- What ends up happening in the pet industry
is that because the human parents realize
how strong and hard they are to take care of,
they are oftentimes having to be put into a very small space
and they're still not having that interaction
with other chimpanzees like they really should.
- Those of us in primate staff really didn't know
exactly where Chloe had come from,
except it was from an entertainment background.
She did not see herself as a chimpanzee.
The whole idea was to keep them together for several years
until they were old enough to join the adult group
in what hopefully would be a new exhibit.
Dr. Goodall was needing financial support for Gombe
and we were one of the few zoos to step forward to say
"We want to participate."
Dr. Goodall was very much interested
in our chimpanzee enrichment program.
We compared notes and we learned so much from each other,
and what's gratifying is that relationship
between this zoo and her has never ended.
- She is right now the dominant of her troop
which is a little bit surprising, 'cause before she was
kind of more on the outskuirts pf the group.
She's very sweet and in tune to both
the chimpanzees around her as well as her keeper staff.
She kind of runs the group and alerts the other chimpanzees
when something's going on.
We were given the opportunity to basically give
a encased GoPro to our chimps.
We had no idea what they were gonna do with it,
but Chloe actually took it with her for a couple days
and gave it back at the end of each day.
She actually learned to turn it on and off, and it was great
because not only was it enriching for her,
but it gave us an extremely unique perspective
of what she does during the day.
My responsibility to Chloe as her caretaker
is to give her the best life I possibly can.
Right now there's still a couple hundred chimpanzees
in the pet industry.
Those are gonna need homes.
I think that it's a good opportunity for zoos specifically
who have the ability to properly care for these animals
to really step up.
- By coming into the Portland Zoo at that time,
Chloe survived.
Many of those animals coming out of
entertainment and research disappeared.
The fact that she's with us, the fact that she's playful
and enjoying whatever she's doing,
I very much think that we succeeded.