OREGON ZOO

Edward Miller was an iron ore producer in the borderline of Sierra Leone and Liberia, at West Africa, in the 70’s. One day he saw a group of humans carrying a baby chimpanzee. The mother must have been killed a few hours before. He did not hesitate, did an offer and bought him. In 1972 he was back to United States with his family and ended up delivering the baby, whom he had called Charlie, to Washington Park Zoo, in Oregon.

Katie McKensie, a receptionist who had studied Anthropology, had made a proposal to the director of the zoo at the time of forming a group with the orphan chimpanzees they sheltered, including Charlie, in order to teach them the signs language. Surprisingly the director approved the project.

Dave Thomas, recently graduated on Psychology at WillametteUniversity, watched on TV that the Project was beginning to be developed at Oregon Zoo. Then he registered as a volunteer of the project in 1973.

A few days ago, 36 years after he had taken that decision – and now as the chief keeper of the zoo – , Thomas cried the death of his great partner for all these years. On a September afternoon, Charlie dropped suffering probably of a heart attack in front of the audience in the zoo where he practically lived all his life – and learned a lot about human civilization.

Charlie was known as the Prince of the zoo, as recognizes veterinarian Mitch Finnegan, who used to interact with him constantly. Thomas, who has not recovery form the death of his friend – he thought he would be the one who would die before Charlie – affirmed: “I can say honestly that Charlie was a person who really changed my life”.

A few years ago, Charlie pulled out the tip of one of the hand fingers of the zoo director, who did not notice his hand was too near the primate. Nobody was able to explain the reason of that gesture, or to understand why Charlie became deeply depressed when he realized what he had done, seeing the blood flowing down the zoo director’s hand. For more than a month he seemed to be regretted and did not understand how the accident had happened.

Charlie lived with four females. One of them, Coco, 57 years old, had given him several babies. When the females realized he had dropped, they started to yell desperately, without understanding what had happened.

One interesting story told by the vet was the visit of the keeper Marianne Youtter Curimgton tem years after she had left the zoo. When Charlie saw her, in the middle of the visitors, he immediately recognized her and asked desperately for her to visit him in the back area of the enclosure, just like she did several times when she was a keeper at the zoo.

Charlie will be missed, not only by his chimpanzees’ partners – Coco, Delilah, Leah and Chloe – but also by everyone who met and interacted with him. Especially his great friend Dave Thomas, who learned to love this extraordinary being and to respect him like no one else did.

Dr. Pedro A Ynterian
President, GAP Project International