The Interface Between Veterinary and Behavioral Management of Chimpanzees () in a United States Sanctuary Demonstrated by Two Clinical Cases.

Chimp Haven is a private, nonprofit organization that serves as the largest chimpanzee sanctuary in the world. The National Institutes of Health supports the federal sanctuary system, which is operated by Chimp Haven, to provide lifetime care for chimpanzees who have retired from biomedical research. Chimp Haven is home to over 300 chimpanzees, with a wide variety of individual health needs including infectious diseases.

Behavioral Welfare Research for the Management of Sanctuary Chimpanzees ().

Chimp Haven is a sanctuary for chimpanzees retired from biomedical research, rescued from the pet trade, or re-homed after other organizations could no longer care for them. To provide optimal care for over 300 chimpanzees, Chimp Haven's animal care team includes experts in behavioral science, veterinary treatment, and husbandry practices. To aid these teams in making routine welfare management decisions, a system of behavioral metrics provides objective data to guide decisions and track outcomes.

How Sanctuary Chimpanzees () Use Space after Being Introduced to a Large Outdoor Habitat.

Wild chimpanzees live in large, mixed-sex groups that display a fission-fusion social organization. To provide a social environment more like that of wild chimpanzees, Chimp Haven integrated smaller groups of 3-4 individuals into one large group of 18 individuals. This large group was introduced to a 20,234.

Chimpanzees () in U.S. Zoos, Sanctuaries, and Research Facilities: A Survey-Based Comparison of Species-Typical Behaviors.

A survey was sent to zoos, research facilities, and sanctuaries which housed chimpanzees. Data collected included information about 1122 chimpanzees’ age, sex, social group-size, rearing history, and enclosure. Respondents were also asked to indicate if certain behaviors had been observed in each chimpanzee over the prior two years.

Aggressive, Submissive, and Affiliative Behavior in Sanctuary Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes) During Social Integration.

Chimp Haven is a sanctuary for chimpanzees being retired from biomedical research and from facilities that can no longer care for them. Chimpanzees often live in smaller groups in captive settings; however, Chimp Haven integrates them into larger, more species-typical groups. Social integrations, the process of introducing unfamiliar chimpanzees to one another, are often complex in terms of logistics and can be stressful due to the territorial nature of the animals, reduced space in captivity, and the fact that these situations are engineered by humans.

An evaluation of thermal imaging as a welfare monitoring tool for captive chimpanzees.

Among the growing list of novel tools with which to assess animal welfare is the use of thermal (infrared) imaging. The technology has already been utilized to identify emotional arousal in several nonhuman primate species, though most of these approaches have necessitated the use of relatively controlled settings. Here, we were interested to determine the feasibility of such techniques in a sanctuary setting in which chimpanzees were unrestrained and able to move freely around their enclosures.

An evaluation of video cameras for collecting observational data on sanctuary-housed chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).

Video cameras are increasingly being used to monitor captive animals in zoo, laboratory, and agricultural settings. This technology may also be useful in sanctuaries with large and/or complex enclosures. However, the cost of camera equipment and a lack of formal evaluations regarding the use of cameras in sanctuary settings make it challenging for facilities to decide whether and how to implement this technology.

An evaluation of nest-building behavior by sanctuary chimpanzees with access to forested habitats.

All of the great apes build nests, but captive chimpanzees rarely have vegetation from which to build nests. The forested environment at Chimp Haven does allow captive chimpanzees to build nests of natural vegetation. Between February 2007 and December 2010, 238 nests were found in 2 forested habitats.

Ethical issues in African great ape field studies.

Great apes have been systematically studied in the wild for over half a century. Great apes are now critically endangered and this raises significant ethical issues for field primatologists who study and work to conserve these primates and their habitats. The most immediate ethical concerns involve the well-being of the subjects, but there are also important ethical considerations involved in researchers' interactions with local human populations and extracting industry representatives.