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A R T I C L E S
The Palm Beach PostWork Begins On Building Home For Ex-space Chimps By Molly Hennessy-Fiske Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Nobody took Carole Noon's plans seriously when she first called looking for backers three years ago, despite support from heavyweights like Jane Goodall. A local planner even thought his wife told the anthropologist to call with the outrageous story about a retirement home for monkey astronauts. "Space chimps, a giveaway... I usually got a lot of 'Is this a joke?' " Noon recalled as she prepared to break ground at the 150- acre compound off Range Line Road in St. Lucie County Thursday afternoon. Thanks to a half-million-dollar grant and $1 million matching grant from The Arcus Foundation - a conservation fund - dump trucks were already out Thursday constructing the sanctuary. It is set to receive 21 chimps in October that Noon and associates won after a lengthy court battle with the Air Force space program. Although he eventually joined the team that designed Save the Chimps, planner Morris Crady of Lucido & Associates said the logistics were daunting. Social by nature, the chimps - who range from 5 to 40 years old - are also wily. Those due this fall cannot use sign language like some counterparts, but they can climb and will hop onto each other's backs to scale walls. Unable to swim, they have been known to fashion escape boats. But that would have been in Africa, before they entered government custody. There, Noon explained, they have stayed in cages most of their lives. Crady said the sanctuary, with 14-foot walls and a 100- foot-wide moat surrounding the outdoor island, is designed to keep them secluded yet busy enough that they won't consider escaping. Plans show jungle gyms amid rolling hills. "You can't create a tropical forest, but you can create something that will stimulate their interest, and that's what we're looking to do," said Crady. Noon said she does not expect the trip from their current home at a New Mexico lab to Florida will unnerve the chimps. "These guys have been shot into space, spun in a centrifuge," Noon said. "I think they can take Florida." Save the Chimps is expected to expand and eventually fill the 150-acre site, housing 150 chimps. Each may live to be 50 years old. Noon expects to pay $250,000 annually to keep the sanctuary running. Although the public will not be privy to the sanctuary, which includes a research center and quarters for Noon and five staff members, chimp activity will be showcased on closed-circuit television in nearby educational centers. Noon said all sanctuary research will be limited to studies of chimp behavior. Which is as Jon Stryker and Robert Schram of Palm Beach and Michigan, who co-founded Arcus three years ago, would have it. At the ceremony, Stryker reminded a crowd of about 20 planners and supporters that the monkeys represent a fraction of the research animals in need of permanent homes. "We use chimps and other animals in research and everyone thinks they're so important, but they're sort of discarded when those projects are completed," Stryker said. "We're here to take care of the chimps." | |||||||||||||||
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