It’s the holiday season, and there’s no place like home for the holidays. Millions of people crowd airports, interstates, buses, and trains to make their way home.
Earlier this year, Chimp Haven had a homecoming of their own. Well, technically, these chimps were new to the primate facility, and it wasn’t quite their home just yet.
Reininger: “Okay, my name is Michelle Reininger, I’m the colony director at Chimp Haven. So, I’m in charge of the husbandry department.
Atnip: “Okay… what does that mean?”
Reiniger: “Basically, everybody who does the cleaning, feeding, and kind of, day-to-day care for the chimps.”
Alaina: “How long have you been there?”
Reiniger: “I have been with Chimp Haven since 2013, so that’s 12 years now.”
Michelle Reininger began working in the business of chimpanzee sanctuary in 1995, 16 years before the National Institute of Health’s declaration that chimpanzee use in invasive research is not justifiable in 2011. This statement came after years of pushback from chimp advocates against facilities like the Alamogordo Primate Facility in New Mexico. Located on the Holloman Air Force Base, the APF was created to house the chimpanzees used in biomedical and aeronautical research, according to Project R&R. Eventually, the Holloman Air Force Base was prohibited from using the APF chimps for testing.
2024 marked the year where the NIH announced that all remaining chimps at the Alamogordo Primate Facility in New Mexico would be transferred to Chimp Haven in Keithville, La.
According to Reininger, a chimp transfer process begins with phone calls, though unfortunately not with the chimps themselves. The receiving facility, in this case Chimp Haven, tries to learn as much as they can about the new chimps before they arrive, such as individual quirks, likes, and dislikes.
“We have read their behavioral records, their medical records, those types of things so that we have kind of an idea of who they are before they get here,” Reininger says.
Once the travelers arrive, they have to be quarantined for about a month. Reininger notes that during this time, the caretakers can get to know the new chimps more personally.
“But it can be, kind of, a process,” she says. “Sometimes they’ll come in, and they’ll just fit in immediately. They’ll [act as if] “I’ve been here my entire life, I know exactly what’s going on. I’m totally comfortable.” And then, you’ll get the ones that are a little more shy. They’re not really sure what’s going on. They don’t know who all [of] these strangers are that are around them.”
But Reininger says that the Chimp Haven team takes time with the nervous chimps, and while it might take them longer, they’ll eventually feel at home.
Chimp Haven has now received every APF chimp, a total of over 20 primates.
“It created for us the need to create more spaces to be able to house the chimps, too, so that they could retire successfully to Chimp Haven and live out their lives in sanctuary.” Reininger says.
“Living the Chimp Life,” as Reininger likes to phrase it, essentially includes a large social group, trees to climb, and all the needs of a chimp met. After raising funds earlier this year, they were able to begin construction for additional room and play yards.
Reininger says Chimp Haven tries to introduce new chimps into families that already existed in the sanctuary. Since they’re such social animals, chimpanzees can greatly benefit in being put into family groups, and according to Reininger, it can make the introduction process easier. For example, Chimp Haven welcomed three older females from APF who took a while to take to their new family, but success eventually came.
Sot 6 “We have a group that we like to call ‘The Oldies’ because they’re all basically in their late 50s, and include our oldest male, Julius, who is 65 years old. The three females are in that group now, living their best life. They’re loving on Julius,” Reininger says. “One of them, Mikail, is particularly fond of Julius, almost overly so. To where he sometimes has to tell her “It’s time out. Julius is 65 years old and needs a break now.’ We’re working on it one step at a time.”
While these chimps might not be exchanging presents around a Christmas tree or passing the salt at family dinner, they have been able to find home for the holidays.
With Red River Radio News, I’m Alaina Atnip.