3/25/2023 0 Comments Juvenile chimpanzee hand![]() ![]() Mollinedo took over in 1995, the adult chimps had lived in cramped, run-down quarters with a concrete play area. ![]() In the adults’ old exhibit, where the chimps had huge fights, Toto was the biggest instigator of them all.īefore director Manuel A. “See how they sort of cling together? Hold on to each other? Oh, they need to toughen up, you know what I mean? They need to be able to handle themselves in the group. In her 40s, Bingaman is the mother of two adult sons and has overseen the adult chimps for 13 years. On this morning, Bingaman despairs as the babies escape Toto’s rage in their aimless conga line shuffle, with no protector in sight. (During this transition, the babies are not on public display.) Even then, the plan was to eventually move the babies to the adult group, which includes Jean’s and Jake’s mothers. In the aftermath, officials at the city-owned zoo decided to hand-rear Jean and Jake, along with Zoe, who arrived later from another zoo. A series of dramatic events began with the surprise birth of a baby chimp and peaked with the infant’s death at the hands of two of the juveniles. In early 1999, media reports worldwide had framed the 13-member adult group in soap opera-ish terms of sex, power and murder. That should ease their fears about going in, and they’ll know a little more about how to behave when they meet others in the group.” “Right now, all we want to do is get them to a point where they’re playing and happy and comfortable with Bonnie and Toto. “What a couple of nice folks to meet if you’re going to figure out you’re a chimp, and figure out this is where you belong,” says lead chimp keeper Vicki Bingaman, in the early stages of the babies’ transition. ![]() This summer, Jean, Jake and Zoe are getting to know the other adult chimps for the first time, starting with the group’s two respected elders, Toto and 45-year-old Bonnie. Two years ago, the babies were taken from their mothers and raised in the zoo nursery by humans who bottle-fed them and tucked them into cribs every night. The three baby chimps will join the adults soon, if all goes well in a lengthy transition process marked by the unexpected. Toto’s tirade is nothing, really, a bit of territorial marking by a former alpha male in the zoo’s adult group. Wide-eyed, they scoot as one, 30 pounds each of jiggly baby fat, dragging a yellow blanket. The 2-year-olds, who grew up without mothers, cling to each other when they’re scared or stressed. Jean, who’s smart and bratty, is in back Jake, a bundle of macho energy, is in the middle Zoe, the bravest of the three, is in front. On the floor, they cuddle in choo-choo-train formation. Waa! Waa! He hurls a plastic blue barrel at the wall, with all the force of his 140-pound muscular frame. The 47-year-old chimpanzee screams, Hoo-Hoo-Hoo-Hoo. Toto, who is missing a few teeth, grimaces and stomps his feet at the intrusions. But the morning is hot, and, in a rooftop play area at the Los Angeles Zoo, the air hangs heavy with smoke. The Old Guy is white-bearded and wise, the Obi-Wan Kenobi to three babies on most days. ![]()
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