NATURE introduces you to the unsung heroes in our history in Chimpanzees: An Unnatural History.

The history of chimps in our society is a history unlike any other. We have sent them into space, dressed them in costumes and demanded that they entertain us. Some have been adopted into human families until they “outgrew” their cuteness, many have been used to test our drugs or to help develop our vaccines, others have been infected with our most frightening diseases. While we are mesmerized by their likeness to our species and we have continually found uses for chimps, we never considered what they wanted or needed.

But their side of the story is starting to emerge. And it can be heard at the sanctuaries where many retired chimps now reside. It can be read in their medical records, seen in their mutilated bodies, or sensed through their psychological afflictions. We’ve had a conflicted relationships with chimps in our society but there are some people who want to simplify it. Chimpanzees: An Unnatural History will introduce you to the rescuers at sanctuaries like Fauna Foundation, Save the Chimps, Center for Great Apes. And they are determined to see that the traumatized residents they have saved from a life of confinement and suffering can finally be allowed to feel like chimps.

Update (January 2008): Under a new bill, called the Chimp Haven is Home Act, retired chimpanzees living at Chimp Haven in Keithville, Louisiana would not be able to be removed for medical research. President Bush must sign the bill for it to become law. The bill, introduced by U.S. Rep. Jim McCrery and U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, deletes a provision in standing law that would allow such removal. The CHIMP Act of 2000 established the National Chimpanzee Sanctuary System for chimpanzees retired from use in research. Chimp Haven operates this sanctuary system through a public-private partnership. “The chimpanzees at Chimp Haven have spent their lives in research laboratories helping to improve the lives of all Americans,” McCrery said. “Many of our discoveries in space and medicine are due to chimpanzees. I am proud to help modify the existing law to ensure chimpanzees at Chimp Haven will spend their final years happily.

To order a copy of Chimpanzees: An Unnatural History, please visit the NATURE Shop.

Online content for Chimpanzees: An Unnatural History was originally posted November 2006.

In a Tanzanian jungle, a scientist and a medicine man follow a chimpanzee in search of a cure for a deadly disease. On the plains of Kenya, a woman learns a powerful lesson about family — from a pair of elephants. And in the Florida Keys, an eight-year old boy with a genetic illness utters his first words, for a chance to swim with dolphins.

From the ancient world to the modern, human lives have been influenced by animals in matters that reach far beyond the food chain. Wisdom of the Wild illustrates some of the surprising ways in which animals help teach, heal, and strengthen people, in body, mind, and spirit.

To order a copy of Wisdom of the Wild, visit the NATURE Shop.

Online content for Wisdom of the Wild was originally posted December 1999.

Do you owe your life to a chimpanzee? Over the last century, millions of people have been able to live longer, healthier lives thanks to the medicines and surgical techniques that were tested on chimpanzees — one of humankind’s closest relatives. Dozens of vaccines, for instance, have been perfected on chimps purposefully infected with diseases such as polio and hepatitis.

And other chimps have helped us make major technological leaps, by testing everything from submarines to spacecrafts to make sure they are safe for human use.

Sadly, chimpanzees have received little thanks for the knowledge they have allowed us to gain. Once their work is over, if they survive, their futures are grim: they often live out their lives — which can last nearly as long as humans’ — in cramped cages or laboratories. As NATURE’s Wisdom of the Wild shows, however, people are increasingly joining a movement to create sanctuaries for these “surplus” animals, allowing them to spend the rest of their long lives with greater dignity and freedom.

One of the leaders of the sanctuary movement is Linda Koebner, an animal behavior researcher who once studied how chimps adapted back to life outside the laboratory, and who now works to place hundreds of surplus research chimps in new homes. In Wisdom of the Wild, we watch as Linda is reunited with some the first chimps she worked with 25 years ago, veterans of medical research later released into a Florida refuge. And the show takes viewers to a new sanctuary she is establishing in Louisiana, where she hopes to realize her dream of creating the nation’s first large-scale chimp haven.

Even as Koebner works, however, debates rage about the fate of surplus chimpanzees. In the United States, several groups have sued the federal government and private laboratories in efforts to reduce the use of wild chimpanzees in research, and move those now stored in laboratories to less restrictive refuges.

In October 1999, for instance, the Center for Captive Chimpanzee Care and the Doris Day Animal League won a long-sought agreement with the Coulston Foundation, a New Mexico research laboratory, to free 21 chimps descended from animals involved in the U.S. space program. The controversy began in 1997, when the U.S. Air Force decided to give 111 of the so-called “space chimps” to the research foundation, which critics charged had compiled a wretched record of violating animal care laws. “It is inconceivable that the Air Force would have given these remarkable creatures to the Coulston Foundation for continued research, rather than retiring them to a sanctuary,” famed chimp researcher Jane Goodall said at the time.

The Coulston Foundation was forced to give up 300 of its 650 chimpanzees, however, after the U.S. Department of Agriculture concluded that the laboratory had mistreated the chimps. The agreement was “a big win for these magnificent animals,” said USDA official Michael V. Dunn when the September 1999 deal was announced. It also made it possible for some “very lucky chimpanzees to move to [a] sanctuary,” notes Liz Clancy Lyons of the Doris Day Animal League.

But other chimp battles are far from over. Congress is considering legislation that would limit the number of chimps used in research. Supporters say the move is needed to reduce the incentive for illegally capturing the animals from the wild, and to prevent research that might harm the apes while returning little useful knowledge.

Opponents of the proposed rules, however, say it could hamstring efforts to find treatments for AIDS and other diseases that urgently need cures. Sometimes, notes one biomedical scientist who works with chimps but declined to be named, “there is simply no alternative to using chimps because they are so closely related to humans, and ethical concerns prevent us from doing some experiments on humans. But we should be treating these animals with great respect and care — after all, sometimes our lives literally depend on them. They provide insights we can gain nowhere else.”

Chimpanzees in Research

The First 100 Chimpanzees
This site, dedicated to the first 100 chimps used in research in the United States, provides photos and historical info. Click on a chimpanzee’s name to find out more about each individual.
http://first100chimps.wesleyan.edu/

Chimp Sanctuaries

Save the Chimps
Group that cares for abandoned and orphaned chimpanzees.
http://www.savethechimps.org

The Fauna Foundation
Non-profit sanctuary for wild, domestic, and farm animals, and biomedical research chimpanzees. Environmental projects, wetlands restoration.
http://www.faunafoundation.org

Center for Great Apes
A sanctuary for orangutans and chimpanzees in need of long-term life care.
http://www.prime-apes.org

Chimp Haven
A nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide lifetime care for chimpanzees no longer used for medical research, as pets or entertainers.
http://www.chimphaven.org

The Primate Rescue Center
The Primate Rescue Center is a non-profit organization providing sanctuary, rescue and rehabilitation for monkeys and apes.
http://www.primaterescue.org

The International Primate Protection League
Organization dedicated to ape and monkey rescue and sanctuaries
http://www.ippl.org

Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage
A refuge located in central Zambia cares for a wide variety of sick, wounded or unwanted animals — but the primary residents are over 100 orphaned chimpanzees.
http://www.chimfunshi.org.za

Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary
A sanctuary committed to the rescue and rehabilitation of orphaned and abandoned chimpanzees. High in the hills of Sierra Leone, the chimps enjoy a semi-wild life within the 100 acre reserve.
http://www.tacugama.com

H.E.L.P. Project
A chimpanzee reintroduction project http://www.help-primates.org

Limbe Wildlife Centre
Located in Cameroon, the sanctuary is a safe haven for 16 species of primates.
http://www.limbewildlife.org

Project Primate
An organization dedicated to the protection and preservation of chimpanzees, chiefly through the support and rehabilitation of chimpanzees who have been orphaned or otherwise taken from the wild, and through local public education.
http://www.projectprimate.org

Chimp Behavior/Study
The Jane Goodall Institute founded by renowned primatologist Jane Goodall– a global nonprofit that empowers people to make a difference for all living things.
www.janegoodall.org

Jane Goodall Institute’s Center for Primate Studies
Center to advance knowledge about the complex lives of chimpanzees.
http://www.discoverchimpanzees.org

Chimp/Animal Welfare
In Defense of Animals
IDA is dedicated to ending the exploitation and abuse of animals by defending their rights, welfare and habitats.
http://www.idausa.org

Project R & R
Project R & R’s mission is to end the use of chimpanzees in biomedical research and testing and to help provide them rescue and restitution in permanent sanctuary
www.releasechimps.org

The New England Anti-Vivisection Society (NEAVS)
Group dedicated to ending animal testing. The organization advocates for animals in laboratories, product testing, medical/veterinary training, and classrooms through educational programs, publications, legislation, and direct action campaigns. http://www.neavs.org/

The Humane Society of the United States
Organization that works to promote the protection of all animals.
http://www.hsus.org/

Animal Legal Defense Fund
Non profit that aims to protect the lives and advance the interests of animals through the legal system.
http://www.aldf.org

Animal Welfare Institute
A non-profit charitable organization founded to reduce the sum total of pain and fear inflicted on animals by humans.
http://www.awionline.org

National Anti-Vivisection Society
Group promotes greater compassion, respect and justice for animals through educational programs.
http://www.navs.org

Chimps in The Space Program
NASA
A web page on the history of animals used in the space program.
http://history.nasa.gov/animals.html

BOOKS:

Goodall, Jane. Great Ape Societies. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Goodall, Jane. Chimpanzee Culture. Boston: Harvard University Press, 1996.

Goodall, Jane. My Life With the Chimpanzees. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1996.

de Waal, Frans. Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex among Apes. New York: Harper & Row. 1982.

Allison Argo is an award-winning filmmaker and the writer, director, producer and narrator of Chimpanzees: An Unnatural History. Her previous film for NATURE, The Urban Elephant, won Emmy awards for Outstanding Cultural or Informational Program and Outstanding Achievement in Directing. Below, Argo shares some thoughts on the making of Chimpanzees: An Unnatural History.

Q: How did the idea for Chimpanzees: An Unnatural History come about?

A: The idea grew out of a prior film that I had made for NATURE called Wisdom of the Wild. One of the segments in that film dealt with chimpanzees being retired from a laboratory, but it was just the tip of the iceberg. Both Fred Kaufman [NATURE's executive producer] and I were very moved by the story of chimps that have been used in research and entertainment, and we realized it was a really rich and complex story. The contrast between chimpanzees in the wild using medicinal plants to self-medicate, as we showed in Wisdom of the Wild, and then living in a very unnatural situation was very dramatic.

I should say too that especially now, after having immersed myself for over two years in the world of captive chimpanzees, it is so moving to think back on my experiences of seeing chimps in the wild in Tanzania. It gave me such a sense of well-being to witness them living in family groups. I’ll never forget watching them on numerous afternoons, just lying in a little patch of sun on the forest floor, having a big group of adults and youngsters groom and watching them forage. They seemed very much at peace. And that was, again, such a contrast to what we’ve done with chimpanzees in our society

Q: You are the writer, director, producer and narrator of the film. Why did you choose to assume all those roles?

A: It’s a very personal choice that I participate in so many facets of the film. It’s a much richer, deeper experience for me. It gives me huge gratification. I love writing the script and I love reading the words that I’ve written. At the end of making the film, it’s very cathartic. I usually have a big cry. And yes, there are huge challenges also. It’s very lonely in some ways. But also one of the things that I absolutely love about documentary filmmaking is that we work as a team. It’s really one big creative effort. I really rely on the people that I work with – the wonderful cinematographers, my associate producer who is just the best researcher in the world. And of course the NATURE team. I have gotten such amazing support from them.

Q: Chimpanzees is a very poignant film, and also presents a strong point of view. Do you think a documentary should seek to sway public opinion, and is that something you aim for with your films?

A: What I sought to do with this film is to provoke thought, and encourage people to ask more questions, instead of just accept the status quo. If any documentary filmmaker is to be completely honest, everything’s subjective because you choose when to roll the camera, for example, and when to stop the camera. You choose where to point the lens. You choose which locations to go to. So it never can be completely objective, though we all want to be as objective as we can as documentary filmmakers.

My mantra throughout the whole film was “just the facts.” Just the facts, and don’t comment on it. Don’t say, “And isn’t this sad, or isn’t this terrible.” Because I think it’s more respectful of the audience if you can present the stories and just say, “You decide for yourself.” For example, I don’t say, “And Billy Jo [a chimpanzee] was tortured in the laboratory.” I never say something like that. But Gloria goes through his records. “Punch biopsy.” “Bone marrow transplant.” And you can decide if you think that that would be a positive or a negative experience for a chimpanzee. So I tried really hard not to comment emotionally, but I can’t hide the fact that in general I think we have treated chimpanzees very poorly in our society.

Q: Were you surprised by anything during the making of the film?

A: Definitely. I was amazed by how truly communicative chimpanzees are. Obviously with one another they’re extremely communicative. But what I mean is how easy it is for human beings, if you just open yourself a little bit, to communicate with them, and how they can so easily communicate with us. I guess it’s because we share so much genetic material, but also I think it’s a certain similar kind of intelligence that we share.

Q: Do you have any anecdotes from making the film you’d like to share?

A: Up at Fauna Foundation [outside Montreal], a female chimpanzee named Pepper was grooming my arm and she clearly wanted me to take my watch off because it was in the way. So I took my watch off and she had it so fast! It was in the cage, and I thought, “Oh well, that’s the end of the watch. I really liked that watch, too.” She grasped it in her foot, since they can use their feet like hands. So she held it in her foot and groomed me for about 10 minutes. And then when she was finished, she very gently took it out of her foot and handed it out to me. And I was just amazed. It was so considerate, sensitive. She understood that it was something that was mine, something that I liked.

Q: Did you have trouble getting people from the government to talk on camera for the film?

A: Yes. I tried to call a higher-up person at the NIH who deals with chimpanzee issues, and I was immediately blocked and sent to the P.R. department. I just wanted to get his point of view, to start there. But I was told “No, you have to go through us.” So I sent in some of my films and told them what the film was about. And about a month later, they basically said, “Sorry, we’re just too busy right now. No one can talk to you.” We also contacted all of the laboratories that are still actively using chimpanzees and were told that we couldn’t film within the labs. We’d then ask, “Can we interview one of your scientists?” And they all said no.

Q: Do you think the film suffered at all for their absence, or did you consciously try and make up for it in other ways?

A: It’s a good question. I was really upset that I wouldn’t have that balance. But then I realized, I’m making a documentary and that’s the reality of it. That is the balance. I couldn’t speak for them myself. We were allowed no information, and that became a statement in itself. I did present that there is an ongoing debate about the use of chimpanzees, and we hear from scientists on both sides of the fence.