With Tara’s 26th birthday on 5th September and the chimp’s 5th anniversary of their arrival to Wingham fast approaching next month, I thought it would be a great opportunity to give you hints and tips for telling the chimps apart and a little bit about their personalities.
Tara
So, let’s start with the birthday girl first… Tara.
Tara is our dominant female, Elizabeth’s mother, and Georgia’s niece. She was born at Yerkes National Primate Centre in Atlanta, Georgia.
Tara may be small in stature compared to our other females, but she is most certainly not in personality. She rules the group with an iron fist and God forbid if you upset Elizabeth, because you will know about it.
Elizabeth is her first baby, and she was somewhat (and still is to some extent) very overprotective of her. If you happen to watch her with Elizabeth, Tara will still only carry her on her stomach even though Elizabeth is quite capable of riding on her back (as she does with Georgia).
Tara is your typical looking chimpanzee, very dark in colour with a round muzzle and features. She is one of the most active and agile members of the troop and can often to seen swinging across the mesh of the roof to get the tasty treats that the keepers place up there. She is also very clever and manipulative, using her status within the group to get whatever she wants just by looking at it.
Tara will often be seen with Georgia and Elizabeth but has also become good friends with Elvira.
Fritz
The next chimp I’m going to talk to you about is Fritz, Elizabeth’s dad.
Fritz is our dominant male and turned 33 years old this year.
He is not your typical alpha male chimpanzee. With chimpanzee troops it would be the dominant male in charge of the whole group. With our troop, Tara is the main boss, but she still respects Fritz (most of the time). He just doesn’t like to get involved unless he absolutely has to- he’s just too laid back!
He also doesn’t mind other chimps taking his food, which generally would be a big no-no in other groups.
Fritz does have on going health problems which he needs daily medication for. When he first started this medication keepers found it extremely difficult to get him to take it. However, after a lot of trial and error we discovered that Fritz loves anything frozen. So, to help him maintain his weight he gets his daily medication frozen in protein shake ice cubes. Yes, you heard that right. The only way we can consistently get him to take his meds is in frozen treats. This is one of the reasons we asked for donations of protein shakes recently as he needs them daily.
Fritz does like to relax a lot and will spend a great amount of his time sleeping and getting groomed by the females of the group. On very rare occasions we will catch him playing with Lucas but the others like Elizabeth are a bit too rough for him.
Training for Fritz is also done on his terms and quite often he chooses not to participate, that would be too much effort for him. However, he is trained to present his chest and stomach for vets to be able to listen with a stethoscope, if needed.
Lucas
Lets talk next about our other male, Lucas who is 28 years old. He and Fritz have the same mother so they are in fact half-brothers.
Lucas is a lovable goof-ball of a chimp. A lot of visitors assume he is older or the dominant male because of his grey colour. This is just Lucas’s hair colour. Like us chimps can have different coloured hair, he just happens to be grey.
Lucas is very friendly to staff he knows, particularly with female staff. To make friends with Lucas, he loves a game of chase, of course he must win. Lucas was hand reared, and this is one of the reasons he is a bit more interactive with staff than the other chimps.
He also likes to show off and will display at staff, visitors, and the others in the troop. He also has a delightful habit of spitting water at new staff and if he’s in a bad mood. Lucas is pretty good with his training and will present all his body parts for inspection by keepers. However, Lucas is not a fan of the vet and will display at them even if it’s not him they have come to see. Lucas’s best friend is Faye, and they can often be seen together. Lucas will even share his food with her and back her up if she gets in a disagreement with someone.
Faye
Faye is up next as you can’t have Lucas without Faye!
Faye is a sweet little thing who was also hand reared and is very interactive with the keepers. She likes to come and say hello to staff and is an active participant in training. She can be a little bit sensitive sometimes and will start screaming if another chimp takes something she wants. But being the lowest ranking member of the troop means that this can help sometimes and there’s not a lot she can do it about.
Faye is 29 years old and as far as I’m concerned, the prettiest chimp we have. She will also smile at keepers with a very relaxed grin.
However, when chimps smile with their teeth it means that they are scared or nervous of something. It is how a lot of scientists believe the human nervous smile developed.
Faye does not like human children and isn’t that fond of Elizabeth either. Mainly because Elizabeth gets away with bullying Faye. She does however get lots of attention from Lucas and is very good at trying to make friends again when she wants to by grooming the other members of the troop.
I’m sure you can agree that Faye is beautiful.
Agatha
I would next like to introduce you to… Agatha – the queen of sass.
If Agatha doesn’t want to do something, she won’t. It is all on Agatha’s terms when it comes to absolutely everything.
She will tell the keepers off if they aren’t quick enough with giving her training treats, she won’t come inside if she doesn’t want to, and she also will not take any messing from the other chimps. Let’s just say she has a bit of a temper and is well known amongst the keepers as the grumpy chimp of the group.
Agatha is 28 years old and has lived with Fritz for a lot of her life. They do still spend quite a bit of time together, but you can also find Agatha with Elvira quite a lot too. They often sit together during training as they get along with each other well and don’t often fall out. You can tell Agatha apart from the others by the pink freckles across her nose and grey hair at the bottom of her back.
Elvira
Next it’s Elvira’s turn.
Elvira’s birthday is on Halloween which is quite fitting for her as she has incredibly long witchy type fingers. She will be 33 years old this year.
Elvira can be a bit of a baby sometimes and doesn’t like to be left on her own. She adores Elizabeth and ever since they were introduced when Elizabeth was a few days old she has been the only non-blood relative of the troop entrusted with babysitting by Tara. Elvira dotes on Elizabeth and will comfort her, carry her, and even share food with her sometimes. She will also rush to her aid if Elizabeth calls out.
Elvira will grunt at keepers and shake her hand at them when she wants something to get their attention. She does this quite often during training if she notices keepers still have some treats left. Elvira however is our poop thrower. If she is in a particularly bad mood, she has been known to throw poo not just at other chimps but also keepers. This luckily is not something which she does often because it is disgusting.
I also have a very cute video for you filmed in the chimps’ bedrooms when Elizabeth was only 6 months old.
Here you can see Tara laying on the floor with Elizabeth being held by her arms as she pushes her towards Elvira. This shows Tara’s trust of Elvira with her actively encouraging interactions between them. Elvira is very gentle and respectful of both Elizabeth and Tara, going by Tara’s cues that it was alright for her to touch the baby. It was super adorable to see this in person.
Georgia
Second to last, we have our oldest chimp, Georgia.
Georgia is Tara’s aunt (Tara’s mother was Georgia’s sister) and they have spent a lot of their lives together. They do have the occasional falling out but are quick to make up with a grooming session.
Georgia is by far our greediest chimp. She is also our biggest female chimp. This girl has humongous hands which allow her to gather up a massive quantities of food. She will even take food off the other chimps. So, if they have a tasty treat they will try and hide it from her.
Georgia can be very stubborn and manipulative just like Tara so that maybe why they don’t always see eye to eye. Georgia however is exceptionally smart and will work out enrichment items very quickly. Sometimes even breaking something to get into it faster, she has very little patience when it comes to food!
She has gotten better with coming over to the keepers when we require to look at something on her. Her training sessions are always pretty good, but again food must be involved for Georgia to do anything.
She is also one of the more vocal chimps and will start pant hooting excitedly when she knows its breakfast, lunch, or dinner time.
And here is a picture of Georgia looking very excited about the giant present she managed to get hold of, of course. It wasn’t even her birthday party, but they can share sometimes.
Elizabeth
Lastly, we have our youngest chimp, the bundle of fun, mischief, cheekiness and sass, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth was born at the park on 19th January 2018 in the chimp’s bedrooms at 2:15pm. Myself and some of the other staff were lucky enough to witness her birth first-hand. Tara was amazing and the whole birth from her waters breaking around 12pm was very quick. Tara even laid out a blanket which she placed Elizabeth on and bought her over to show us at only a few minutes old.
Now Elizabeth is a 3 ½ year old whizz rocket. She still likes mummy cuddles, and great aunty cuddles and any other cuddles she can get.
However, when it comes to her getting what she wants, she knows she can just annoy any of the chimps to get it, because she is Tara’s daughter. No one except Tara can tell her off, so she’s gets away with a lot. This is probably why Faye is not a fan of Elizabeth and will try to avoid her.
Elizabeth has just started her training with the keepers and will present her hands and feet for inspection. She will also allow the keepers to give her drinks which we can put medicine in.
Elizabeth is very cheeky now and has learnt a few bad habits from the other chimps, like spitting at staff. I think she thinks this is funny as the keepers try not to react to it. However, when you have a chimp spitting at you, it’s sometimes hard not to pull a face!
Elizabeth does have a sweet side and will play with the other chimps like Lucas and Elvira. Dad, Fritz also gets a few play times as well, but these must be on Fritz’s terms. If you’re ever looking for Elizabeth when you visit, she will most likely be with Tara or Georgia if she isn’t running around causing havoc. She also still sleeps cuddled up to Tara at nap times and bedtime.
If you have a favourite chimpanzee why not consider adopting them! All money raised from adoption packs and boxes go directly to that animal providing them with everything that they need. So, it’s a great way to support your number 1!
