I asked Samantha repeatedly to wait for me. She was carrying a big baby, in a huge belly, which made her last days of pregnancy very painful. Sofia accompanied her everywhere. She refused to go with her ​​sisters – Sarah and Suzi – to the other room with Jimmy, her foster father. She did not want to miss the divine moment to see his birth…

Monday, December 9, before leaving the Sanctuary, to return to my working days in São Paulo, I went to see her. She was lying on a blanket, with the belly up and the legs rose. This way she felt better. Earlier I had already noticed slight contractions in her abdomen. Dr. Camila, vet of the Sanctuary, told me that it was very close to the day of his arrival… I no longer believed, some false alarms had surprised us. However, women are more sensitive than us to sense these moments. I asked her – as if she could – do not make me go back in a hurry on the following day. She smiled at me as saying: “go quiet”.

Tuesday, December 10, 7:30 am, a call from the keeper Meire took me quite early in front of the computer at Interlab. I already knew… He was coming… On 10 minutes I was contending with thousands of cars, bikes and all kinds of vehicles on my way to Sorocaba. It was raining in São Paulo, it was a living hell and nothing was working. There were accidents and traffic jams to get in Castelo Branco highway. Then it was faster and in an hour and a half I was entering the Sanctuary.

The picture was the same the last three deliveries: blood everywhere, the baby wrapped in TNT, hanging with the placenta through the umbilical cord. She had not picked him up and did not let anyone – even me – touch him. I knew we had to get him to cut the placenta and the umbilical cord, to have his stump, heat him and help him to survive. Occasionally, she examined him, now realizing that he was a male… (After three deliveries of females…) . But she did not put him in the chest, as it is usual with all mother chimpanzees, who never leave the baby on the floor.

Then we had to trick her so she went to another room. Sofia, from another room, was watching the situation. Jimmy, who knew what was happening, took the sisters away so they do not interfere. In a lack of attention and too tired after a few hours of the baby birth, she already knew the outcome. We isolated the baby and took him to the clinic the Sanctuary.

Later, Sofia joined her mother, recognized her and showed her affection. Maybe a consolation, knowing that her brother is safe.

CAESAR is an unusual baby chimpanzee. He’s big and alert and already complains with the cries of adults OR … OR … when the keepers dress his stump and change his diapers. He is already having a  25 ml milk bottle and also complains loudly when it takes long to feed him. The last Caeser we know was the one in the movie Planet of the Apes – the Origin, who was also created by humans, broke the barrier of silence and said NO against the damn humans who tortured his brothers and exhibited them in a zoo to be humiliated. Caesar said a word and broke the species barrier, demanding that his peers were treated with humanity and respect. This new Caeser, with a strong body and personality, perhaps is the Liberator of his peers who still cry out due the incomprehension of their rights that have always been despised.

Therefore, we chose this name to remind humans that chimpanzees are our brothers and will be able, in one way or another, to be heard on our Planet. We also hope that this Caesar approaches the end of this century and, thorough his strength of mind, guarantees that their rights will be heard in the human society that does not accept them as brothers. He will not need us to speak for him, his presence, and perhaps his voice, will claim for Justice and the new generations will listen.

WHO IS HIS FATHER? It is hard to say at this point. Sexual democracy of the new generations of captive chimpanzees practice, in which the alpha male does not give importance to fidelity, make us conclude that he can be the son of one of the three males who live in group. We vote in two candidates: Emilio, due to his appearance, but maybe Billy, the youngest, because he – as his probable son – almost speaks a few words when he wants to be heard.