Caroline
Caroline
Pan troglodytes troglodytes
Estimated Birth – March 1997
On a hot, dry day in January 2000, Sanaga-Yong’s Founder/Director Dr. Sheri Speede helped authorities confiscate three-year-old Caroline from a seaside hotel where she was caged as a tourist attraction. Caroline was illegally purchased and kept as a “pet” in the home of an expatriate, but when she grew older and became too difficult to handle in the family home, she was abandoned at the hotel. In a very small cage at the hotel, she developed self-abusive stereotypical behavior, the most severe of which was banging her head against the cage walls. Caroline and Sheri formed an almost instant friendship that has only deepened over two decades, but Caroline’s most important relationships at the sanctuary are with the other chimpanzees. She and six other juveniles from the nursery joined Jacky’s group of five adults in 2002, and while she never had any physical conflicts with the other chimpanzees, she was socially awkward and low ranking throughout her adolescence. Caroline spent most of her time alone until she finally learned a good way to make friends when she was a young adult: she started sharing some of her food – always the bits that weren’t her favorites – and soon she was surrounded by friends who lavished her with attention! Now she is often groomed by more than one chimpanzee at a time and seems very happy. Caroline loves for her caregivers to gently tickle her lips with small sticks or blades of grass that she hands them, and she makes a unique clicking noise with her tongue when seeking their attention.