In case you haven’t heard through all of the chimps’ Facebook status updates (yes, each chimp has their own FB page, which can be found through this link), thanks to volunteer Stephanie Perciful, the chimps had a pirate-themed party yesterday. What an awesome idea! Stephanie did an awesome job (as usual) collecting pirate-themed enrichment for the chimps, so the playroom was covered in buried treasures (e.g. gold beaded necklaces) and skulls and crossbones. Thanks, Steph!
Primates
Gene Hackman helping the Alamogordo Chimpanzees
So far the NIH has not budged on their plans to transfer 202 chimpanzees from the Alamogordo Primate Facility to the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research.
The chimpanzees have gotten some celebrity support recently, though – Gene Hackman wrote a letter to the head of NIH asking to halt this transfer. Check out this excerpt from his letter (it gave me chills in a good way):
“As you know, efforts to save the Alamogordo chimpanzee have drawn support from Gov. Bill Richardson, Sen. Tom Udall, and many other people around the state and across the country. I join them in urging you to fulfill the National Institutes of Health’s goal to ‘exemplify and promote the highest level of scientific integrity, public accountability, and social responsibility in the conduct of science’ by allowing these chimpanzees to live out their lives in the safety of a sanctuary.”
Read the full letter here: http://pcrm.org/resch/alamogordo/hackman.html
If you haven’t already, please contact the government about this issue. Your tax money is funding the laboratory housing and future experimentation on these chimpanzees.
Find out more ways you can help by following this blog for updates, as well as:
Animal Protection of New Mexico
Jody
Missy and a coconut
We put out three coconuts for dinner the other night and they were great for enrichment as well as food – they kept the chimps busy for hours. Missy was not the only one who used a tool to poke through the eye of the coconut and get the juice out. I don’t know if they learned that technique by observing humans or if that’s something they picked up on their own – either way, it’s pretty smart.
I love how this video shows many aspects of Missy’s personality – playful, athletic, a little silly and intelligent.
“Oh, Neggie…”
Negra’s playfulness with her caregivers was not just a one time deal. It seems she is really coming out of her shell and is starting to loosen up a bit. I can’t even begin to tell you all how happy this makes all of us. To see Negra laugh and play with her caregivers brings us sheer joy!
banana update – $36,627 raised
With Karen and Don Young’s generous match for each new goal we reach towards our 2nd Anniversary Fundraising, we have just $873 to go to reach $40,000 and 2 caged windows replaced by bullet proof glass and $3,373 to go to reach our ultimate goal and replace three caged-windows windows.
Thanks so much to everyone who has donated and raised funds so far!
Only 27 days to reach the ultimate goal!
Playful bunch of chimps!
Foxie and Jamie have had some pretty epic play sessions lately, but they’re not the only ones in good moods…
