Can These Ex-Hollywood Chimps Find a Place Among the Apes?

Science|Can These Ex-Hollywood Chimps Find a Place Among the Apes?

It was a rainy morning at the Lincoln Park Zoo, and at the chimpanzee exhibit, it was the children who were hooting and hollering. The apes themselves were placid, ignoring their rowdy audience as they foraged for leaves and swayed in small hammocks.

But hidden behind the scenes, out of public view, lived another group of chimps who were far less sanguine about strangers. And when they spotted two unfamiliar visitors, they rushed over to the edge of their enclosure. Eli, a gentle young adult, approached with his hair standing on end. Then Susie, a small but strong-willed female, spotted a photographer and began to shriek.

“She might be upset at the cameras,” said Jill Moyse, the curator of primates.

Eli and Susie had spent much of their young lives in front of cameras. Before arriving at the Lincoln Park Zoo in 2020, the pair had worked in Hollywood, racking up a long list of credits, including TV shows, music videos and commercials.

“‘Chimp Crazy’ exposed exactly how dangerous and cruel this pet primate trade is in a very visceral way,” said Kate Dylewsky, the assistant director of government affairs at the Animal Welfare Institute, a nonprofit that is lobbying for a national ban on keeping nonhuman primates as pets.