Fauna Foundation Visit

Fauna Foundation Visit

The featured photo is Sue Ellen, resident at Fauna Foundation, near Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Staff says she is partial to scarves and necklaces. She’s an older girl: born in 1967. She is the only chimpanzee we got to see at a recent visit to the Foundation. Much more about this to come. If I had it to do over, I would be a primatologist. First, let me illustrate the progression of my current fascination with those among us labelled non-human primates.

Stage One:

1966, a brief, loving encounter.
Primatologists today find roadside zoos like this Florida attraction unethical and unacceptable. But what did we know in those days? No seat belts! We smoked our way through our pregnancies.

Stage Two:

My Jane Goodall moments in the hills of McLeod Ganj, Himachal Pradesh, India , year 2000. These guys lived in large colonies in the forested hills. They came down every morning screaming and grabbing, terrorizing the tourists in the guest houses.
They mated paying no attention to me watching spellbound right across the path from them. Then the gentleman caller
took off.
Large colony.
Youngsters playing in the trees.

Full-Blown Late Stage Obsessive Fascination:

The Boss – Jamie Chimpanzee aged 41. Courtesy
Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
CSNW blogs and videos cause us to fall in love, to learn, to appreciate. Jamie’s group consists of 5 other females and one male where she rules. Would you argue with her?