Francis is one of the international residents of the Great Apes Sanctuary of Sorocaba, São Paulo, Brazil, and one of the oldest female residents.

Her story is a sad one, starting when she was taken as a baby from Africa to a medical research laboratory in the United States. We don’t have much detailed information about her time in experimentations, but when she became an adult she started living in a zoo in the state of Colorado. A few years later she was sent there with another chimpanzee, Queenie, to Vesty Pakos Zoo, in La Paz, Bolivia.

In 2003, the zoo could no longer take care of them and they were finally sent to the Brazilian sanctuary. Francis and Queenie lived together in harmony until 2011, when Queenie sadly passed away.

Francis’ early life was very hard, but she was lucky enough to find a decent life at the sanctuary. After the death of her dearly companion, she shared her days with a few other chimpanzees. She is very reserved and doesn’t like contact with humans, due to the suffering she has endured. But she doesn’t like to be alone and seeks out the company of other chimpanzees. She currently interacts a lot with Simon (Sam).