Chimpanzees

Using data from JGI’s Gombe Stream Research Center, scientists will undertake a new study investigating stressors of wild chimpanzees and materal behavior.

Lincoln Park Zoo post-doctoral researcher Carson Murray, Ph.D., has received a $900,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to undertake this five-year research. She will work with Elizabeth Lonsdorf, Ph.D., and Rachel Santymire, Ph.D., both of Lincoln Park Zoo, as well as Martha McClintock, Ph.D., of the University of Chicago.

NPR's midday new and call-in program, Talk of the Nation, asks the question, "Should Exotic Animals Be Kept As Pets?"

Jane answer's host Neal Conan's questions about this topic in the wake of the recent tragedy involving Travis the chimpanzee.

You can listen here.

Petit Prince lives up to his name – he is handsome and has a somewhat dignified air. When he arrived at JGI’s Tchimpounga Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Center in Congo on March 1, 2000, he was only 2 or 3 months old, dehydrated and barely alive. He was found in a lorry, tied up in a bag, with his right leg almost severed by what was most likely a snare. At the age of 2 months, he was one of the youngest chimpanzees to arrive at the sanctuary.

One of the animal world's most incredible stories of resilience and happy endings came to a quiet close yesterday: Gregoire, Africa's oldest known chimpanzee and a national hero in the Republic of Congo, died in his sleep.

When the JGI staff in Uganda received word that a chimpanzee was being held for sale on the black market, they worked with police on a successful sting operation.

In late January, the staff of the Jane Goodall Institute in Uganda were tipped off that a young chimpanzee had been captured and was up for sale for $1,000 (USD).

Data collected over several decades at JGI's Gombe Stream Research Center in Tanzania and other sites suggests that menopause – the period after which a woman's ovaries cease to produce eggs– may be a very human process not shared by our closest living relatives. In fact, nearly half of all wild female chimpanzees who live past the age of 40 continue to bear offspring.

JGI hailed Wednesday’s signing into law of the Chimp Haven is Home Act, a bill that will ensure chimpanzees living in sanctuary after years of medical research in government-funded facilities will not be returned to the labs.

Wild chimpanzee populations have experienced a significant reduction in the last 20 to 30 years, and face considerable threat ahead, according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, released last week with little good news.

Even after 47 years of being observed day in and day out, the chimpanzees of Gombe continue to surprise.

In a story that ultimately has a sad ending, Jane's favorite living Gombe chimpanzee, Gremlin, took her daughter's infant as her own earlier this year. Gombe researchers Emily Wroblewski and Matendo Msafiri estimated that the infant was not more than 48 hours old at the time. Although the young chimpanzee's life was ultimately quite short, his story is unprecedented. Such behavior had never before been documented, as far as we know.