The natural world has lost one of its most preeminent figures this week as Titus, known as the Gorilla King, succumbed to old age and died on September 14, 2009. His passing marks the end of a remarkable story, spanning four decades, as unique and dramatic as anything in the animal kingdom, and a treasure for primatologists and all naturalists the world over.

Watch the full episode of NATURE’s The Gorilla King online now.

The gorilla and his family are exceptional for having been under near constant observation since his birth on August 24, 1974. At maturity, Titus dominated one of the largest groups of gorillas ever recorded, reigning over 30 gorillas for almost 15 years. Though Dian Fossey and other researchers noted him for his calm leadership and happy demeanor, perhaps the most surprising aspects of Titus’ long and peaceful rule are the rather unorthodox conditions that surrounded his early development and adolescence. Indeed, Titus’s biography reaches almost Shakespearean pathos, and remains a truly gripping tale of the tragedies and victories of his majestic and endangered species.

At a young age, Titus befriended Beetsme, a gorilla who had joined his group as a lone adolescent, a rarely observed event. By the 1970s, poaching had become a deadly problem for the gorillas of the Virunga Mountains, claiming both Titus’s father and uncle. In the wake of this tragedy, Beetsme violently took control of the group by driving out Titus’s mother and sister. Faced with isolation, Titus turned to Beetsme, and the two formed a tight relationship. Soon Titus and Beetsme’s group was joined by a number of females, and, in another seemingly unprecedented event, the dominant Beetsme allowed Titus to remain. Beetsme’s benevolence toward Titus was somewhat betrayed, however, when Titus began secretly mating with the new females. Titus eventually conceived his first offspring, Kuryama, at a younger age than any other known gorilla. Titus has gone on to sire more offspring than any other mountain gorilla on record. View Titus’s family tree. In 1991, Titus gained control of the group in a largely peaceful overthrow of Beetsme, and began a 15-year reign as Gorilla King.

But no king can rule forever. In 2007, Titus’s own firstborn son, Kuryama, made a bid for dominance, engaging in secret liaisons with females just as his father had. Kuryama eventually divided the group into two factions. After a year of separation, the two groups reunited, with Titus gracefully becoming second in command.

Titus’s true gift to the world has been the amazing recorded history he left. He has provided an amazing picture of the complex behavioral psychology and often startling drama of the mountain gorillas.

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.

In 1967, local villagers in Africa’s Equitorial Guinea captured a remarkable baby gorilla with a coat of pure white. The film tells the story of this amazing animal, from his loving upbringing by humans to his eventual death from skin cancer in 2003. It also tracks the revolutionary changes in our understanding of how best to care for gorillas that have taken place during Snowflake’s lifetime. Buy the DVD. This film premiered February 19, 2005.

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.

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.

Q: Why did you decide to take in all of those chimps at once?

A: I didn’t have a choice. The day that I went to the lab and met the chimps, I decided I would be taking whomever I met. I was introduced to two groups of chimps — 15 in total, 7 of which were infected with HIV. There was no way I was going to discriminate. I met the chimps and I decided that, even if they were HIV positive, it didn’t matter. It wasn’t even a question in my mind. We would overcome the obstacles.

Q: What safety precautions are necessary when working with chimps that have HIV?

A: We did everything we needed to do in terms of learning about HIV. We had healthcare workers come in to educate our staff about working with the chimps. And we knew that the two primary methods for contracting the disease were intercourse and exchange of needles. But we are at the same risk as doctors, police officers, and healthcare workers– we’re not really at a greater risk. Plus, we knew who had the virus. The chimps had been labeled and they were behind bars.

Q: Are chimps your favorite animal?

A: Actually no. Pigs are probably my favorite animals. Probably because you have to show pigs a reason to listen to you. You have to wait until they’re ready. When I think about it, that’s probably why I work so well with chimps-you have to have patience. But I always loved chimps. And certainly my passion through life has been helping animals. So with this general passion for helping animals, it was just logical for me to do what I could to help the chimps. I always say that if you’re going to find something to do with your life, do something you’re passionate about. And though I certainly never thought I’d have chimps living on my property, meeting the chimps has been the most incredible experience in my life

Q: Is it hard to face the previous owners, the people who sold the chimps to research?

A: I do have a conflict with that. Initially, I didn’t want to have anything to do with the previous owners-or the lab workers and entertainment people. But then I had to see both sides. The humans were extremely traumatized also. They watched the chimps suffer. They gave them up. They suffered a lot. Also, I needed those people to learn about the chimps. To hear their history.

Q: What was it like when they first moved in?

A: For the first three years after the chimps first moved in, it was pretty terrifying and very dramatic — pretty much every day. There would always be an aggressive act, an attempt made on a body part all the time. Which is understandable given their history. Just being captive when you don’t deserve to be is traumatic enough. I liken them to maximum-security inmates or patients in a mental hospital. Like prisoners, they misbehave to get attention. It’s the only way they can have control. Or like juvenile delinquents, they act out all the time. But as the years pass, there’s some sort of healing.

Q: Why is it so important for them to have islands?

A: It just gives them a chance to make choices; to have control. When all of their choices have been taken away I try to give them something. The chimps can choose if they want to go out to the islands and who they want to go out with.

But the islands are a place with no bars over their heads. They can come out, surrounded by water and look up at the sky without any obstruction. There’s a vegetable garden on one of the islands. One of the females, Pepper, likes to pick her own veggies. She’ll take her blanket with her and camp out on the island at night. She likes the quiet, away from the rest of the group. Just a chance to go out onto their islands, has changed their personalities a lot.

Plus, they just love it– even in the winter. Actually they love the snow. They are very conditioned to our weather. We put maple syrup on the snow and they eat it like kids do. They love icicles and snowmen. And it’s pretty funny to see them smashing snowmen down.

Q: Could you share some of your most memorable moments?

A: Wow. I’ve had a memorable moment with everybody who’s here. There’s always that crucial moment when you know you’ll never be the same again. Take Tom, who climbed the tree in the end of the show. I’ve fallen in love with Tommy again. He never paid attention to me before. He loves chimps. He loves males. All of Tom’s life here, he had male caretakers. Pat was his main person. But Pat doesn’t work here anymore so Tommy has had to get used to me. And at 40 years old, he’s not a young guy. You’d think after 9 years, there wouldn’t be anything that changes the relationship. But it does. With Tommy, I could almost always cry, laugh and be incredibly depressed or really happy. They’re pretty powerful in that respect.

Q: Any plans for more chimps?

A: No. Fifteen is nothing but, at the time, it was a lot. Now my purpose and goal is to help people understand what the lives of these chimps are like. We have a whole family and staff- we have a lot of really close family that come in. A lot of people that (the chimps) can go to for help. Some chimps are attached to me or my sister. All (of the chimps) have people they really love a lot… it’s a good idea (for them) to have some sort of relationship, especially intimate ones.

Q: The film focuses mainly on chimps used in biomedical research, but what about chimps used as pets or entertainment?

A: Gosh, there are just so many reasons but the minute you take a chimp away from its mom, you’ve affected its personality. Anytime you take a chimp to be raised for entertainment or used as pets, you’ve changed its chances of being a chimp. At 7 years old, these animals are expensive, strong and dangerous. And that’s usually when the owner realizes they can’t handle them-and sells them for research. So the chimp’s life is over but they’re going to live another 30 years.

Some would say entertainment is worse than research. Mainly because what people don’t see is that “training chimps” for entertainment usually means beating them or yelling at them. The physical abuse of research is not even as bad as entertainment. They’re punching 20-30 pound babies in the head and the back. Yelling at them. Keeping them in fear. They pull all of their teeth out so they don’t bite. And there’s no reason for it. It’s totally unnecessary. Also, we’re probably not going to convince people too quickly to stop research but entertainment is a waste of life.

Q: Do you have a message for viewers moved by the film?

A: I’d like people to know that anybody can do something. Rescue a dog or a cat, learn about wetlands. I hope people get inspired to do something they care about. And it can be challenging and depressing but just physically being with the chimps is motivating. And you have to be happy. You can’t be depressed. Because they pick up on that and your mood can affect their mood. If you see someone in a cage that you rescued, you care for them with love. You see them go into a nice clean room, open a packet of toys, get their favorite food, that’s what you do it for. It’s the little rewards.

From studies of chimpanzees in the wild by researchers like Jane Goodall, we know that wild chimps develop close, affectionate bonds with members of their community. They maintain friendships, play together, groom each other, and even communicate through hugs, kisses, pats on the back, or tickles. But living an isolated existence, captive chimps may never even see another chimp, much less develop natural bonds. Living a life of captivity leaves deep scars and identity crisis — even in those chimps lucky enough to retire to a sanctuary like Fauna Foundation.

Fauna Foundation’s founder, Gloria Grow, says she has seen the traumatic effects of being locked up in every single one of her rescued research chimps. They’ve suffered so much,” says Grow. “Many of them have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. We have to know that when we do these things to chimps, we’ve destroyed them. ” Even at a safe and comfortable sanctuary like Fauna Foundation, Grow says it’s common to see the chimps rocking, pulling their hair out, or having a tantrum.

Billy Jo, she says, was one of the most emotionally complex chimps she’s known-for good reason. When he was a baby in the circus, all of his teeth were knocked out with a crowbar. As a teenager at the Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates, a.k.a. LEMSIP, a New York University research facility that closed in 1997, Billy was infected with HIV, knocked down with a dart gun over 60 times, and endured 40 punch liver biopsies. In the lab he would shake his cage back and forth, trying desperately to prevent anyone from approaching. He even chewed off his digits. Even at the Fauna Foundation, Billy was plagued by anxiety attacks-attacks so bad that they left him choking, gagging and convulsing. “Billy could be violent and aggressive– throw feces, throw his food from the food cart,” says Grow

Grow says Billy could never be comfortable within a group of chimps and, as a result, he has had very few interactions with other chimps. But Billy eventually developed bonds with Grow and some of the other caretakers at the sanctuary, particularly women. “Billy was a caring, nurturing guy who liked to kiss people on the lips. He would drop everything for a woman,” says Grow. To draw out the gentle nature of this confused chimp, Grow’s tactic was to treat Billy as an individual, not as a wild chimp. She considered his history, his personality, and his needs. “Billy really appreciated when we were communicating with him. It’s like taking up their language,” she says.

Grow applies this approach to all of her chimps. She says she’s glad she didn’t try to learn everything she could about captive chimps before she rescued her group, or she would have it all wrong. “We call them people,” says Grow, “not chimps. “They have been displaced. They’re a displaced people. They’ve been raised by humans and they’re so confused by that.”

Grow says teaching the chimps to be chimps again is a gradual process-one that involves countless hours of human interactions and then gradual coaxing to interact with other chimps. “We had to teach them how to be chimps again.”

As Grow explains, once a chimp has been removed from the wild, there’s no putting them back. They have lost the window of opportunity to learn the ways of the community. For rescued chimps, understanding and giving people like Gloria Grow, Patti Ragan and Carol Noon are their only hope. But Grow says the effort, time, and patience of breaking the communication barriers are well worth it. “They’re pretty moving individuals. Communicating with them makes your hair stand up. They’re so intense.”

In 1923, Psychobiologist Robert Yerkes purchased two young chimps from a zoo for his own behavioral studies. These two chimps, named Chim and Panzee, would be the first of thousands to be used for the sake of scientific research in the United States. And while internationally, the use of chimps in research has declined over the last decade, in the US, chimps continue to be used in biomedical research. According to the Humane Society of the US, approximately 1300 chimpanzees live in 11 laboratories around the US-making the US chimp population the largest collective chimpanzee colony for biomedical research in the world.

It is a harsh irony that what makes chimps so like humans, makes them such sought-after research subjects. Sharing so much of our biological makeup (99% of DNA, in fact), chimps have been used in the study of infectious diseases, gene therapy, vaccine development, reproduction, language, behavior, even anatomy.

Though they can catch or be infected by nearly all known human infectious diseases, Hepatitis research remains the largest area of chimpanzee use in the US. Nearly one third of chimp research dollars in 2003 and 2004 went to Hepatitis studies. The research has virtually eradicated Hepatitis B and C infections acquired through blood transfusions, though critics of chimp research say the first Hepatitis B vaccine was made from the blood of infected humans.

Introduction What are the alternatives for medical research? Slideshow Interview with Gloria Grow, founder Fauna Sanctuary Caring for Captive Chimps Q and A with the filmmaker Video Links and books Download Wallpaper For Educators In the 1980s, during the height of the HIV and AIDS outbreak, chimps were aggressively bred as subjects for studies of the disease. But this breeding campaign would soon result in thousands of surplus chimps when they were found to be poor models – never developing full-blown AIDS.

Critics of chimp research argue that the case of HIV is not an isolated case of scientific indiscretion. Even in the case of Hepatitis, chimps respond differently from humans. Chimps infected with Hepatitis B will not become sick while humans exhibit traditional symptoms of liver disease. And chimps infected with Hepatitis C will not develop cirrhosis of the liver or liver cancer, though humans will. And in fact, with regard to drug development, 70% of drugs that have tested safe in nonhuman primates are known to be harmful to the human fetus.

Fortunately, science presents some possible solutions. In July of 2005, Hepatitis C researchers reported a breakthrough in the technology to grow the virus entirely in cell culture. And the vaccine for this disease is now made from bacterial culture.

Using human volunteers with a specific illness in clinical trials for new drugs is, say animal research critics, a more accurate and humane alternative to testing drugs in animals like chimps. Today, a great deal of Hepatitis research is successfully carried out through observation and clinical trials on humans with the disease. The perceived risks of participating in trails is getting smaller. In one form of human clinical trial, called micro dosing, human volunteers are given minute doses of an experimental drug too small to even have negative effects on the body. The physiological effects of the drug are then extrapolated using high tech laboratory equipment like a mass spectrometer. This method can be very effective, and was used during clinical trials for drugs to treat AIDS and HIV.

Unfortunately, human studies are expensive to undertake and are limited by a shortage of human volunteers. While it may be some time before they replace testing in animals such as chimps, they can still provide valuable clues as to how different classes of substances elicit their effects, and thus reduce the need for animal testing. They can also provide a much-needed framework for the development of alternatives based on human or animal tissue and cell systems.

In in-vitro testing on human cell cultures and tissues has become an emerging alternative. Conducted on living cells in containers such as a test tube or Petri dish, the method tests the toxicity of substances, essentially “in bulk,” meaning that large numbers of compounds can be screened rapidly and simultaneously in numerous cell lines, rather than in one individual animal. The method is not only much faster than animal tests, it is also more accurate since human cell lines are used. In-vitro studies on human cells and tissues have made possible the investigation of the immune-stimulating effects of potential vaccines and the analysis of HIV transmission.

New research tools and equipment can also provide alternatives to testing in animals such as chimps. By providing scientists with a clearer and more precise understanding of the physiology of disease(s), scientists can monitor actual patients of the disease they are studying at the cellular level. Techniques such as paper chromatography, radioimmunoassay, genetic engineering polymerase chain reaction, and positron emission tomography have all advanced our understanding of biomedical knowledge. Positive emission tomography, for example, can be used to safely and noninvasively examine the activated lymph nodes and spleens of patients given vaccines or to monitor viral infections in a temporal and spatial manner.

Of course, the genomic revolution has equipped scientists with unparalleled tools for engineering “personalized medicine.” Knowing the correlations between human disease and specific genes could allow doctors to prescribe the right drug at the right dose for the right person, based on unique variations in their DNA- not on the DNA of a chimp, or even a mouse.

While some of these techniques are years away, others are already here and in place. But as more viable humane options are uncovered, perhaps testing our drugs on chimps will seem less necessary and less ethical. And we can finally release chimps from their role as research subjects in our society.