Arrival and integration of a new female chimpanzee

Last autumn we received a young female chimpanzee to integrate her into our breeding group, following a recommendation of the EAZA Ex situ Program (EEP) for the Central African chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes troglodytes).

The captive population of Central African chimpanzees numbering less than forty individuals housed in Europe, females and males of reproductive age are put together to form stable social communities capable of raising infants at regular intervals. The EEP wishes to increase the number of births in order to maintain in the long term a genetically healthy “reservoir” population of this subspecies classified as “Endangered” on the IUCN Red List.

The introduction process of the female into our group made up of 4 males and 4 females including two 3-year old infants, took place over a 6 weeks-period with several successive phases: habituating the female to the building, her new keepers and the daily routine, organizing protected contacts through a wire mesh allowing her to successively meet all our group members without risk of injury, putting her in contact with the chimpanzees showing the most positive behaviors, then gradually adding the other individuals once the first bonds have been observed.

African chimpanzees, whose range extends from Cameroon to the Democratic Republic of Congo, are mainly threatened by poaching and the destruction of their habitat. Palmyre Conservation participates in the conservation of the species in the wild by financing the action of the sanctuary J.A.C.K. in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It rescues chimpanzees from trafficking, heals and integrates them into social groups where they can once again express natural behaviors.