A group of former research chimpanzees in New Mexico that were previously deemed too frail or sickly to be moved to a federal sanctuary will be going to that retirement home after all.
Officials with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) said they reconsidered their decision to leave the chimps in place after learning that more than half of the caregivers there expect to leave their jobs and retire before July of 2025.
The latest NIH census says that 23 chimps are housed at the Alamogordo Primate Facility (APF), which is located at New Mexico's Holloman Air Force Base.
This remote, desert location makes it difficult to recruit the specialized staff that would be needed to replace the workers who will be leaving, NIH officials say.
"We've decided that it makes the best sense for the animals to move them," says Tara Schwetz, the NIH Deputy Director for Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives.
She stressed that these chimps are receiving high quality care where they are now. "It's more a question about the sustainability and the long term ability to maintain that level of care," says Schwetz.
The chimps' presence at Alamogordo Primate Facility has been controversial for years, with groups such as the Humane Society of the United States questioning the NIH's determination in 2019 that all of these chimps were too elderly or unhealthy to survive the stress of moving to a 200-acre sanctuary called Chimp Haven near Shreveport, Louisiana.
The NIH, which funds biomedical research, stopped supporting invasive research on chimpanzees in 2015. But it still has over 300 chimps to maintain and provide for, as these animals can live for more than 60 years. NIH's goal has been to move as many as possible to Chimp Haven.
Primates at Chimp Haven generally live in larger social groups than is typical in research facilities. They also can have access to wooded, forested areas, although some enclosures at Chimp Haven are similar to those found in research centers.
The problem is that as chimps age, they can develop the same serious health conditions that plague older humans, such as heart disease and diabetes. And changing a chimp's living environment can cause extraordinary stress. These highly social creatures develop bonds with each other as well as the humans that they may have known for many years.
So while the agency has gradually moved most of its chimps from research centers to Chimp Haven, it had said that the most frail chimps, including all of the Alamogordo chimps, would stay where they were, for their own safety.
Schwetz notes that many of the veterinary and animal care staff at Alamogordo "have actually worked with these animals for upwards of two decades or more, and so they're really passionate about providing high quality care for the animals."
This summer, however, Schwetz visited Alamogordo and learned that the majority of the staff had plans to retire or depart in the not-so-distant future. As a result, concerns about ensuring ongoing care changed officials' calculations about the benefits and risks of transferring these chimps to the sanctuary.
"We have to think about the health and welfare of these animals, first and foremost," says Schwetz, who adds that NIH is working with Chimp Haven on how to best transfer these chimps, which is a logistically challenging and complex process.
"We are thrilled with their decision and firmly believe Chimp Haven is the best place for retired chimpanzees to live out their lives in the most natural settings available," Rana Smith, president and chief executive officer of Chimp Haven, told NPR in an email.
She said the refuge expected to welcome the first of these chimpanzees early next year, but will need to construct a building addition to accommodate all of them.
"Earlier this year, Chimp Haven proactively developed architectural plans for expansion in case additional NIH chimpanzees became eligible to transfer to the sanctuary," Smith said. "We anticipate the expansion will cost a minimum of $4 million, which we'll need to raise from private supporters since NIH does not support construction costs."
She says next year is the 20th anniversary of Chimp Haven's receiving retired chimps, and that the refuge's staff knows how to create a smooth transition so that the Alamogordo chimps can start living the good life—or, as Chimp Haven prefers to call it, the Chimp Life.
"We're confident we can safely transition them to the sanctuary," she says. "We're excited to give them the opportunity to spend the rest of their lives in a beautiful, forested setting among a colony of friends living the Chimp Life – they deserve it."
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