I arrived a little after dawn where Caesar was with his mother, Samantha, and his sister Sofia. I entered their enclosure and the family was at one of the two-storey houses, in the external area, on the roof. I asked to bring me Caesar, since I could not climb up there. Sofia carried Caesar in her abdomen and went down with him, easily, gave him to me and got back to the ceiling.

Samantha won not only an efficient and caring daughter, but also a spectacular assist mother with Sofia. Samantha does not carry Caesar, nor on her back or abdomen. We think she feels distress about it. That was why she neither nursed Caesar when he was born. However, she plays with him, protects, watches and takes him by the hand when we asked her to bring him to be fed. When the distance is long, she asks Sofia to carry him.

Two weeks ago, Samantha and Sofia started to climb with Caesar on the roof of the house, which has a unique view of the Sanctuary and the surrounding area. Caesar could not climb alone and they took him. They also brought food for him so he could eat fruits between the bottles.

When I first entered and asked them to bring Caesar to me, it was a struggle, since that day Sofia was alone with him and had never experienced going down with him without her mother’s help. But the cleverness of chimps is so great that in a few minutes she  found the formula to get down safely.

Samantha now is much more close to Caesar then to her daughters, as we left him with her with only one year old, when he is still very dependent. She does not want that we take Caesar out of the enclosure anymore and helps me to get out when Caesar seems to want to get out with me, as he is divided between his life with humans and his chimpanzee family. I have avoided to remove him from living with his sister and mother.

A few hundred meters away of Caesar’s enclosure, another family – this not humanized – also lives in harmony. Pedrinho leads to Cecilia from one place to another and plays with her younger sister all the time. His sister Luiza is already the mother of a baby, called “Sol”, who is a few months-old, and observes the radical jokes that her brothers practice. Their mother, Ditty (Samantha’s mother and Sofia and Caesar’s grandmother) is a liberal mother; before her one year old, she had already released Cecilia of her control and let her play and walk carried by her brother.

Hundred of meters away of this family, there is one in which the mother is very controlling. Marcelino, their first child, is now entering adolescence and his brother, Miguel, is still a baby, no matter his size is big for his age. In the first confusion that happens, Tata, the mother, picks Miguel on her lap and takes him away from the noise, when the father gets angry about something or with other chimpanzees in the neighborhood. She still maintains control over Miguel, like a newborn.

In the world of Sanctuary, a small universe that depicts the life of families of chimpanzees, we have three families with different behaviors and ways of life. A few miles from there, thousands of human families live, each according to their criteria, family history and emotions. In the end, both species differ very little…

Dr. Pedro  A. Ynterian

President, GAP Project International

Pictures of Sorocaba Great Primates Sanctuary