Chimpanzees who live in inadequate conditions use to have abnormal behavior originated both by physical and mental traumas. In general, we see that those who came from circus are more affected by physical damages, like castration and teeth pulled out, while the ones who came from zoos present psychological traumas due to harassment and exposition to an audience.

But Jeber and Tyson are two curious exceptions. They were confiscated from a circus, do not have any teeth and had their testicles pulled out. What was previewed to be a physical trauma case became one of the most serious case of psychological disturb that we have on the sanctuary. Castration and teeth pulled out, in theory, would make them to be more docile. But in practice, what happens is the contrary, as long as they are extremely agitated and unpredictable chimpanzees. And some behavior can be compared to madness. After all, the contact we had with them that used to be harmless now is feared.

As soon as they arrived at the sanctuary they were kind, friendly and needy, which allowed an interaction directly through the windows of the enclosure. Within time, this behavior changed. Maybe because they realized that now they are free of the human torture routine and can live in peace, near their equals, they started to demonstrate typical behavior of a chimpanzee who enjoys his independence. Stereotyped behaviors, like walking frenetically from one side to the other, and even coprophagy (ingestion of own feces), were significantly reduced and were replaced by reciprocal grooming and “talking” with their neighbors.

I believe that this anger they de demonstrate now is an answer to the years of torture and submission that they were forced to on heartless humans. And today, as they know they do not need to be slaves anymore, they can finally be chimpanzees.

This is one more proof that circus that use animals are real disturbed beings factories. It is time to put an end to this awful and stupid practice that is still present in some shows.