We are continuing the process of introducing George to Cy’s group of 6, and are preparing for a very exciting next step. Now seems like a good time to provide you all with a synopsis of what we have done so far, and where we hope to go next. If all goes well, George will soon be living with other chimpanzees full-time.
We began our introduction process with short (~1 hour) afternoon meetings with George and each of the individuals of Cy’s group, first focusing on Cy, Terry, and Rayne as those that we thought would be the most accepting of George. We wanted to give George positive introduction experiences to set him up for success before introducing him to others who may be more difficult. George did very well with Cy and Terry to start, and over the course of multiple meetings had some misunderstandings, all of which they were able to navigate. In these initial intros, he struggled the most with Rayne, which we later saw to be a trend with other females when he met Lucky and Dora. With the males, he was often quick to engage in play, and later would allow himself to be groomed, whereas the females seem to find him to be more of a threat (understandably – his displays are impressive!) and often sought reassurance or to groom, which he seems more uncomfortable with than play. George was also uncomfortable with being groomed in certain areas, and would quickly disengage when individuals tried to groom him in those areas. The females were generally less accepting of this behavior, and would become upset.
Cy grooms George
Once George had met Cy, Terry, and Rayne on multiple occasions, we started to include individuals from the remainder of Cy’s group into the introduction schedule. George met Gordo and we were happily surprised by how well they did together, and how calm Gordo remained even when George displayed repeatedly. George met Dora, then Lucky, and as we went, we changed our introduction plan to accommodate what the chimps were showing us that they needed. We introduced George to Mave to help him learn how to interact with females, as Mave is generally more confident than Lucky and Dora, and Mave showed us she was willing to hold George accountable when he acted inappropriately. We lengthened the time of the introductions, and let misunderstandings and conflicts play out more without closing the door to separate the chimps, though we were prepared to do so if needed. This is difficult to do as the human observer – we want to protect our chimpanzee friends, and conflict feels scary. But conflict is an important part of chimpanzee life, as is the reconciliation that follows. We needed George to learn (or show us he knows) how to reconcile after a conflict, before we could feel confident in future integration into a larger social group. These longer introductions allowed the chimpanzees time to reconcile, and George showed us that given time (and without the option to just ignore the other individual because they were no longer sharing space), he can do it.
During this stage, Terry and George had several conflicts during their introductions, but were given time to reconcile and by the end of their time together were again playing and grooming. This is promising for George’s future as he joins a larger social group, as he was able to navigate each of these situations successfully.
Terry grooms George
From there, we moved to all day introductions of one individual of Cy’s group with George (for Terry, Cy, Gordo, and Rayne). We chose to continue afternoon introductions with Dora and Lucky, as we thought they would be more successful in all day introductions down the line, with Cy there as well to lessen their anxiety. During these all day introductions, they got to experience more of a normal day together. They ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner together and were given access to the chute and The Bray. They spent more time without direct supervision of the humans (though we were monitoring them from afar via video monitors).
Gordo grooms George
The next step? Cy comes to live with George, and we will begin to build the group around them. Before adding in more individuals, we will give opportunities for Cy to assert his dominance over George to help him understand where his place will be within the larger group. A lot of this will come simply from living together full time. Cy may demand first access to his favorite foods at meal time (like corn), to get the first look at the newest magazines, or to be the first one to interact with the humans. From there, we will continue to follow the chimps’ lead as we navigate the introduction process. I’m excited for the opportunities ahead, and hopeful for George as he begins another big step in his journey here.
Amazing! You all are so careful, so educated, in how you approach these chimp people. How overwhelming it must be for George, after having lived alone, to meet all these potential friends and roommates. Seems he’s doing well. I’d love to see one of his displays. Is he more emotional than most of the others? Is it is relative youth that brings on some of the responses? I look forward to watching the continuing saga.
Thank you, Mo! He is doing amazingly well. His displays are quite impressive! This video (https://youtu.be/v0-9M8Xe-vE?si=q2moAM8nyeB6-JeO) from J.B.’s blog “Go, George, Go!” on 9/29 shows some of his displays out on The Bray! I wouldn’t say he’s more emotional, but that he can be more easily overwhelmed and reactive to certain situations than others. For example, he can be especially excited by the presence of visitors to the sanctuary. Cy is also often excited about visitors, but usually comes up to sit and watch the visitors, while George’s excitement sometimes is shown by calmly watching his visitors, but other times he displays repetitively, resulting in us moving the visitors to another part of the sanctuary so that he will settle down. I do think the vigor and athleticism of his displays can be contributed in part to his youth – he is really going all out, and at his age, he can do so!
Do you think George’s negative reactions sometimes to CSNW visitors is base on unfortunate visitor encounters when he was at that coastal Safari park. He may not have had the ability to get away from things that upset him there.
I know introductions have got to be incredibly nerve-wracking, but it’s amazing to see George come so far! I am so excited for him!
Thanks for sharing with us the thinking behind the introduction process. It is very interesting and seems very promising for George to integrate well with Cy’s group.
George seems to be a chimp who progresses very rapidly. Ellen, are there any things that you see him stubbornly holding onto? Im so excited that soon, he wont be alone again… I keep thinking back to Terry from that zoo in LV, and his pal Jeannie.
Also, I never realized that the hierarchy extended to “first person to play with caregivers in the mornings”! Interesting!
He really does progress very quickly! The area I’d like to see the most growth in from him at this point is grooming other chimps – it is an important tool for building relationships and he has still only groomed others a handful of times, very briefly. He enjoys grooming the humans so we know he is capable of it.
That makes total sense, Ellen. It’s understandable that he’s more human-centred, with his background. I guess he trusts you guys completely, but he’s still holding back on the others. Poor guy.
That makes total sense, Ellen, since he’s more human-centred. Maybe it’s good that he trusts you guys completely, even if he’s still holding back on the others, poor little guy.
Good luck with this continuous process. It is like a giant puzzle where you cant wait til all the pieces fit together perfectly. George will be part of a family and Cy’s group will have a new member. Thanks, Ellen.
Fancinating, thanks for recaping the introduction process and explaining George’s behavior during each step.
This is such good news, I can’t wait to hear more. Can the other chimps recognize that George is much younger and be more tolerant of some of his behaviors because of it?
I had the same question, Nancy
This is a great question! Chimpanzees are born with a small tuft of white hair above their bottoms, that they retain for several years and lose around age 5. This tuft alerts others to be more tolerant of them, as they are just infants. Once the tuft is gone – for most individuals, so is that high level of tolerance. With that being said, while George is much younger than our other residents, he is an agile, strong, impressive adult male chimpanzee. His displays show this off – they are truly exceptional! Some of the other chimpanzees have been especially tolerant of the gaps in his social skills (like not reciprocating grooming, or being intolerant of having certain areas of his body groomed), which I believe is due more to their general personalities and confidence than George’s age.
oooh, yes, Jeff at Twycross or Chester Zoo in England has that whote tuft still-he’s an aforable little dickens!
I just wondered, bc thry definitely sense that Neggie is older and are both more gentle with her and share food with her.
I had no idea there was so much going on that we weren’t shown in the videos. Makes perfect sense, but it just goes to show that you never really know what’s going on in someone else’s life. It appears that is the same for both chimps and humans.
Agree! So helpful that the Blog remind us all that so much thought, skill, knowledge, training, effort and teamwork goes on at CSNW that results in the heartwarming, creative, “delicious” moments that we are also always so happy to see in the Blog. This is a multi-talented, humble, motivated, skilled and caring team! Thank goodness!
Thank you so much for these kind words, Roberta! This is so meaningful for us to read. Thank you for your support!
Wow-big news.
Eeek! Nail-biting!
Sooo excited for George.
Thanks for all the details. A long laborious process that must have all of you on pins and needles at times. At the same time it sounds exciting and incredibly rewarding—for George and all of you!
I am curious if George better understands the reciprocity of grooming? It seemed that in past posts he would accept grooming but was not yet ready to offering grooming while being groomed. I hope he has gained confidence to groom each of his new friends. And I want to send out a huge Thank You to Marvelous Mave for helping George out and doing what she does best.
I could not agree more – it is exciting, incredibly rewarding, and nerve-racking, all at once!
He does not yet seem to understand the reciprocity of grooming with other chimps (or is not yet comfortable doing so). He continues to accept grooming from others, and on a few occassions, very briefly groomed others. He has allowed more grooming in areas he previously did not want to be groomed, so I am hopeful he will continue to expand his comfort with grooming.
Marvelous Mave is right! She sure is wonderful.
My gosh, it is so complicated. You are making it so safe and as comfortable as possible for everyone.
What your doing is so wonderful and special. I hope so much that this works out for George. He deserves a family of his own and to live out his life in peace and happiness. Thank you for all that you are doing!!!!