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A R T I C L E S
Experts Praise New Chimp Habitat by Suzanne Robinson Tribune Staff Writer ST. LUCIE COUNTY -- Twenty-one chimpanzees that served as test subjects in the early days of the U.S. Air Force space program will soon be living in luxury in St. Lucie County. Construction of a 150-acre, $1.3 million sanctuary complete with a 2.5-acre island playground and buildings specially designed for the chimpanzees' care is nearing completion in the western part of the county. "Its just amazing," said Roger Fouts, a pioneer of chimpanzee language research, during a Thursday morning tour of the final stages of construction at Save the Chimps. Fouts and his wife Deborah have gained international attention for their work teaching American sign language to five chimps at the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute at Central Washington State University. Although the Foutses have lent their names to Save the Chimps and their full support to Save the Chimps director and founder Carole Noon, Thursday was the first time they had seen the results of three years of collaboration on the project. "Wow! This is just incredible," said Deborah Fouts as she explored the building that will serve as the chimp intake center. From the large drainage trench running the length of the building to the series of 12 interconnected roomy cages, the Foutses were thrilled with the results. "These [sanctuaries] are extremely critical right now," Roger Fouts said. There are only about 150,000 chimpanzees left in the world, and more than 1,700 of them are being used in bio-medical research, he said. When researchers are done with their "hairy test tubes," Fouts said the chimps are usually psychologically shattered for the rest of their lives. "One was so messed up from [the research] she bit off her thumbs, he said. The 21 chimps from the space program were heading for a similar fate when Noon stepped into the picture. She filed a successful lawsuit against the Air Force to gain custody of the chimps and recruited big names in the field of chimpanzee study to the cause of building a sanctuary for them. In addition to the Foutses, legendary gorilla researcher Jane Goodall is also a member of Save the Chimp's board of directors. Goodall is expected to visit the sanctuary for a tour next month. The chimps themselves will arrive in late March or early April -- as soon as construction is complete and final inspections are passed, Noon said. Despite the knowledge, hard work and good intentions of the researchers, Save the Chimps would still be a dream if it weren't for financial backers like Jon Stryker. Through his Arcus Foundation, Stryker put up $1 million in matching funds for the project. Stryker, an architect and part-time Palm Beach resident, learned about the project while surfing the World Wide Web with his then 9-year-old daughter. "We were looking up Jane Goodall and found the [Save the Chimp's Web] site," he said. He set up a meeting with Noon a few weeks later and decided to help fund the project. His foundation will match every donation Save the Chimps receives up to $1 million. "If all it says in my obit is that I helped start Save the Chimps, I'll be very satisfied," he said. For more information about Save the Chimps, call (772) 429-0403. | |||||||||||||||||
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