We have had a few people get in touch with us about a video which they saw on Tik Tok voicing their outrage at how we keep some of our animals, in particular the chimpanzees, the small primates whose indoor quarters are upstairs in the chimp house and the moon bears. In this age of social media, things can very often not be quite what they seem. Things can get very twisted from behind a camera lens and that is exactly what has happened on this occasion.

So let us set the record straight.

I will go through some of the more prevalent claims and comments being made on the videos to hopefully show the level of care and love which we have for our animals and I will start with the bear video, over which we are currently investigating legal action against this Tik Tok user. It is easy for people to forget that in your search for internet fame it is not ok to try to bring down another person or institution in the process.

The claim about the bear enclosure being a 12ft x 10ft concrete box is 100% fabricated and done so maliciously. The building which can be seen in the video itself is 47ft x 18ft – a very vast difference in size to what has been claimed. However this is just their bedrooms where they spend the least amount of time during the day. Most of their day is spent in their 16,160 square ft outdoor enclosure filled with climbing apparatus and natural substrate and plants. This user had to walk past this enclosure in order to get to the house, so there is no way to possibly miss this area. It’s an over 150 ft long path alongside the outdoor area to get to the bedrooms.

The bear is also clawing at the window, that is true, and it is not a reaction to being stuck in a tiny room (they know very well where their housing is), it is a reaction to the person who can be seen teasing her at the window, at one point right next to the sign asking people to not touch the window.

We have the same situation with the 2 primate videos as well.

The chimpanzee area which is being shown covers a total of 5,600 square ft of usable chimpanzee space up to a height of 19 ft, along with a further 1,000 square ft underneath where the video was taken from as their bedroom space. However what they have neglected to show is the 7,400 square ft outdoor garden which these chimps have access to all day long… They just prefer to spend their nap time indoors. Who wouldn’t on a slightly chilly day? Especially when they have a lovely big area with underfloor heating! This underfloor heating keeping them at a beautifully tropical temperature all year round is the main reason why we chose to have a plain floor for them. In one video you can see Georgia, our oldest chimp sitting on the ground because she doesn’t climb too much any more due to getting stiff joints, which the heated floor really helps with. By the way for the part where they claim that they have no soft material, please note that the whole time they are all sitting on soft material nests which they build themselves from wood wool which we give them fresh each day.

As for the small primates living upstairs, this user really get’s a lot of joy out of only showing the indoor areas of enclosures and neglecting that each of these small primate indoor houses (where they still have access to heating and UV lighting) also comes with an almost 600 square ft outdoor enclosure, which is very generous for groups of 3 to 4 primates small enough to sit on your hand.

Moving on to the behaviour of our chimps and the way in which we look after them, this user started by saying “I’m no animal expert…” and that really has nothing to do with it, because we make it easy for people to understand the behaviours of some of our animals by using easy to read and see signs which explain these. At one point there is a video where the user dramatically puts their hand against the window next to one of our chimps and wondering why they look so sad. What they didn’t show (they’re very good with camera angles) was that 6 inches to the right of their hand is a sign which shows exactly why and what we are doing to help them.

We have a very settled group of chimps, and for much of the day they spend their time grooming one another, using enrichment items, eating and nest building. But depending on the time of day, chimps are also renowned for taking siestas where they like to just chill out, lay down or sit about not doing much. An animal doesn’t need to be running around all day so that you have something interesting to look at. just like us, they do like to just spend some time doing nothing. Next time you come to the park take the time to see animals at different times of the day or catch some of our talks and you will then see them doing different things. They also don’t have an all you can eat buffet set out for them all day long. Just because you don’t see food in there at that time doesn’t mean that they don’t get fed! They get fed 3 times per day with the option of some other small enrichment feeds thrown in – getting a mixture of a specialist diet, browse (fresh leaves) and fresh fruit and veg which we drive to Spitalfields market once per week to ensure they have the freshest seasonal produce we can get.

Let us talk about the rocking, which is a behaviour which you will see in 2 of our chimpanzees, the 2 males, Fritz and Lucas. We’re not going to pretend that they don’t do it, because clearly they do – Lucas also rubs his nipples as a stereotypical behaviour. And again there is a sign which explains this and explains how you can behave around them to reduce how much they do it. We have a very extensive enrichment programme for the chimps as well as a training programme to keep them busy and engaged with the staff and one another. These are all designed to help reduce these behaviours, and they have reduced a lot since they arrived, but with some behaviours it can be impossible or very difficult to remove them completely, and just like with people, chimps can have good days as well as worse days.

Our chimps arrived at our park with these behaviours, and now we actually only have them in 2 of them, whilst others came to us with similar issues. We re-homed these chimps from a university run laboratory in the USA to give them a retirement home where they can live out the rest of their lives, and on the whole they really are having a great time, even having reproduced with us. This is where Elizabeth was born, in a home where Tara was so comfortable that she gave birth in front of a team of 5 of us keeping a close eye on her during the birth and was so proud of her little baby that she immediately picked it up and took it over to us and showed us her precious little bundle.

So, as you can see, some times you really do need to have a little bit of context and history to fully understand why some animals do what they do, why we look after them in certain ways and why some people think that Tik Tok followers are worth getting in to a legal fight over – Yes, they’ll be hearing from us shortly, hopefully they take the time to read this post and act accordingly.

Our park is fully licensed, a full member of both BIAZA and EAZA (the national and regional zoo park associations) and we have a great rapport with the RSPCA who have our details on file if they need any advice for exotics. Our chimp enclosure was inspected by further professionals on behalf of the government prior to the chimp import and was visited by Jane Goodall herself (the world leading authority on chimpanzee behaviour). Our orangutan enclosure was visited by professionals on behalf of the European studbook, as thats one which also came up on some of the comments. This Tik Tok user may not be an animal expert, but these organisations most certainly are, and we are incredibly proud of being members of their organisations and on having a positive relationship with all of them.

Please don’t make up your mind about us, or anyone for that matter on the basis of a single 1 minute video shot by someone you don’t know on a social media platform – do your research, read this document, come and see us!

About Markus - Curator

Markus is the animal collections curator at Wingham Wildlife Park and has been with the park since 2009. When working with the animals he still spends time in the reptile house which has always been his passion and forte. Outside work his main passion is travelling the world and seeing animals in their natural habitats.