to add to the genealogical data we already have for chimps in sanctuaries. So many of the chimps we’ve cared for in other sanctuaries are closely related to the chimps we care for now. And often the resemblances are uncanny. This is in part due to the fact that it’s a relatively small population, but it’s also because of how few of the chimps in labs exhibited breeding behavior. Terry, for his part, was born towards the end of large-scale breeding in labs and was released from the lab at a young age so he was never used to produce more chimpanzees for research.
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I can’t tell you how much I love Cy. He really is a sweet, gentle guy. Tonight we watched the first real conflict among his group since they got to CSNW. Gordo was terribly upset (we don’t know why) and he followed Cy around, screaming incessantly while trying to get others to join him in going after the big man. But Cy, who is a good 30 pounds larger, held back and allowed Gordo to get whatever it was off his chest without engaging further. And no one backed Gordo in his efforts. Eventually some of the others got in a scuffle due to the group’s arousal level but that ended quickly.
This is what so many primatologists try in vain to convey about alpha males – the best alphas don’t rule solely through aggression and intimidation. They settle disputes. They promote cohesion in the group. They are loved and respected. Now we haven’t even gotten to know this group well enough yet to confirm that Cy is in fact the undisputed leader, but he certainly has some of the makings.
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Honey B isn’t a big fan of change. She’s the nervous type, often retreating to a corner and clutching blankets when she feels the slightest bit stressed (something I remember vividly from our first encounter at her previous home). And with all of the new chimps, new facilities, and changes in enclosure access, I would expect her to have some anxiety. But all in all she has been doing quite well. The other day I played chase with her and she repeated ran across the grass in the greenhouse, which is a big step. And at this point she hasn’t been too much of a bully to her new (and old) friends across the hall. Though there’s still time.
It is heartening to read that Honey Beezie is becoming somewhat
more willing to step on grass, at least for an invigorating game of
chase with one of the human primates who are kept in residence at
the sanctuary. And, it comes as no surprise that such a well-read and well-bred gentleman such as Cyrus Maximus should be able to handle conflict as well as he did in the complaint from Don Gordito.
As for the passion of Terry and Dora…to paraphrase the Cole Porter lyric, “Birds do it, bees do it, even chimp-pan-zees do it/let’s do it, let’s fall in love.” May their amours be fruitful if not multiplicating…
I’m so confused. The first time I opened the blog There were some ReplyBox replies to this. Then I registered with ReplyBox. When I came back to the blog the comments were gone. I left a replybox comment and it showed up. And now I come to the blog again and there’s only one comment from Tobin using the older format. And nobody else’s comments. argh!!
My experience and sentiments, exactly, Paulette! Aargh!
Great post Tobin!
So our L’il Dora has Terry in her pocket and she’s checking out Willy B. Playa!
LOL!
I love love love the pic of Cy reading so intently. Great closeup! ??????
I’m getting pretty good at identifying most of the Lucky 6. Four anyway. I’m studying them more. Great post! Loved it. Thank you so much.
Oh I meant to say…
One of the videos of Jane Goodall‘s group of chimps talked about this issue of the alpha. I might not have the names exactly right but there were brothers, Fredo and Frudo. One was bigger but he was a jerk. The smaller but nicer one was the alpha. He took care of the group and comforted when necessary and mediated when necessary. And sometimes all he had to do was just show up. That’s a leader. He was beloved. This blog just makes me respect Cy so much more. I’m in love!
Fascinating stuff! The fact that human birth control pills work on chimps and gorillas is one of my favorite fun facts about primates. 🙂
I’m kind of confused why a chimp would want to look at breasts, though! Do those even have a sexual connotation to chimps?
After JB’s comment opened up that can of worms, I wondered, too
I know! It’s just fascinating that a chimp would have any interest in a human’s body. I would have never even considered that.
It’s a great question. Humans seem to have the ability to sexualize any part of the body: bare midriffs, legs, pecs, feet, etc., and they don’t seem to need to have any direct connection to sex or procreation. Areas of the body that are typically covered are of even greater interest. So my guess would be that because he found human women to be sexually attractive, those parts of the body that he couldn’t normally see were of particular interest. But this is just a guess.
That makes sense…100 years ago, a woman’s ankles were a turn on…
Thank you J.B.
Nice article.
What a gas. Terry! This is so interesting because I assumed Burrito had “sexual relations” with the ladies, even thought I had seen this in past videos. But are you saying this isn’t so? So the ladies in Terry’s group will need contraception? Was this the case at WW? I’m now quite curios about this Wondrous Ball of Fluff.
I so enjoyed this post. Your insight and sense of humor always a welcoming relief. Thanks J.B.
Hi Kathleen – That is correct. Burrito has shown arousal when the girls are in estrus but he has never copulated with them and was only seen making clumsy attempts twice in 13 years. The WW chimps were not on contraception because the males were all vasectomized. The issue is whether we trust those procedures to last. Some veterinarians say that if done correctly they have a very low failure rate, while others insist they need to be redone every four years regardless to be safe. If we can opportunistically obtain semen samples, we can look at them under the microscope to see if any sperm are present but that is certainly not fool-proof.
Thank you J.B. It is interesting. You are correct, “Things have changed at CSNW.” Best of luck “…opportunistically obtaining semen samples”. I won’t even ask how this is done, I trust Terry is proper hands on this issue! Yup, things really have changed. 😉