Bico is the last chimp from Lebanon moved to Brazil, and has just arrived at Paraná Sanctuary. He is very human. He has never been with other chimps and feels like a human. This is what happened in the early life of the chimpanzee Washoe, who was deprived of contact with other chimps in her early years and only had contact with humans.

Bico is very afraid of other chimpanzees. An attempt to integrate him with a group of young chimpanzees had to be aborted, since he panicked and began to develop an emotional gastritis.

Bico showed  to Milan and Anita  in the sanctuary they created that he can be “self-suficient,” as the Americans say. When he was given a small broom, he swept over the room and then, with its cable and a piece of cloth he had already, he cleaned all the windows. And all this spontaneously.

Maybe someday we may get to train chimps to take care of their own enclosures, imitating the work of human keepers. No doubt it would be an extraordinary help in the administration of a sanctuary.

Dr. Pedro A. Ynterian

President, GAP Project International