Friends of Washoe is co-hosting with Fauna Foundation a short online course in the science of understanding chimpanzee behavior and its application to improve conditions in captivity. What does it mean to be a chimpanzee particularly living in captivity and how do humans impact their lives? We’ll begin with understanding basics of behavior and communication. This will include the social lives of chimpanzees in the wild and how they communicate. These natural abilities were harnessed in cross-fostering studies in the 70’s and 80’s in which infant chimpanzees acquired signs and those studies will be described. How do we care for these intelligent social beings in captivity through diet, enrichment, sociality, cooperation, training, and safety. Things often go wrong leading to abnormal behaviors and mental health issues. What are ways to ensure quality and consistency in care through daily records? Finally we will turn to ethics. How are they used by humans and what happens to them after the research ends. Who is still left? Who protects them in the US and how do we ensure the best in care? Click on the title above to register.
Dr. Jensvold at SETI Institute Workshop
Dr. Jensvold will present "An Ethological Approach to Communication" on communicating with nonhumans at the SETI Workshop on Decoding Alien Intelligence. https://daiworkshop.seti.org/programagenda
Barbara King highlights the great failures of comparative intelligence testing of chimpanzees to humans to give chimpanzees comparable and fair experimental situations that are outlined in a recent Animal Cognition article framed around Stephen Jay Gould's "The Mismeasure of Man".
The North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance virtual workshop is now open for registration!
After The New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Judicial Department's June 8th decision on and dismissal of the Nonhuman Rights Project's habeas corpus cases of Tommy and Kiko, two captive chimpanzees, the NhRP has decided to release the full court decision with the NhRP's full annotations in order to inform the public about the court's failure to do its duty. The read the annotated decision and Steven Wise's statement on its release, click here.
To learn the background of this story and see Tatu and Loulis in their new home, check out the documentary Unlocking the Cage!
The NIH announced plans to phase out biomedical research on chimpanzees in 2013 and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife re-classified all U.S. chimpanzees as endangered in 2015, putting an end to all chimpanzee use in biomedical research, yet only 73 of the hundreds of chimpanzees still in lab facilities have been moved to sanctuaries in the last two years. So many are still stuck because of resistance and lack of promised funding from labs, difficulty in expanding chimpanzee sanctuaries, and a lack of a solid plan by the government on how to go about the retirement process. To read more about these complicating factors and where the majority of chimpanzees are now, click here
Author Gains Insight and Inspiration from Advanced Chimposium
In her interview with Diane Rehm of NPR, author Karen Joy Fowler credits her visit to CHCI for helping her understand chimpanzees for her novel We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. Click here to hear the excerpt. Or follow this link to hear the whole program.
Jennifer Viegas' report "Chimps put passion in their communications" takes a look at a recent CHCI publication. Click here to read the research article.
CHCI Supports Recommendations to NIH
CHCI Director, Dr. Mary Lee Jensvold calls the NIH recommendations regarding Chimpanzees "a watershed moment". Click Here to Read the Yakima Herald Article
GREAT NEWS! NIH Urged to Retire Nearly All of Its 700 Chimpanzees
Click here to read an article from SCIENCE magazine. To read the recommendations from the Institute of Medicine report click here.
New Publication for CHCI:
Click here to read our latest article Use of gesture sequences in captive chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) play by Maureen S. McCarthy, Mary Lee A. Jensvold, & Deborah H. Fouts in the journal Animal Cognition.
A Tribute to Washoe
Click here to read former graduate student Maureen McCarthy's tribute to Washoe on Scientific American's blog.
CHCI Student Studies Chimpanzees in Uganda
Jessica Hartel, a graduate of CHCI, writes of her experience studying chimpanzees in Uganda. Click here to read her article.
Project Nim Highlights Heartbreaks of Chimpanzees in Captivity
Project Nim, a documentary film directed by James Marsh, is the story of scientist Herb Terrace and his experiment - initiated in December, 1973 - to teach sign language to a chimpanzee named Nim. It is also a gut-wrenching tale of what we humans do to chimpanzees in captivity.
Read more of this article--written by CHCI director Dr. Mary Lee Jensvold--from the Animal Welfare Institute.
