Alice

Pan troglodytes ellioti
Estimated Birth – December 1999

In June 2001, Sanaga-Yong staff helped authorities confiscate two-year-old Alice from a village about two hours from the sanctuary. She was tethered to the trunk of a tree and suffered from deep, infected wounds from the cord tied around her waist. The village people claimed that a hunter they didn’t know abandoned her, and they weren’t sure what to do with her. At Sanaga- Yong, sweet-natured Alice grew up in the nursery with a group of seven other babies who arrived around the same time she did. They joined Jacky’s group of adults and older juveniles in 2004. Alice was critically ill with pneumonia soon after the move to the new group, but she recovered with antibiotics and has been very healthy ever since. Today, in the sanctuary’s largest social group of 19, Alice is a lower-ranking female, but she seems happy in the group. She enjoys close friendships with females she has known since infancy, including Niete, Leilah, Cindy and Emma. Together they form a strong coalition of brave females ready to stand up to any bully who comes their way. Alice is the only chimpanzee other than Caroline who will sometimes sleep in the chamber with Simon. She is an opportunist who likes to hang around after snack time in hopes that caregivers will hand out extras, but they keep her health in mind and mostly give her bonus vegetables – which are lower in sugar and calories than fruits, starches and grains.