Chimpanzees and retirement.

The subject of sanctuaries for chimpanzees has lately become the topic of a great deal of discussion (Brent, Butler, & Haberstroh, 1997; Committee on Long-Term Care of Chimpanzees, 1997; Dyke, Williams-Blangero, Mamelka, & Goodwin, 1995; Peterson & Goodall, 1993). In the United States, laboratories that use chimpanzees in research are facing a housing crisis. An increase in captive births caused by the initiation of the National Chimpanzee Breeding and Research Program in 1986 (Hobson, Graham, & Rowell, 1991), coupled with the diminished use of chimpanzees as experimental subjects, have led to a large population of chimpanzees considered to be surplus to demand (Blood, Wolfle, & Whitney, 1992). These chimpanzees, as well as an unknown number from the private sector, are candidates for what is currently being called retirement.

Resocialization of a group of ex-laboratory chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes.

In order to determine if socially deprived chimpanzees could establish an integrated social unit and reproduce, a group of wild-born individuals from a single-cage laboratory environment were released onto a small island in a South Florida tourist park in 1975. The present study was undertaken during June and July of 1988 to evaluate the long term results of the experiment and to document the reproductive history of the chimpanzees since their release on the island. The evidence presented in this paper suggests that it is possible for laboratory chimpanzees to be resocialized and to reproduce successfully.