It’s critical for the males to get along because they have more (one-on-one) interactions than males and females or females and females.”Ī few zookeepers camped overnight outside the chimp enclosures to make sure there weren’t any nighttime antics. “You can’t just throw them in and assure they’ll get along. “It was a very long process,” Rousser said. The process started in May when the two new chimps were introduced one-on-one with each residing chimp. “You’ll see some cuts and scraps just like kids on the playground.” “They have to work things out,” Rousser said. Eddie has become the peacekeeper in the group Bernie had a little trouble with the lone male, Moses, at the beginning the two now seem to be warming up to each other, zoo officials said. They all have (had) extensive social contact throughout their lives.”īernie, 16, and Eddie, 20, have over the past few months been integrated with Oakland’s one male and four females. But this is not the case with these chimps. Pet chimpanzees, in particular, can be difficult as they are often taken from their mothers after just a few days, then raised without appropriate social contact with other chimps for many years.
“Socializing chimps with unusual histories can be difficult. “The chimpanzees were in excellent health when they came to the zoos,” she said. This was not the case with Bernie and Eddie, Ross said. The Chimpanzee Species Survival Plan, an organization that serves 37 zoos nationwide in managing the chimpanzee population, helped facilitate moving 14 chimps from the couple to zoos in Oakland, Houston and Maryland.
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According to published reports, Bernie was the star of a hockey team in the 2000 movie “MVP: Most Valuable Primate,” and its 2001 sequel “MVP2: Most Vertical Primate,” where he plays hockey and rides skateboards.
Greg Lille said he was under contract not to talk about the chimpanzee’s past work history and declined to comment Wednesday. “The Lilles worked cooperatively with all the zoos to place the chimps and were instrumental in ensuring these chimps were provided the opportunity to live out their lives in long-term sustainable housing such as at the Oakland Zoo,” Ross said. Steve Ross, chairman of the Chimpanzee Species Survival Plan and director of Project ChimpCARE, which helped direct the move to the zoo, said brothers Bernie and Eddie were owned by Greg and Carol Lille, who live near Sacramento and trained chimpanzees for films, advertisements and print media, such as greeting cards, for more than 30 years. They are still stars at the zoo, but now they are starting to mingle with five new chimps, playing hide-and-seek inside their leafy, expansive glass-enclosed home and entertaining thousands of zoo visitors each week. OAKLAND - Before they started swinging from ropes and munching on popcorn and raisins at the Oakland Zoo, Bernie and Eddie had careers in television and movies.
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