Brian Hare and Alan Alda converse outside the chimpanzee enclosure at the North Carolina Zoo. Credit: Maggie Villiger

By Maggie Villiger

Part of my job as Associate Producer for The Human Spark is getting each person who appears on camera to sign our release form, which gives us permission to use what we film with them. To be honest, it’s usually the easiest part of my job! But when we filmed with Duke University’s Brian Hare at the North Carolina Zoo, he resisted.

Brian wanted to wait to grant his permission to air the footage we shot with him until we could guarantee that we’d used no “Hollywood” chimpanzees in our show. He’d recently had a bad experience with another film crew that did include Hollywood chimps in their program about human cognition, and he was adamant that he wouldn’t sign until he could know for sure that The Human Spark had not done the same.

So our crew left North Carolina with footage of a fantastic exchange between Brian Hare and Alan Alda – but with the release form unsigned. At the time, it just seemed like a speed bump, not a brick wall. The Human Spark had no intention of turning to stunt trainers to get footage – our interest is in the behavioral studies that respected scientists do with chimps, not tricks they can be trained to perform. We continued on our travels around the world, filming as we went.

A still from the opening scene of So Human, So Chimp with Alan and Noah the young chimp and Russell the little boy.

One of our most important scenes was the open of the second program, So Human, So Chimp.  Each Human Spark episode begins with Alan Alda setting up the hour’s theme by speaking directly to camera. In this case, the theme is that chimps and human beings share a lot of characteristics, but are also 6 million years of evolution apart. After hearing about a docile, home-raised chimp from another one of our experts, Series Producer Graham Chedd had an idea; he decided the most effective way to get this theme across was to have Alan introduce it while sitting with a young chimp and a young child. Filming with Noah, this young pet chimp who was well-accustomed to being around people, seemed like the safest and most responsible way to create this kind of compelling scene.

Cut forward several months. We needed to get that appearance release signed by Brian once and for all in order to broadcast the footage of him. But through email exchanges, it quickly became apparent we hadn’t fully understood Brian’s objections. He was OK with the material we had shot at zoos, sanctuaries and research centers because they are regulated by tough animal welfare standards. But featuring ANY privately owned chimp in the program would be enough for him to refuse to participate. And so we came to an impasse.

Infant chimpanzees are shot off their mothers' backs in their African habitat and sold internationally – a trade that is threatening chimpanzees with extinction.

Brian patiently explained his ethical objections to us. He believes that filming pet or entertainer chimps helps contribute to the illegal international trade in infant chimpanzees – a trade that is helping push this endangered species closer to extinction.  Brian worried viewers would get the mistaken impression that chimps make good pets; in fact, once they mature into strong and unmanageable adult chimps, virtually all of these animals are given up by their owners. Brian says some are even killed. There’s simply not enough space or resources to rehabilitate the hundreds of pet chimpanzees that are kept across the United States. Brian is troubled by the overall effect on the chimp species in the wild as well as by the suffering endured by individual privately owned chimps. Others agree, and in fact, major scientific, welfare and health organizations have policies against using privately owned primates in films.

Brian’s arguments were thoughtful and reasonable to The Human Spark team though he did concede that there is little scientific evidence that links TV portrayals of animals to the illegal pet trade. His group is currently conducting research into just this question so in future the debate can be informed by empirical evidence in addition to compassion for our primate relatives.

American conservation groups can appear hypocritical when they tell Africans not to keep apes as pets but U.S. citizens are allowed by law. Credit: Vanessa Woods

On the other hand, Graham pointed out how important the opening scene was to the film. Alan’s narration clearly included the facts that the differences between the child and the chimp would increase as they each grow up, and that the native habitats of chimps and their continued survival in the wild is in jeopardy. Graham also explained that the shot that follows this introduction is of Hondo, a full-grown alpha male at the North Carolina Zoo, lunging at his glass enclosure and scaring Alan. Graham felt the contrast between the cute baby chimp reaching up to Alan and the aggressive adult chimp trying to hit him, would powerfully transmit the idea that keeping chimps as pets is a very bad idea. He also added a line of narration that explains how Hondo was captured illegally in Africa as an infant, and shipped to the United States as a pet before he was rescued and eventually brought to the zoo.

We needed to come up with a compromise. Since all of us involved in this debate are in possession of our own human sparks, we called upon our sociability and ability to work together to move toward a solution. First, Graham made sure that Alan’s narration clearly explains the threats to chimpanzee survival posed by the bushmeat business and the illegal international trade in baby chimps. Graham also took out a portion of the opening scene where the baby chimp climbed up unbidden to hug Alan – it was undeniably cute, but in light of the points Brian had raised, Graham agreed that it might give the wrong impression.

Adult chimps can be aggressive and their strength makes them dangerous. Credit: Vanessa Woods

Then The Human Spark production team arranged for Brian to take part in an ethics panel at a major nature film festival. Panelists discussed the use and abuse of animals in documentary films, and Brian was able to educate a vast group of filmmakers about the dangers of filming with privately-owned chimps. He even had a pamphlet [.RTF] ready for festival participants. So, as a result of our experience on The Human Spark, filmmakers are now better informed about the controversy surrounding the use of Hollywood chimps, and more aware of the possibility of unintended consequences.

Finally, we all eagerly agreed to post an explanation of this issue on the Human Spark website. By exploring the controversy and explaining our case study, we hope to get our viewers thinking about the issues as well, something that wouldn’t have happened if we had simply cut the problematic scene and moved on.

Read an article Brian Hare wrote for The Human Spark about why chimpanzees are not pets.

“So Human, So Chimp” premieres January 13 on PBS.

“So Human, So Chimp” premieres January 13 on PBS.

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A resident of Cayo Santiago takes in the scene. Photo by Larry Engel

By Larry Engel, Director of Photography

At the southeastern tip of Puerto Rico is a small island only a short boat ride from the mainland. We flew into San Juan, drove south through the mountains, down to the shore to meet the scientists with whom we would work the following morning. At the beach, families were enjoying the late afternoon sun and water. People were dancing in the parking lot. It was warm and pleasant. We could see Cayo Santiago about a half-mile offshore from the pier.

The island is home to a group of monkeys that were brought there in 1938 so North American researchers could better study primates without having to go to South America or Africa. One problem, though, was that in the early days of primate research, people didn’t have a solid grasp of habitat and dietary needs for their research animals. Even though it seemed as if Cayo Santiago was big enough to support a colony of rhesus macaques, it turns out that the vegetation and habitat area is not sufficient to support the 1,000 monkeys who currently live freely on the island. So there is a need to supplement that food, which does grow on the island, and two main feeding stations provide extra food for the monkeys. To get to the food, the monkeys have to open metal bins. The lids clang off-and-on throughout the day, and while we were filming this sound drove me nuts. An otherwise peaceful setting was constantly dotted with the clinging and clanging of what sounded like, at least to me, crazy garbage men at work.

We were warned that the monkeys could come over and try to bite us, but that we could fend them off with our own loud noises and a few displays of aggressiveness (for example, raising our arms high and waving them — sort of like what you might do if you were trying to get rescued). I thought that the camera would be a good defense, so I wasn’t too worried. But a couple of times during the day’s shoot, one of researchers would yell out a warning to the monkeys while I had my eye to the viewfinder.

We were also warned not to spend too much time under branches where monkeys were sitting. This was a somewhat difficult task for me as I would find a good location for a shot but then realize that I had positioned the tripod or myself directly beneath a monkey. The reason that you don’t want to hang out under a monkey on a branch is that they have a tendency to intentionally urinate on you – or worse! I wondered if I should put the rain cover on the camera but decided against it. We all paid close attention to what was going on above us throughout the day.

In order to get on the island we had to have tuberculosis tests and provide our negative results. This was to protect the monkeys, not us. Throughout the primate world, there is growing alarm over the transmission of human diseases to our cousins. They don’t have the exposure to our diseases, and that makes them susceptible to not only getting sick but dying from illnesses that are seemingly innocuous to us – like the common cold. Another precaution: we had to retreat to a caged hut to eat and drink. We couldn’t eat anything outdoors; it would be bad for both the monkeys and us. I liked the idea that we were the ones who had to be inside the cage looking out while the monkeys were on the outside looking in.

A monkey makes his approach toward the grape of the researcher with her back turned, presumably because it thinks it will be easier to steal from someone who isn’t looking. Photo by Larry Engel

We were there to film researcher Laurie Santos and her experiments that look at monkeys’ decision-making concerning thievery. We were hoping to capture it all on video – not an easy task with our additional crew members in attendance.

This monkey successfully snagged the grape from behind Laurie Santos’ back. Photo by Larry Engel

The way it works is that two people approach a monkey who is paying attention to them. They both do exactly the same thing: show the monkey a grape, put it onto a square piece of wood, and put the “plate” on the ground. A third person counts and calls out the moves so that each person does exactly the same thing at the same time. When the grapes are on the ground, one person turns her back to the monkey. The other person stays facing the monkey. Then, both are motionless. The monkey more often than not sneaks up on the person who is not looking and steals the grape.

We actually were able to film the experiment successfully and even photographed another one. It was amazing how fast the monkeys would make their decision to go for the grape… but each monkey would look up at the experimenter’s back all the way to the grape before hightailing it back to the bush with treat in hand. One monkey, however, didn’t really care who was aware or unaware of his action. It appears that he was a dominant male and really didn’t care who he took food from. He was, literally, king of the hill.

I really enjoy filming animals, especially primates. When I’m looking into the eyepiece, through the lens, most of my world disappears and I’m in their world. I don’t see us; I see them. I’m drawn into their world, I look into their eyes, and I wonder what they are thinking about me. Do they look at us and think that we look somewhat like them? Do they wonder what we’re thinking as I do about them? There is a connection, but also a divide. And I’m honored to film among researchers who are trying to bridge it so that we can understand them better and, ultimately, they us.