Last weekend,  the TV presenter Otávio Mesquita visited us for a story along with a crew of SBT.  Octávio knows us for over 10 years. According to him, he was flying in ahelicopter above the Sanctuary , going to his farm, and he discovered us. People told him that “there was a crazy man raising monkeys”. Through his production, he could schedule a visit . The Great Ape Sanctuary was starting, was less than five years old.

Otávio ​​, who loves animals and especially primates, became fascinated with the direct contact with the group of infants that we had at the time and entered the enclosure with Guga and Emilio. He was so excited by what he saw that he forgot his youngest son, who had come with him and of whom we had to take care of, because of the possible danger of bites from monkeys.

Otávio visited us again two other times: less than three years ago, when chimpanzee Suzi was born, and now, that her brother Cesar is three months old. I am telling you all this to show how chimps have a photographic memory.

When Suzi saw him, she threw herself into his arms. And Suzi was with him when she was very young, and for less than half an hour. But the most interesting happened with chimpanzee Emilio. While we search for Suzi on her enclosure to shoot with her, Cesar and Otávio ​​, who is unusually racy, approached Emilio, who was watching, from the external windows of his room,  and gave him a hug . At this time, Emilio grinned and reciprocated . Otávio did not end up  hurt because Emilio remembered him when he was in his room 10 years before filming and playing with the chimps . Anyone else would have been hurt . Today Emilio is similar in strength of several men.

Now consider another characteristic of chimpanzees, who are almost human: planning . While we were shooting with Otávio, ​​Cesar and Suzi in the electric fence adjoining the walled enclosure of Emilio and Guga , they and all their group watched us through the windows . The entire TV crew (more than seven people) had to enter to do the to work .  When we were leaving, we had to return Suzi and Cesar to their respective enclosure and we forgot and left the gates opened.  This never happened. From the windows the chimpanzees realized it . And they began to think and plan that the next day , they would simply would enjoy a unique day, walking freely around the sanctuary.

The next day, when the handler Meire opened the walkways for them to go around,  she was surprised that Emilio and Guga were evident with a smirk. She was the babysitter of both when they were babies and knows them well. She began to think and see what was motivating all that unusual joy and remembered that we were working with Otávio ​​and the SBT team in the area about and something could have stayed there. When she came there, she saw the two open gates. And this way the spree of Guga and Emilio ended up , who had planned overnight the escape that was going to happen the next day and the fun they would enjoy visiting the enclosures of his friends and home, where they practically grew up.

Memory and Planning , deeply human characteristics , inserted into our DNA , we share with chimpanzees , our primitive brothers.

Dr. Pedro A. Ynterian

President , GAP Project International

Images of Otávio ​​knowing the Gibbons , chimpanzee Catarina , capuchin monkeys , the enclosure of Gilberto and the walkway that give access to the area of electric fence / gates open where Emilio and Guga wished to flee.