Rejected Baby Chimp Learns to Climb at Chimp Nursery | XYZ Episode 16

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:06]When you're in 18 hours of a little baby not being fed, you really have got to find out your heartstrings because do I sit back and leave it longer and take a chance cuz it's going to die or do I interfere or intervene I should say? And that was where the decision made. We had to intervene. We have a choice of life and death. Um, and I'm not willing to let it die or let her die.

[00:00:32]>> We knew there was going to be a lot of questions on uh why we did it. And the main goal was to make sure that Jane's welfare was taken into consideration.

[00:00:41]>> Big fate.

[00:00:43]>> All right then, and we'll see you later.

[00:00:53]The nursery will be our window into the enclosure. It is. There's all the chips in there. It's for desensitizing. It's for desensitizing the wire. It's for her to stay at night and get used to being there in there at night.

[00:01:09]>> The nursery was such a good little idea of, you know, it's time where she can spend in an area where she's safe and she's secure, but she can still have that interaction with the other chimps. So, we're also doing lots of um work with her with trying to hold onto the mesh, doing some sitting, um tummy time, just trying to get um other muslims strong, making sure that she's still part of the troop even though she's not necessarily in it right now. So, yeah, it's a positive step forward for us.

[00:01:51]>> Morning.

[00:01:52]>> Oh, how's she today? Okay.

[00:01:58]>> What?

[00:02:02]>> Wait time.

[00:02:08]>> How many times do you >> A couple of times a week.

[00:02:13]>> So, she went to bed about half eight last night.

[00:02:17]>> Half eight. Early bed.

[00:02:20]>> And it's 6:00 a.m. now. Weigh her with her blanket otherwise she gets all upset.

[00:02:27]>> Oh, look at that.

[00:02:30]Big girl, don't you?

[00:02:31]>> Three 43 65 4 365 You guys sucking her thumb. You sucking your thumb.

[00:02:52]like this. So, I need to weigh it to get her correct weight.

[00:02:59]Okay.

[00:03:03]So, that's 210.

[00:03:05]>> Mhm.

[00:03:06]>> So, I take 210 off of there. You can do maths now as well.

[00:03:11]So, she's just over 4 kilos, which is really good, especially for her age.

[00:03:15]She's 13 weeks. Oh, 13 weeks today.

[00:03:22]And on Tuesday, no, um, Saturday she was 4130.

[00:03:32]See how budgety she's getting.

[00:03:45]That's it then until later.

[00:03:49]Then the keepers will give her her next two bottles, two to three bottles and she'll be back here.

[00:03:56]>> So she's going to go from here. She's going to go to keep daycare 8:00. So, she's got 2 hours here and then she goes for me uh because I do a lot of social media now and I never used to. I'm 65 years old now so and I'm learning to do social media and everything. I think and when I listen to people, I think it's probably one of the best things we've done by putting it out there and letting everybody see what we do and how we do it. Even inviting the cameras into our house and it I think it's just great for people. I think it's a good feeling when I listen to these people. Oh, she's so gorgeous, so lovely. and the comments I'm getting constantly about, oh, we're so thankful for you letting us see her journey and like so I think social media has made this where we can go into people's houses and um take Jane into their house even though she's not, but she's into the house on social media.

[00:04:58]>> Did I think in my career I'd be on the news holding a baby chimpanzeee talking about how important she is for the species and uh you know for the conservation of them. never in my life I think I'd have this opportunity. So, I think that even it being on like such an incredible worldwide scale now, um I think it's absolutely incredible and I'm really hoping that people take on board how important the species is and they see it from a conservation point of view. You know, none of us want to promote primates as pets at all. Um and that's not what we're going for. We want Jane to thrive and survive and everything is going really well and we just want to do our part in conserving such an amazing species.

[00:05:46]>> I just didn't realize no I didn't think it would be as big but I think everybody opted on that bit about the way Jackie has been and she's been superb with her.

[00:05:55]Um so yeah I think yeah it's just amazing. It's amazing how much people have a love for for some animals.

[00:06:04]>> Morning You okay?

[00:06:16]>> Yeah.

[00:06:23]>> Did you see the video climbing up the way?

[00:06:26]>> Yeah.

[00:06:28]>> Oh, look. Mommy Faith.

[00:06:30]>> Hi, honey.

[00:06:31]>> Mommy Faith. I got her a different toy as well.

[00:06:36]I'll put that up there so she can have that sometime.

[00:06:39]>> Something different.

[00:06:40]>> Yeah.

[00:06:42]>> But she shouldn't be due to about >> um half 9 10. Okay. You >> want me to take that one?

[00:06:50]>> Yes, please. Thank you.

[00:06:51]>> There you go. Thank you, honey.

[00:06:54]>> Right then.

[00:06:57]>> Thank you.

[00:06:58]>> Enjoy. See you later.

[00:07:00]>> See you later.

[00:07:00]>> Bye. very hard work, but you I know I'll look back on this and I actually won't believe that I'm actually doing it. Um, in the end of the day, she's very cute, so I feel honored to look after her.

[00:07:13]>> What's been the hardest part, would you say?

[00:07:16]>> Just also looking after eight other chimps. It's very hard to make sure that they're getting everything that they need and all the enrichment. Um, and also making sure that she gets everything she needs. Um, but all working really well together and pulling the weight to make sure that she gets the very best. Hey, >> it's also really cool to see her progress. Like when obviously she was first born, she was so clingy and now she wants to come off us. She wants to climb. Um, and it just feels like that's gone by really, really quickly. It's just been >> within the blink of an eye, she's already climbing. So, it's really cool to see the progress of it all.

[00:07:53]>> Hey, >> but not this morning. This morning she's tired and just wants to have a cuddle.

[00:08:02]Good morning.

[00:08:06]You don't me.

[00:08:22]You can see those bottom teeth really coming through now.

[00:08:41]So, just come a little bit close to her so she can support her back. That's it.

[00:08:48]Good girl.

[00:08:56]So, Jess, while you're here, how has this training been with her? Uh, >> it's off and on. It's Sometimes she's really good and she'll take a good couple of mouthfuls. Um, other times she'll cry at the mesh and doesn't want to do it. So, uh, I would say it's kind of maybe 7030 at the moment, but we're trying it with every feed um, to get her used to it.

[00:09:19]This is really good though.

[00:09:20]>> Yeah, this is one of the better ones.

[00:09:23]So, essentially this is what she'll be doing um when she's um in back with the troop. Um so, Georgia will bringing will be bringing her over and this is how we are going to have to feed her through the mesh. So, she needs to learn how to hold on. She needs to learn how to come to the mesh. Um so, this is why we're doing this training so she can get used to it's a different sensation for her.

[00:09:47]uh where she's used to being held and bottlefed and she's having to actually use some upper strength um and not kind of be cuddled when she's having that bottle. So, she won't be fully weaned until she's about four to 5 years old.

[00:10:00]But, um milk feeds uh are her only source of nutrition um at the moment.

[00:10:06]So, uh, it's really important for us to to make sure that she's getting these milk feeds. Um, and she's getting used to them through the mesh because when she goes in with Georgia, this is just what we'll be doing for for a while. So, you can see it's a completely different way of feeding her how we have been doing it to then actually having to hold on um to the mesh herself.

[00:10:28]>> She's changed a lot in the last few weeks. She's got a lot stronger. She's becoming a lot more playful. You can tell by her milk feeds. they've increased um dramatically.

[00:10:39]Um she sleeps a lot less. Um so yeah, she's making really really good progress. We're really happy with her.

[00:10:45]We have a structure, we have an order, and it works really well for us and for Jane. Um so usually it depends on what time she's been up in the morning, depends on how often uh how long she goes without having another feed. So it's kind of all all the structure that we use. We kind of generally know how the day works now. We're all in a routine for her.

[00:11:06]>> I actually think she's ahead. I think I'm quite impressed actually how um I think it's to do with the keepers and Jackie. They're pushing her. She has to hold on herself. She doesn't hold on so much with Jackie. I think I don't know why that is. She gets hold of me. She hangs on. Um I think she hangs on Ree, but the keepers especially um Jess.

[00:11:28]Well, no keepers because remember she when she goes to daycare that she has they they carry on working so she's got to hang on. Yeah. So, she's um strong.

[00:11:35]Her strength's really good. Um her movements are good. She climbed up the wire a little bit. Um Yeah. So, we're I'm well pleased. Jackie is pleased. I know. I think the keepers are pleased with her. Yeah. So, it's really good.

[00:11:46]>> So, we're going to have these. This is so she can um so she can have something to hang on to and climb up onto and climb. This is to help strengthen her up a lot more so we can get her a lot stronger. So, these are going into the chimp. So, we're going to see how she gets on with them.

[00:12:04]Wonder what they're going to do.

[00:12:08]Go in first thing, right? Look at these guys. I bet you think, what are they?

[00:12:14]They're not yours, though. They're James.

[00:12:18]So, these are >> And then they're going to put them out.

[00:12:22]They want them. And then they see how Jane gets. Obviously, Jane's asleep now, so we don't want to wake Jane up.

[00:12:27]>> Tada.

[00:12:29]>> All good stuff. So, these I think are the idea for helping us to climb around like on the beams and stuff and on things that aren't the mesh site.

[00:12:38]Obviously, we've we can practice mesh climbing uh in the nursery. I think these were more of the idea to get used to something that's a little bit different to the mesh.

[00:12:48]>> You're all right. You're okay.

[00:12:59]>> All right.

[00:13:00]You're all right. I'm still here. I'm left doing something big and scary and breaking together. Yeah, I'm done filming on me.

[00:13:15]>> I know you like to be on the camera.

[00:13:18]Show off.

[00:13:20]I need you to focus your attention this way, Jamie.

[00:13:24]>> Oh, look at her. Oh, nice. Oh, >> who is it? her life changing.

[00:13:34]>> Look, he's here.

[00:13:35]>> She doesn't normally get disturbed for me.

[00:13:40]>> That eye contact is suggested otherwise.

[00:13:42]Excuse me.

[00:13:42]>> Yeah.

[00:13:43]>> Excuse me. Come on.

[00:13:47]Poo time.

[00:13:49]>> Sorry, I've ruined that, haven't I? Ah, >> yeah, he did, didn't he? There we go.

[00:13:56]Are you still there? You haven't left yet. You're just distracted by everybody else, aren't you?

[00:14:01]>> Yeah.

[00:14:02]>> Yeah.

[00:14:03]>> And then next day, maybe you got to choose. Well, we got to choose which chimp's going to go in the second ch.

[00:14:08]>> Yeah.

[00:14:08]>> And then once you got two chips, then I'll be happy.

[00:14:10]>> Yeah. Yeah.

[00:14:22]Keep up the prog.

[00:14:35]There we go. Yeah. Go. Now turn off.

[00:14:40]Time to stop. Time stop.

[00:14:48]Yeah. Yeah.

[00:14:54]Come on.

[00:15:01]Yeah. Bring your hands up.

[00:15:05]Push. Push. Push. Push. Push.

[00:15:14]Are you kidding?

[00:15:22]Says, "I want to play with the camera."

[00:15:40]Yes. I've been on for a long time now.

[00:15:49]Please have floor tappy pants. Yeah.

[00:15:59]Happy noises cuz we're hungry.

[00:16:04]Oh, tasty. Tasty.

[00:16:13]behind your All right. Oh, yeah.

[00:16:49]Wonder where she is. Is she in in Let's see where she is. Oh, it's Oh, she's in there.

[00:17:05]It's got me today. Jackie stuck on the train. The >> train. I'm in charge.

[00:17:11]>> I'm in charge.

[00:17:12]>> Guess what we have? We have a nappy on with me cuz I don't know where.

[00:17:16]>> Right. Let's get you stuff.

[00:17:17]>> Bye.

[00:17:19]>> Going to put a nappy on you, baby. Take a look.

[00:17:28]>> This is the end of the day now. Jane is coming home. Okay, Jackie is just normally I wouldn't do normally do this.

[00:17:34]Jackie normally does it. Um but she got stuck on the train. So, uh so next couple of hours she's going to have a I just going to check what bottles she's got to have and everything. So then she'll have her bottle. Um she's going to have a play. She'll have a lot of playing. And then she normally goes to bed around I think it's around half 8, half 9, but she's got to have her play time yet and she'll be on the floor. And we want to cuz we want to keep stimulating her now more and more for her to move. So like this morning she was on her back and she flicked herself onto her belly. Um so that's what we want more and more of that. So this is all the new toys she's got. All about getting her stronger and stronger and stronger and every day is a stronger day. So we just need that strength. What we really need. We want her to be able to crawl back to us no matter what. So if one of those other chimps don't bring her, she can find her own way to that wire. That's the most important thing.

[00:18:19]And she can get her own food. Perfect.

[00:18:21]It works perfect. There you go. You going to say goodbye, Jane? Bye. Bye.

[00:18:26]You see, boy, you go now. There's my Where's my mother? Mom, she likes her mom. Right, let's go.

[00:18:35]>> Yeah, I think um we never ever expected our mirror a chimp. Um so, whatever happens, it's always going to be a high part of our lives. Um I think every day of having her, you know, just seeing that what she does and how she grows in the way she is, it's like it is really fantastic. Loads of people say and we don't get it when they go, "Oh, this oh this is so good. Oh, I would give I would what I would do to do that and do that." But to be honest you, we don't think of it like that. We never ever do.

[00:19:02]We just like it just get on and do it.

[00:19:05]We don't see it like even though we both know it's something special, but we just get on with it. We just It's I know it sounds like whatever we do like haming tigers. I mean that's special. Hamrying leopard jack um the clouded leopard.

[00:19:20]Hamrying the cheetah. Hamry in a puma, Hamry um caracel. They are all special no matter what. But yeah, she has got a special place.

[00:19:30]>> Talk me through what these last few months have been like.

[00:19:34]>> Long, tiring, you know. Uh but they've been amazing.

[00:19:39]Bless it. It's been so magical to see her and be a part of her progression.

[00:19:45]You know, like we've had Elizabeth and Margaret as well. um you you don't really have a hands-on effect on their progression. You know, you're making sure that they're hitting their milestones. We did have to intervene and bottle feed both of them, which is already such an amazing opportunity, but obviously we didn't want to pull Jane, but we didn't really have a choice. Um so, it has been an incredible journey to be a part of so closely with her. Um but yeah, we're all looking forward to when she's happy and settled in the trip as well.

[00:20:16]Everything's happening. It's really, really all really, really good. All positive. Good job.

[00:20:23]>> Good job.

[00:20:24]Hold on tight.

[00:20:26]>> Good job.

[00:20:28]>> Good job.

[00:20:32]>> Come on, Nick. Closer.

[00:20:34]>> Come on, Nick.

[00:20:38]Keep coming.