The Kendall Project

It has been a busy and challenging couple of months forKendall and the NCZP staff.  Since ourlast update, we’ve had Kendall in a group with seven other chimps on twoseparate occasions.  In August 2009,Jonathon and Ruthie went into Kendall's group,which was already comprised of Kendall, Hondo, Tammy, Amy, Betty and Maki.  All was going well until we sadly lost Betty,a 35 year old female, in September 2009. She suffered from cardiac arrest (http://www.nczoo.org/newsroom/PressReleases/Chimp_Succumbs_To_He.html). 

After the loss of Betty, in an effort to move forwardtowards our goal of one group of chimps, we decided to add another chimp intothe group.  We picked a dominant femalenamed Ruby, age 13 years, who was acting extremely interested in Kendall at themesh.  We initially introduced her onlyto Kendall and Tammy, and Kendall and Ruby appeared to get along well rightaway.  We then put these three chimpsback with the rest of their group the following day. 

Everything appeared to be going well, but Kendallsuffered a setback about 5 days into the introduction.  Chimps that are the focus of an aggressiveattack often deflect that aggression by turning on weaker, more subordinateindividuals.  In turn, most sociallyappropriate chimps faced with this situation would either submit to the othersor attempt to defend themselves.  Thisappeared to have happened to Kendall beforekeepers reported to work on October 31, 2009. Most likely two or three chimps in the group began fighting, and one ormore individuals turned on Kendall to take thepressure off themselves.  Keepers arrivedto find Kendall with several minor injuries, which included a couple of bitewounds that required veterinary attention.  Kendall’s poor socialization at a youngage and his lack of knowledge as to how to submit or defend himself most likelywere the reasons he received the bite wounds. After the fight, he also appearedvery frightened of several of the other chimps, most likely because he neverdeveloped the coping skills that would have allowed him to appropriately dealwith aggression.  As a result, staff madethe decision to separate Kendall from hisgroup so that he could heal, physically and mentally.  Kendall was kept with Tammy, a female withwhich he has developed a close bond since his arrival at NCZP and who has oftenbeen observed defending Kendall during periodsof aggression. 

After two weeks of rest, recuperation, and attention, staffmembers agreed to get Kendall back into hisgroup so he could move towards rebuilding bonds with the other members of histroop.  Reintroductions with Hondo andMaki went smoothly.  Keepers thenattempted to reintroduce Ruby and Amy three days later.  For some reason, this introduction causedMaki and Hondo to become aggressive towards Kendall, and again he made noattempt to submit or defend himself. Although he was not injured, he again appeared frightened.  The decision was made to separate Kendall andTammy from the others until the best course of action is determined.  The goal is to socialize Kendall,keeping in mind his mental and physical well-being as well as the well-being ofthe rest of the chimps.

All of the chimps, including Kendall and Tammy, are doingvery well.  We will keep you updated asto Kendall’s progress and we thank you for your continued support of TheKendall Project and chimps like Kendall.