In 2001 I became aware of one sanctuary that was trying to provide a good home for five unwanted apes. While sanctuaries are not uncommon, this one, while small, seemed different. I was fortunate to be able to spend a month at the Center for Great Apes, located in Wauchula, Florida, USA. The Center’s aim is to provide a permanent sanctuary for orangutans and chimpanzees who have been retired from the entertainment industry, from research or who are unwanted pets. Since this initial visit the Center has grown in size and now cares for 44 great apes, 15 orangutans and 29 chimpanzees; the Center has added further enclosures, night houses, a health centre and even a specially designed area suited to the unique needs of handicapped apes, such as a young chimpanzee with cerebral palsy. Not having visited for four years I made a return trip to the Center in February this year to see some of the many changes and meet some of the new apes.
The Center exists because of founder Patti Ragan. It was in 1984 that she first experienced working with these great apes in Borneo, volunteering at a rehabilitation project for wild orangutans. Ragan, who lived in Miami, Florida at that time, was later asked to help care for a four-week-old infant orangutan at a bird park. Believing that the infant was eventually going to live with other orangutans at an AZA accredited zoo, she was disheartened to hear that the owner would be handing the ape to a trainer for circus work. Fortunately the owner agreed to allow Ragan the opportunity to find an appropriate captive environment, but she soon discovered that most accredited zoos do not want a mixed Bornean/Sumatran orangutan. In the hope that someone would set up a sanctuary for orangutans that could not be cared for in major American zoos (or be returned to the wild), Ragan decided to establish a non-profit organisation. Following this, she was asked to care for an infant chimpanzee, who was to be sold for work at the Universal Studios tourist attraction in Orlando; the sanctuary would now care for both great apes. After four years of investigation Ragan found an affordable, and feasible, plot in Wauchula, a small rural community in southern central Florida, originally with 15 acres of forest setting including oak, pine, magnolia, sweet gum, willow, bamboo, palm, guava, mango, ginger, banana, and other exotic fruit trees. The sanctuary has now increased to over 100 acres.
My visit this year was within a month of the addition of the Center’s newest arrivals, Popi and Allie. These two adult female orangutans arrived from the Great Ape Trust of Iowa, a scientific research center that conducts cognitive studies but whose primary focus will now be bonobos (Pan paniscus), so a new home was needed for Popi and Allie. I was keen to learn more about them and see how they were adjusting to their new environment. All of the Center’s chimpanzees and orangutans live in three-story enclosures, providing substantial running room and height for the apes to swing. The habitats have a variety of climbing structures and swinging vines as well as numerous enrichment devices. Yet what is unique about the Center is the elevated tunnel system that meanders for more than a mile (5,300 ft) through the property. This chute system connects all the enclosures and allows the apes the freedom to run through the forest. It is impressive that a relatively small non-profit sanctuary has been able to provide a system that could be regarded as superior to other larger, and better funded, captive environments. A captive environment can quickly prove to be dull for a great ape so it is pleasing to witness the sense of freedom the chutes provide.
Popi (an older female) quickly settled into her new environment. For many years she had been owned by the circus trainer Bobby Berosini. Berosini used orangutans in his 1980s Las Vegas stage show and was eventually in court over filmed evidence of physical abuse of these great apes. Popi was at the centre of what was the first animal welfare case that raised critical questions about the treatment of great apes in entertainment. After public outcry, Berosini’s orangutans were acquired by a Californian company who provide animals for films and TV shows. Popi lived in that compound for over a decade until she was moved to the Great Ape Trust in Iowa in 2008, her home before the Center for Great Apes in Florida.
The other orangutan, Allie, was originally born at the Yerkes Primate Research Laboratory in Atlanta, and was then sent to the Denver Zoo with her mother when she was still an infant. When she was six years old, her mother died unexpectedly and shortly after Allie came down with an unrelated illness which left her handicapped. She cannot use her legs for walking but Allie pulls herself along with her arms. I’d been present when another orangutan called Mari arrived at the Center who has no arms, so I already knew that the Center had the experience to care for such individuals.
Currently Popi and Allie are being housed in a new night house but the Center is working hard to fundraise and complete the outdoor area. The eventual aim is to give them the choice of new companions; there are 13 orangutans at the Center.
There’s no doubt that research, reintroduction, habitat protection and environmental education is incredibly important if we hope to learn more about orangutans. It easy to understand why people question the huge resources that are required to support apes in captive care. Providing for such individuals, such as those at the Center, is incredibly expensive. However there is a need to provide captive environments that meet the physical and psychological requirements of apes that really have no other alternative. It is gratifying that the Center is able to provide an environment that supports these apes and offers them a base for life. To read more about the Center go to www.centerforgreatapes.org
Victoria Smith MSc

Dedicated to Tina Gilbert-Schenck, Operations Manager at the Center for Great Apes, who passed away during the writing of this article.