Originally, I didn’t know I wanted to work with chimpanzees. From a young age, I was drawn specifically to orangutans. I have a vivid memory of being probably 8 years old, my mom and I were at the mall and we were in a candy shop that, in addition to candy, also sold random stuffed animals and Beanie Babies. There was a large size orangutan Beanie Baby (think the size of a 6 month old infant) that I BEGGED my mom for. It was $39.99, which was outrageous for a stuffed animal of any kind. Luckily for me, my mom gave in and bought it for me. This stuffed animal was just the beginning of my fascination with apes. I went on to do book reports in high school about orangutans where I would rave about how amazing they are.
Fast forward about fifteen years, I stumbled across the primate behavior program at Central Washington University while I was researching graduate programs and it immediately caught my attention. When I applied and even began the graduate program at CWU, I assumed that this was the beginning of the road to working with orangutans.
That is until I went to Fauna Foundation for a summer internship.
My internship at Fauna Foundation was the first time I had been around chimpanzees. I don’t think I had ever even seen a chimp in-person, as the Phoenix Zoo (where I grew up) only had orangutans and other smaller primates. I remember on the very first day of the internship, myself and the four other interns, were led around property by Dr. Mary Lee Jensvold. When we approached the chimp house, Tatu and Loulis greeted us from the outdoor aerial tunnels. Tatu began using American Sign Language to sign to her long-time friend, Dr. Jensvold. Dr. Jensvold signed to Tatu that we interns are new friends. I will never forget this interaction.
There was another memory from that summer that will always stick with me. We were doing a behavioral observation study where we were recording the chimpanzees’ activities throughout a day. We were creating a baseline for them, so their “normal” activity level would be recorded. Therefore, for about fifteen minutes at a time, I would observe a chimp’s activities and record them on an iPad. This one day in particular, I was observing Rachel. She was out relaxing on one of the islands when I walked up. After a few minutes of me observing her, she gathered her two stuffed gorillas and headed over to sit in front of me (her on the island behind the fencing, me on the sidewalk). Rachel sat there and stared at me for awhile. I tried not to stare back too much, as to not make her uncomfortable. It was clear to me she just liked being in the presence of someone. It’s a moment that is hard to describe, now that I’m behind a keyboard. Truly, it’s like everything clicked when I was sitting there with Rachel: how human-like chimpanzees are, how chimpanzees shouldn’t be in captivity, how they are just. like. us.
Ever since that summer, I knew I wanted to work with chimpanzees for the rest of my career.
Working with chimpanzees can be dramatic, stressful, exhausting, but it also is the best thing I have ever done.
When did you fall in love with chimpanzees? Comment below!
Burrito:
Negra:
Cindee says
Jenna, thank you for the links to the Fauna chimpanzees who inspired you. Loulis looks and sounds like a big kid, just like Bubba! And while Tatu seems to be a very well adjusted chimp, it is so sad and disheartening to learn what a traumatizing past poor Rachel has had. Hopefully she will one day find peace from the demons that torment her.
Marie says
I think one of the hardest things would be….You Not being able to just Squeeze Them:hugging:They are Adorable……Probably still have that Orangutan..Ay?:relieved:
Carla says
I fell in love with chimpanzees when I was very young, That’s when my father took me to several visits at the zoo.
Nancy Duryea says
I grew up very close to Woodland Park Zoo. We always made a point of seeing the Gorilla’s (Bobo and Fifi) when we went there. I really didn’t know much about chimpanzees until I just happened to see a post by CSNW on facebook in early 2019, I was hooked. I fell in love with all of them. I have several deaf friends and they love seeing videos of Tatu and Loulis signing.
Tami Roy says
My interest in chmpanzees started when i started following Jane Goodall, when i started following following Save The Chimps, i was fascinated by their personalities and behavior. When i came across CSNW, i was in love. it started first with Burrito and grew to all of them in time. Jamie caught my eye because of her love of reading. After that I was hooked on the whole crew. i have a soft spot for Cy because of his reading and intelligence. i now love them each and every one the same, save Cy! lol
i love all of their intelligence, resillience, and love of life. What’s not to love about these amazing souls?
Tobin says
Thank you, Jenna, for sharing your story. Orangutans are beautiful, and they are fascinating to observe and learn about. It was interesting to read that you met Tatu and Loulis…I hope that you had some enjoyable conversations with them. Do they teach the other chimpanzees ASL? Also, am I correct that our Rayne is related to Tatu?
When did I go ape for apes? At risk if repeating myself, I stumbled across a video of some freckle-faced dude chewing on a wood block while engaged in a game of tug o’ war that he was playing with a human friend. I forget the final score of the contest, but Burrito stole my heart and I just haven’t been the same since.
Kathy B says
I fell in love with chimps when I came to visit the Sanctuary before the chimps got there. :purple_heart:
Eli says
I’ve always been interested in primates. I minored in anthropology in undergrad, and the course on human evolution had a unit on primate behavior, which I found really interesting. What really drove me closer and poured fuel on the fire for me was, oddily enough, gorilla videos on youtube. Specificially those following the family that lives at the Kyoto zoo. From there I fell into orangutans and eventually chimpanzee and started taking an interest in following sanctuaries.
Susan Kathleen Feeley says
Thank you, Jenna for sharing your ” Road to Chimpanzees ” with us. It must be so rewarding for you to be ” up close” with the chimps at your beloved sanctuary. A dream come true. I fell in love with Chimpanzees after reading Jane Goodall ‘s groundbreaking book ” In the Shadow of Man”. It was my dream to visit Gombe, but didn’t make there, but I did meet Jane when she visited Taronga zoo in Sydney. It was a magical moment for me. I also travelled to Ellensburg to visit “Frends of Washoe” at C W U and met the magnificent Tatu and Loulis. I had read about them in Roger Fouts best selling book “Next of Kin”. I was introduced to Mary Lee Jensfold and it was an honour to watch her sign to Tatu & Loulis. I was fortunate in meeting the chimps as the following month they departed for new home at Fauna . I am now a supporter (and chimp pal of Annie Chimpanzee )at your sanctuary and it’s been a rewarding journey for me. Chimpanzees are amazing and they teach us so much. I consider myself very fortunate to have them in my life.
Adrienne says
Thank you for sharing your experience and for the links to the beautiful chimps at Fauna! Although I had always been interested in great apes previously, especially gorillas, I completely fell in love with chimpanzees after reading “Chimpanzee Politics” by Frans de Waal.
CarolR says
I was first fascinated by the chimps in the zoos we visited when I was a child. Later I heard about and visited Jim Cronin’s MonkeyWorld in the UK where from 1987 he was rescuing chimps from unbelievable cruelty, being used in Spain to draw tourists in. Their work continues, negotiating with many governments, trying to stop the trade in chimpanzees. I also was an early convert to Jane Goodall’s work….seeing her presentations and meeting her at the Royal Society in London. So, I was hooked on these beautiful, intelligent creatures. I moved to Australia and can’t remember when I first discovered CSNW but it was quite early on and Burrito immediately stole my heart, followed by all the others…..unique in their own ways and all so lovable. I admire their resilience, marvel at seeing them now after such terrible early years, and love my daily dose of seeing life at the sanctuary. I have so many saved photos that I use as wallpaper on my computer, and although there are so many favourite videos, the one of Burrito getting an arm and leg massage from Chad is priceless. Thank you all for the work you do.
Elaine Reininger says
Like Jenna I too started out falling in love with orangatans after reading the story of BUDI, But then I read somewhere about Foxy’s and that is how I came to learn about Chimpanzee santuary Northwest.
Marcia says
I’ve always been very interested in primates. when I was in my early teens I was in a mall and they had something like a petting zoo there. They had a lone monkey and I could feel her broken heart like it was my own. I disregarded the barrier and went to the cage and sat there with her. We groomed eachother. It was simultaneously one of the most awful and beautiful moments of my life.
What attracted me to CSN was the playful and adorable burrito. His adorableness makes me forget sometimes that he has other facets of his personality and that he’s a guy who has serious thoughts and feelings too. the first pic of him in this post made me think about that. He looks serious and formidable even though I suspect he’s in the middle of playing with the basket.
Deanna says
I fell in love with chimps during my time working at the Wildlife Waystation. Learning the story of their past in laboratories my heart went out to them. It amazes me that they have any trust in humans at all. Cy boy was one of the first individuals that really caught my attention and stole my heart! Every morning and afternoon when I was making my rounds administering meds to all the other animlas at WWS he would clap at me and want to play a game of chase! A female Selena, from another family group would also clap at me to ask me to come over to play chase… she is now at Primarily Primates… Chimps both amaze and frighten me! They are capable of such brutality towards each other but also exhibit such tenderness! So much like us!! Their crazy healing ability is also amazing!
CeeCee says
I fell in love as a little kid, because of seeing Jane Goodall on T.V.
apparently I announced to my family that I was going to move to New York and “raise Chimps” Entirely missing Jane’s whole environmental message. (City Girl đ
Linda C says
One of my earliest toys in memory was a black and yellow stuffed chimp (I believe it was the “Zippy” variety, but without the banana in hand). I called her Judy bc of one of my favorite shows, Daktari. Judy survived the abuses of my older siblings, but sadly, she did not fare well when she met my oldest nephew when he was a toddler.
We didn’t have a large zoo in my city, but I remember traveling to one an hour or so away when I was small, before my father became ill. I always liked animals, but primates were of particular interest because they’re like us, but they’re not like us.
I probably would have loved studying anthropology in college, had the Honors College offered it as a general elective. My oldest niece loved (loves) them as well, and her best friend DID study Anthropology and has worked with a sanctuary down south, I forget which one.
Fast forward a few years, I was doing graduate work in Madison, where there were only a couple of chimps, and Frans was working on smaller simians. The friend I most often went to the zoo with would never linger long near their enclosure, because she thought she saw behaviors indicating stress (and Madison did move them to Lincoln Park zoo in 2013). So I didn’t get to observe them as much, and the large circular enclosure where Frans was working with the rhesus monkeys was usually quite smelly…not to mention chaotic, as they leapt, played, and ran about their areas, from top to bottom and left to right. That project and I left Madison the same year.
Just before that, I had missed the opportunity to hear Dr Goodall speak at UWSP, where I was adjunct faculty–one of my few regrets in life was not cancelling my classes to go and hear her, although I let some of my students go.
Then one day, a video popped into my YT feed about a chimp who loved dolls….and who was so happy to see her favorite caregiver back from vacation, she did flips! And the sanctuary was small, so I got to know their names, and faces (and hands and backsides!:smile:), their likes and dislikes. Going behind the scenes to see how it all operates, and the small size, was what hooked me into following this one more closely than Save the Chimps or Project Chimps, because it allows me to appreciate their individuality in ways I never thought I could.
Oh, and I scored a pretty cool photographic book on the great apes from the library’s free cart the other day! Guess who’s getting a new/used book for her birthday?!
Kathleen says
Amazing where we land. You just never know what will come out of one simple experience. Thanks for sharing your great ape experiences with us, Jenna. I envy your time at Fauna! Loulis and Tatu and Washoeâs entire family played a large roll in my appreciation of chimpanzees. Looking back on my life, I wish I studied with them.
I too love Orangutans. And I am a longtime follower of Orangutan Foundation International (Camp Leakey) started by Dr. Birute Mary Galdikas, the third primatologist of âLeakeyâs Anglesâ. But my love of chimpanzees goes back to childhood. I still have a small stuffed chimpanzee in my studio. He sits like a bookend to all my great ape reading materials (non fiction and fiction). He looks like the 1960âs Steiff Jocko the Chimp, but cuter. Out of all my stuffed animals, he is the one I still have today.
My deep dive into everything chimpanzee began after I read âNim Chimpsky : The chimp who would be humanâ by Elizabeth Hess. I was so deeply emotionally changed forever after reading it (the year was 2008). From that moment on, I couldnât learn enough. I dove into âNext of Kinâ by Roger Foust and again, I was emotionally changed in a similar, but different, fashion. I had to learn everything I could about Roger Foust and his chimps and through this I learned about Wildlife Waystation as Booee (Nimâs brother) was rescued from a biomedical laboratory and sent to WW. I followed Nim to Black Beauty Ranch. I still think of them today.
Nim and Booee, Washoe and her family, changed everything for me and focused my activism for animals like a laser on chimpanzees. Jane Goodall, Frans de Waal, and so on, became my world through their writing. I couldnât google enough! I looked through all the chimpanzee sanctuaries and the books about them, Fauna included. I have such respect for Gloria Grow! I discovered CSNW somewhere in the mist of all this. I believe it was the video played at HOOT! (Out of the Box video) where the Cle Elum Seven first ventured outside on Youngâs Hill that deeply seeded my relationship with you. I knew these seven chimpanzee people would stay a part of my life.
Then, once again there was Nim. 2011 HBO took Elizabeth Hessâs book and turned it into a documentary titled âProject Nimâ. (Kleenex Red Alert) This somehow became a sign that yes, I owe my passion to Nim. I will always fight for Nim, there are still a lot of Nimâs out there, some of them still under the control of the NIH trapped in New Mexico waiting for their life in a sanctuary, needing our compassion and our voice.
One last note. A few years back, while working for a non profit organization called the Unexpected Pit Bull https://www.earthrated.com/blogs/blog/how-one-organization-is-inspiring-a-better-understanding-of-pit-bull-dogs (the business no longer in operation), I had the opportunity to meet the author of Nim, Elizabeth Hess, at her home. I felt a wee bit âstar struckâ đ meeting her. She had written a book about a local animal shelter and as a pit bull dog lover, was discussing the idea of writing a book on the subject. Elizabeth was Six Degrees of Separation to both of my passions. I find this commonplace in the animal welfare world. We are all closely connected, closer than you would think.
What fun reading every reply!
Kathleen says
PS: for my reference to Roger Foust and Booee, watch this nightly news program from nine years ago. (Booee appears near the end at 9:15) https://youtu.be/C0T8ozlxqJI?si=UlJY58OWEZqkrtMD
Paulette says
Kanzi the Bonobo was the first great ape to capture me. Many years ago. Also the bonobos at Primate Research Institute of Kyoto University. The bonobo’s unique secluded homeland in the DRC and how that gave way to a matriarch society. They are fascinating and I do still follow and support Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary in Kinshasa in the DRC (if you pray, pray for them as they struggle with various rebels and militants). Then 2020 came. Struggling to fill my days I turned to YouTube. There I (also) met Budi (OMG!). And jungle school. And the gorillas. Then I saw lab chimps feeling the sun for the first time. Hours and hours and hours. I tried following Project Chimps and Save the Chimps. But then I saw the arrival video of Willy B, Honey B, and Mave. And found this little sanctuary that really lets you in. Every day. Allows you get to know each of them intimately. There’s no other sanctuary like it. I love it, and them. Our 16 brothers and sisters. And the beautiful people who care for them.
Jane McDowall says
I have alway loved all primates, but when i first saw a program call Monkey Life about a rescue place in Dorset England i fell in love with a chimp called Sslly. Sally couldnt tske to being in an adult group, so. ge became the surragate mum to the orphan babies who came to tge centre. The moment Sally would see a new baby, she would do piriots and twirls until the park manager Jeramy would let her come into the room with him and the baby. She knew straight off not to be full on with the baby, but she would stay next yo Jeramy eho she adored and she would raid his pockets for mints all the while putting her hand out to the baby until the baby would let her hold him/her, and thrn that wad it, she would be off holding this baby close. Jeramy is like a real life Dr Dolittle, he always was able to go in with a few adult chimps especially Sally. Seeing her doing these twrills was just so heartwarming and till the day she passed, she was always “mum”.