Center for Great Apes

Last updated
Center for Great Apes
Center for Great Apes
Date opened1993
Location Wauchula, Florida
No. of animals71
No. of species27 Orangutans
44 Chimpanzees
Website www.centerforgreatapes.org
Center for Orangutan and Chimpanzee Conservation, Inc.
65-0444725 [1]
Revenue (2015)
$1,956,713

The Center for Great Apes is a sanctuary for great apes located east of Wauchula, Florida. Its mission is to provide a permanent sanctuary for orangutans and chimpanzees who have been rescued or retired from the entertainment industry, from research, or from the exotic pet trade; to educate the public about captive great apes and the threats to conservation of great apes in the wild; and to advocate for the end of the use of great apes as entertainers, research subjects, and pets.

Contents

The Center for Great Apes, the only accredited orangutan sanctuary in North America, provides lifetime care with dignity for orangutans and chimpanzees, both endangered species. It has earned the highest possible rankings from both Charity Navigator (4 Star), and Guidestar's Platinum Seal of Transparency. The Center, a private, non-profit, does not receive government funding and relies solely on the generosity of its members, private donors, and grants from foundations. The annual cost of caring for each ape including enrichment, nutrition, and medical, is approximately $36,000 per year. The sanctuary is a founding member of North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance (NAPSA) [2] and is accredited by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries.

The Center for Great Apes offers its orangutans and chimpanzees about 2 miles (3.2 km) of aerial trailways - allowing them to explore the sanctuary. Aerial trailways at Center for Great Apes.jpg
The Center for Great Apes offers its orangutans and chimpanzees  about 2 miles (3.2 km) of aerial trailways - allowing them to explore the sanctuary.

Notable residents

Sunshine with her daughter Cahaya and friend Keagan at the Center for Great Apes Cahaya and family at Center for Great Apes.png
Sunshine with her daughter Cahaya and friend Keagan at the Center for Great Apes
Marco the chimpanzee at the Center for Great Apes was wild-caught in Africa and sold to a circus in America and then sold to a family. He arrived at the Center for Great Apes in 2005. Marco the chimpanzee at the Center for Great Apes.jpg
Marco the chimpanzee at the Center for Great Apes was wild-caught in Africa and sold to a circus in America and then sold to a family. He arrived at the Center for Great Apes in 2005.
Mari, a pure Sumatran orangutan, arrived at the Center for Great Apes from a language and cognition study in Georgia. She is a very special orangutan in that she has no arms due to an accident prior to her arrival at the Center for Great Apes. She is very capable. Mari the orangutan at Center for Great Apes.jpg
Mari, a pure Sumatran orangutan, arrived at the Center for Great Apes from a language and cognition study in Georgia. She is a very special orangutan in that she has no arms due to an accident prior to her arrival at the Center for Great Apes. She is very capable.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chimpanzee</span> Great ape native to the forest and savannah of tropical Africa

The chimpanzee, also simply known as the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forests and savannahs of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed one. When its close relative the bonobo was more commonly known as the pygmy chimpanzee, this species was often called the common chimpanzee or the robust chimpanzee. The chimpanzee and the bonobo are the only species in the genus Pan. Evidence from fossils and DNA sequencing shows that Pan is a sister taxon to the human lineage and is thus humans' closest living relative. The chimpanzee is covered in coarse black hair, but has a bare face, fingers, toes, palms of the hands, and soles of the feet. It is larger and more robust than the bonobo, weighing 40–70 kg (88–154 lb) for males and 27–50 kg (60–110 lb) for females and standing 150 cm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wauchula, Florida</span> City in Florida, United States of America

Wauchula is a city and the county seat of Hardee County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 5,001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great ape personhood</span> Extending personhood to nonhuman great apes

Great ape personhood is a movement to extend personhood and some legal protections to the non-human members of the great ape family: bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cheeta</span> Fictional character

Cheeta is a chimpanzee character that appeared in numerous Hollywood Tarzan films of the 1930s–1960s, as well as the 1966–1968 television series, as the ape sidekick of the title character, Tarzan. Cheeta has usually been characterized as male, but sometimes as female, and has been portrayed by chimpanzees of both sexes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ape</span> Branch of primates

Apes are a clade of Old World simians native to sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, which together with its sister group Cercopithecidae form the catarrhine clade, cladistically making them monkeys. Apes do not have tails due to a mutation of the TBXT gene. In traditional and non-scientific use, the term ape can include tailless primates taxonomically considered Cercopithecidae, and is thus not equivalent to the scientific taxon Hominoidea. There are two extant branches of the superfamily Hominoidea: the gibbons, or lesser apes; and the hominids, or great apes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Twycross Zoo</span> English animal park specialising in primates

Twycross Zoo is a medium to large zoo near Norton Juxta Twycross, Leicestershire. The zoo has the largest collection of monkeys and apes in the Western World, and in 2006 re-launched itself as "Twycross Zoo – The World Primate Centre".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oliver (chimpanzee)</span> Chimpanzee falsely promoted as a chimpanzee-human hybrid

Oliver was a former "performing" chimpanzee once promoted as a missing link or "humanzee" due to his somewhat human-like appearance and a tendency to walk upright. Despite his somewhat unusual appearance and behavior, scientists found that Oliver was not a human-chimpanzee hybrid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Ape Project</span> International organization

The Great Ape Project (GAP), founded in 1993, is an international organization of primatologists, anthropologists, ethicists, and others who advocate a United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Great Apes that would confer basic legal rights on non-human great apes: bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monkey World</span> Zoo in Dorset, England

The Monkey World Ape Rescue Centre is a 65-acre (26.3 ha) ape and monkey sanctuary, rescue centre and primatarium near Wool, Dorset, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Cronin (zookeeper)</span> American zookeeper

James Michael Cronin MBE was the American co-founder in 1987 of Monkey World in Dorset, England, a sanctuary for abused and neglected primates. He was widely acknowledged as an international expert in the rescue and rehabilitation of abused primates, and in the enforcement of international treaties aimed at protecting them from illegal trade and experimentation.

This is a list of countries banning non-human ape experimentation. The term non-human ape here refers to all members of the superfamily Hominoidea, excluding Homo sapiens. Banning in this case refers to the enactment of formal decrees prohibiting experimentation on non-human apes, though often with exceptions for extreme scenarios.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bubbles (chimpanzee)</span> Chimpanzee once owned by Michael Jackson

Bubbles is a chimpanzee once kept as a pet by the American singer Michael Jackson, who bought him from a Texas research facility in the 1980s. Bubbles frequently traveled with Jackson, drawing attention in the media. In 1987, during the Bad world tour, Bubbles and Jackson drank tea with the mayor of Osaka, Japan.

The International Primate Protection League (IPPL) is a not-for-profit animal welfare organization founded in 1973 in Thailand by Shirley McGreal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Animal testing on non-human primates</span> Experimentation using other primate animals

Experiments involving non-human primates (NHPs) include toxicity testing for medical and non-medical substances; studies of infectious disease, such as HIV and hepatitis; neurological studies; behavior and cognition; reproduction; genetics; and xenotransplantation. Around 65,000 NHPs are used every year in the United States, and around 7,000 across the European Union. Most are purpose-bred, while some are caught in the wild.

Save the Chimps, Inc is a publicly financed 501(c)(3) nonprofit American sanctuary specializing in the care of chimpanzees. The organization was founded by Carole C. Noon in 1997. Save the Chimps is accredited by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries and a founding member of the North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance. The mission of Save the Chimps is to provide sanctuary and exemplary care to chimpanzees in need.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hominidae</span> Family of primates

The Hominidae, whose members are known as the great apes or hominids, are a taxonomic family of primates that includes eight extant species in four genera: Pongo ; Gorilla ; Pan ; and Homo, of which only modern humans remain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arcus Foundation</span> American foundation

The Arcus Foundation is an international charitable foundation focused on issues related to LGBT rights, social justice, ape conservation, and environmental preservation. The foundation's stated mission is "to ensure that LGBT people and our fellow apes thrive in a world where social and environmental justice are a reality."

Sandra is an orangutan, currently living in the Center for Great Apes in Florida after being moved from the Buenos Aires Zoo in 2019. Sandra is a zoo-born, hybrid orangutan of the two separate species of Borneo and Sumatra orangutans. In Germany, Sandra, then called Marisa, was transferred to a second zoo in Germany (Ruhr-Zoo), then transferred to Argentina on September 17, 1994. At the Buenos Aires Zoo, the name of the orangutan was changed to Sandra.

International Primate Day, September 1, is an annual educational observance event organized since 2005 largely by British-based Animal Defenders International (ADI) and supported annually by various primate-oriented advocacy organizations, speaks for all higher and lower primates, typically endorsing humane agendas where primates are at risk, as in research institutions or species endangerment in precarious environmental situations.

References

  1. "CENTER FOR ORANGUTAN AND CHIMPANZEE CONSERVATION INC Form 990 2015". ProPublica. Retrieved 18 September 2017.
  2. "FAQ - Primate Sanctuaries". Primate Sanctuaries. Retrieved 2023-06-16.
  3. Furness, Dyllan (February 2, 2016). "Michael Jackson's Pet Chimp is Living Out His Twilight Years in Florida". New Times Broward-Palm Beach . Archived from the original on July 6, 2017. Retrieved November 8, 2019.
  4. Mufson, Beckett (June 28, 2017). "Michael Jackson's Famous Chimp, Bubbles, Is Selling Paintings to Get By". Vice . Archived from the original on June 2, 2019. Retrieved November 8, 2019.
  5. "Bella". Center for Great Apes. Retrieved 2023-06-16.
  6. Ragan, Patti (February 7, 2011). "Super Bowl commercials: What happens to those CareerBuilder chimps?". The Christian Science Monitor (Opinion). Archived from the original on May 8, 2013. Retrieved November 8, 2019.
  7. Royce, Brenda Scott (February 13, 2011). "For CareerBuilder Chimps, Sadly, the Joke Is On Them". The Huffington Post . Archived from the original on November 8, 2019. Retrieved November 8, 2019.
  8. "Sammy". Center for Great Apes. Retrieved 2023-06-16.
  9. Sokol, Zach (April 22, 2015). "All the Animals From Your Favorite Childhood Movies Are Dead". Vice . Archived from the original on July 29, 2019. Retrieved November 8, 2019.
  10. "Orangutan Sandra granted personhood settles into new Florida home". The Guardian . November 7, 2019. Archived from the original on November 8, 2019. Retrieved November 8, 2019.
  11. "Sunshine". Center for Great Apes. Retrieved 2023-06-16.
  12. "Bo". Center for Great Apes. Retrieved 2023-06-16.
  13. "Joe". Center for Great Apes. Retrieved 2023-06-16.
  14. "Marco". Center for Great Apes. Retrieved 2023-06-16.
  15. "Jonah". Center for Great Apes. Retrieved 2023-06-16.
  16. "Jacob". Center for Great Apes. Retrieved 2023-06-16.
  17. "Mari". Center for Great Apes. Retrieved 2023-06-16.
  18. "Knuckles". Center for Great Apes. Retrieved 2023-06-16.
  19. "Allie". Center for Great Apes. Retrieved 2023-06-16.

Further reading