(playful pop music)
- Chimp Haven is a retirement facility.
This is their forever home.
This is where they come to explore
and live like chimpanzees.
(chimpanzees chattering)
In June 2013,
the director of the National Institutes of Health
made an announcement that virtually all of the chimpanzees
would be retired from research.
We have close to 200 chimpanzees here now.
Around half of our colony are veterans of research
that was focused on a cure for HIV/AIDS,
as well as Hepatitis C.
And so, as a result of that,
those chimpanzees had to be infected with those viruses.
- Good morning, Gina!
Genetically, I'd say we're about 98% identical
to a chimpanzee.
And, as you can imagine, that's why they were ideal subjects
in test studies because they wanna learn more
about how they can benefit humans.
So, I would definitely say
that the human and chimp relationship
is one that is ever-evolving.
Give me your hand.
Good girl!
They're a lot like us and our family dynamics.
You see siblings, they're interacting,
they're playing with one another.
Every relationship is different;
it's just like us with humans.
Certain individuals you'll have
really close intimate relationships with; some not so much.
- We also have seen some behavioral changes
where a chimpanzee might appear to be overly timid
and, you know, see a change in that over time.
We might see that a chimpanzee is a lot more interested
in exploring the five-and-a-half-acre habitat,
and this might've been the first opportunity
that they had to do that.
- I think it's such a great benefit to know
that this is where they'll live out the rest of their lives
and to know that despite whatever their past may be,
we are at least giving them the opportunity
to live out a time of retirement
where they're with other chimps,
where they're able to exhibit
these species' typical behaviors,
and they're just able to be chimps
and know that, you know what?
Life is good.