NEWS ABOUT JEBER AND TYSON

SOROCABA SANCTUARY

One month after the arrival in the Sanctuary

 

After a little bit more than one month of Jeber and Tyson's arrival at the Great Primates Sanctuary in Sorocaba, it's possible to see a significant improvement on their physical and mental health. The two male chimpanzees used to live in Le Cirque and were taken from the circus because of mistreating evidence, proved during an operation coordinated by Ibama and the Public Justice Department in August.

 

Their happiness is now evident, because every time we walk near the enclosure they quickly call us to do grooming and play of running from one window to another. Besides, their friendship is very strong, which support the sociability of chimpanzees.

 

When Jeber and Tyson arrived, they were not completely relaxed, but soon they realized that we had the best intentions and did not take too long for them to accept our friendship. Today, the bonding is stronger and both Jeber and Tyson show happiness and good health, which are expressed through smiles and plays.

 

It is worth to remember that their rescue and transference to the sanctuary are enabling them to live together with their equals, firstly through visual, smell and sound contact and, who knows, in the future, through a union with other chimpanzees. At the same time, in this new environment, they have great hygiene conditions and adequate nourishment, which was unusual on the sad routine, lived in the circus. There, they were exposed to unhealthy and precarious conditions, proved both by the photos taken during the operation and by the medical exams that attested high infestation of internal parasites.

 

The physical and psychological scars, like the wound on the neck caused by chains and the castration, the teeth extraction and the disorders caused by the time they lived under bad conditions in the circus, might never be erased completely. But with the care and respect that they are enjoying now, the possibility of living free of exploitation is already a great victory.

 

Msc. Luiz Fernando Leal Padulla

Biologist