Troubling

I find myself deeply troubled by the story of Travis the chimp attacking and attempting to kill someone with whom he had a long acquaintance. The story just didn't make sense to me, but as details trickle in, the picture becomes clearer.

When you work with domestic animals and wildlife as much as I do, you gain a very clear understanding of the problems created by anthropomorphizing animals. I've often seemed like a very cranky chick when posting on NPR about the "cute" stories of human and wildlife interaction. However, it is a lot more difficult to keep that boundary than some would think.

The media, in an attempt to make the story salacious, is now reporting that the woman who had Travis in her care slept and bathed with him. My dogs sleep with me, and a close friend of mine takes her parrot into the shower with her. Parrots love running water, and it is play time for the bird. How cute do we think it is when a dog jumps into a swimming pool to play with children?

The problem, of course, is that the chimp is so humanlike. And once you begin to expect an animal, wild or domestic, to react like a human, you've let an important guard down.

Wild animals do react differently in some, but not all, circumstances, because domestic animals have been bred for . . . .domesticity! Domesticity to humans is companionability, docility, and adaptibility. While a wild animal can be tamed,it seems to me that they always retain some part of that wildness. First, they are far more alert to threat than is a domestic animal. Secondly, they react often with agression or show of agression, rather than retreat, when threatened. Lastly, they are expert at sizing up the opponent as to size, submissiveness and agility.

No matter how much you are around animals it is possible to make that instantaneous mistake that gets you in trouble. I had adopted a wild mustang as a 6 month old filly. I picked her because she had the conformation of an Arab, was very alert, and seemed highly intelligent. Good traits in a domestic horse. When she was about a year old, while in the corral with her, I managed to let her back me into a corner between the manger and the gate. She quickly turned her rear to me, and "trapped" me. I stood quietly for a bit trying to think what to do. While my mind raced, I spoke aloud, "Please don't kick me." Wham! Luckily I put my arm up and caught the blow with it, so she didn't hit my face. Lesson: a dometic animal may find the human voice soothing, a wild animal does not.

The detail that made the whole Travis story, tragic and horrible as it is, make sense to me, is that the injured woman held a toy up in front of her face and waggled it at the chimp to try and get him into the house. It's hard to say what happened next. Perhaps he grabbed for the toy and she tried to hold onto it. Perhaps the toy appeared to be a threat to him, like my human voice did to the little mustang.

There are no easy answers. I always remember that Jane Goodall, once back in the States, went to visit a chimp in a lab and had the top of her thumb bitten off.

I think one point the chimp's owner made that we all need to remember is that people kill people every day, sometimes in extremely brutal ways. That doesn't mean that all people are murderers. I hope that all the pundits who are finding people to say how dangerous chimps are will balance those stories with the incredible learning abilities that chimps have, their generally playful nature, and the incredible contribution they (unwillingly) made to scientific discoveries in this country.