Chimp Haven Welcomes New Retirees – NPR Short Wave Podcast

If you happen to visit Northern Louisiana, you might hear some unusual sounds around. That sound is from Chimp Haven, the world’s largest chimpanzee sanctuary and the official retirement home for research chimps.  

In 2015, the National Institute of Health (NIH) ended their invasive biomedical research on hundreds of chimps. Since then, NIH has been gradually moving the animals to Chimp Haven. NPR science correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce joins the Short Wave podcast to talk about the NIH’s program to retire research chimps.

Welcoming the two chimpanzees named Huey and Pancake, both in their 30’s, has been unexpectedly dramatic. Their arrival was memorable due to its significance to the entire process of retiring government-owned and managed research chimps. When the two new retirees arrived, all NIH chimps eligible at Chimp Haven were already there.

The NIH is almost done moving its former research chimps to a sanctuary.

Huey (male) and Pancake (female) have been devoted for over 20 years. They got loaded onto a truck together at a research facility in Texas, where they’ve lived since they were young. They traveled for hours to Louisiana, where the hoots and screams of hundreds of chimpanzees echoed over pine trees.

The two primates are now hanging out in a building that serves as the welcome center for Chimp Haven.  

Amy Fultz, a co-founder of Chimp Haven, knew Huey and Pancake back in the 1990s. At that time, she was working at that Texas research facility. Back then, Fultz wanted to create a sanctuary for retired research chimps.

Which chimpanzees are eligible to live in a natural reserve?

Huey and Pancake’s arrival at Chimp Haven shows that the government has entered a new stage in its continuing effort to retire its former research chimps. Now, all of the federally-managed chimps qualified to go to this reserve have been sent there.

An NIH official said that the majority of the 85 government-supported chimps remaining at research facilities have chronic, progressive health problems making them too fragile and ill to ever move.

Nine of these remaining chimps might be healthy enough to relocate to Chimp Haven, but they’re currently ineligible to go. It’s because each is part of a socially bonded pair with another, sicker chimp. However, when the sicker chimps die, their partners will undergo reevaluation and may transfer.

“That’s why the process of sending them to Chimp Haven is largely finished. However, there’s still that group that’s in a tight social bond that will be reconsidered, when possible,” James Anderson of NIH said.

However, some animal welfare advocates doubt how NIH officials and veterinarians have made these decisions. They believe that more chimps should have the chance to live the rest of their lives at a sanctuary.

A new life in Louisiana

Currently, 330 chimps live on a 200-acre property that includes natural, wooded areas surrounded by moats. With more than 50 employees, Chimp Haven devotes their time caring for the chimps.

“Chimpanzees in the wild live in groups of 20 to more than 100 chimpanzees. Our average group size today at Chimp Haven is 11. So, we are in the process of integrating the chimpanzees into those larger groups,” says Fultz.

Sometimes chimps are familiar with others already. For example, Huey and Pancake know some chimps at the sanctuary. Huey has a son who has been living there.

But then, all of this social planning needs a thorough study and coordination between Chimp Haven and the sending facility.

All images are from Chimp Haven.

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