Analysis of the of the 2012 Oregon Sanctuary Chimp Attack - Case Study Example

Chimp Attack! Introduction Chimpanzees are known to be very territorial animals, in fact, they are known for their territorial behavior. Male chimpanzees defend their heavily used core areas and routinely patrol the periphery of their territory. A territory is an area the chimpanzee has taken up that includes all the resources like food, mates or the breeding sites. Chimpanzee usually defends their territory, and they exhibit a behavior known as boundary or territory patrolling. The chimpanzees usually walk around the boundary and along a straight line in silence searching for any predators or any other intruders. Researchers have concluded that the reasons behind the patrolling include food availability, hunting activities, intruder pressures and male party size. The following essay looks at the case of the 2012 Oregon Sanctuary Chimp attack. The reasons the Chimp attacked the intern and Charla Nash While cleaning the Chimpanzee cage at a sanctuary, the intern and Charla Nash were brutally attacked by a chimpanzee leaving the two brutally injured. The two were cleaning the sanctuary while in the safety of the thought that the chimpanzee was in another area, and it could not get to them through the tunnels. The tunnel enclosure was not properly locked, and the chimpanzee, unfortunately, attacked them. The brutal chimpanzee attack is a normal behavior for chimpanzees that feel that their territory is under threat as previously stated. Charla Nash was also attacked by a friend’s pet chimpanzee in 2009. The chimpanzee weighing at least 200 pounds was outside, and she had gone to help in luring it back to the friend’s house. The two individuals apparently did not understand that chimpanzees are extremely territorial animals, and they can become violent when they are threatened or in the case that someone enters their territory. It was reported that Charla Nash and the owner of the pet were warned about the dangers of having the chimpanzee around. The chimpanzee was maturing and becoming extremely strong, and it has been reported and researched that chimpanzees viciously attack other animals and chimpanzees that pose a threat to its territory. The chimpanzees viciously attack those who are weaker or do no match them in terms of strength. Anthropologists have said that today’s chimpanzees are aggressive because they are endangered by human impact on their natural environment (Watts 317). The reason can perhaps explain the two chimpanzee incidences in this case study. In the Charla Nash, the fast maturing Chimpanzee was forced to live in proximity to human beings and not in their natural habitats. Such actions will endanger the Chimpanzee, and it will make it feel threatened because it has been forced to cluster around human being. It feels the competition exists between it and the human for the environmental space. Chimpanzees are extremely territorial animals and being forced into proximity with human beings is met with threats and fatal reactions. As was witnessed and happened to Charla Nash. The intern encountered the same experience when the chimpanzee arrived back to its cage through the tunnel that was supposed to have been closed. A research undertaken in with African Chimpanzees in the wild concluded that they kill their neighbors in order to ensure their territories are protected or to acquire new ones (Davies, Krebs and West 78). They engage in war-like activities to protect their territories, and this is mostly done by dominant males that move with stealth. They brutally use their strength and force to protect their land, to improve their security, gain extra food and resources. In Kibale National Park in Uganda, a group of anthropological researchers from the University of Arkansas undertook a decade-long research to observe chimpanzee aggression (Watts 313). They witnessed more than 18 chimpanzee killings from other groups that threatened the territorial integrity. If the patrolling chimpanzees encountered one from a neighboring group and the two are evenly matched. The patrollers will either call out loudly as they are retreating towards their home territory or a brief, and an indecisive battle will ensue. On the hand, if the patrolling party outnumbers the strangers, the members will be attacked. These attacks are fatal and severe, they concluded. Moreover, the attackers use their canine teeth to bite and tear at the victims. Male chimpanzees have the need to defend the feeding territory that benefits its community (Watts 330). The attack on the intern was in response to the chimpanzee’s reaction to the threat that the foreigner poses on its habitat and the anthropological need to protect it. In hindsight, there are various parties at fault in this scenario. The chimpanzee is not at fault but the woman, the intern, the facility and the chimp owner. The chimpanzee can only act the ways it is understood to act anthropologically and according to the nature’s laws. As a result, all the individual’s involved need to have understood how the chimpanzee acts in the wild or its natural environment. There are repercussions on removing an animal from its natural environment and in such situations, there needs to be better preparation and care in how the animal in its new environment should be handled. The safest place or environment for an animal is its natural habitat. In cases where they are uprooted from the natural environment, there needs to be better care to ensure the new environment mirrors that of their natural habitat. The two unfortunate incidences involve chimpanzees that are threatened by human encroachment into their spaces. Chimpanzees are territorial creatures and, as a result, this territory is an important factor to its wellbeing. The intern and Charla Nash, who were unfortunate to be on the receiving end of an angry and threatened Chimpanzee need to have understood how to take care of the animal. Especially when they are placed in confines. The facility and the chimpanzee owner should take most of the fault because of trying to tame a wild animal through the provision of inadequate facilities. The facilities that was used in the two incidences was inadequate, and the animal was constantly threatened. The owner needed to provide a better and spacious facility that guarantees security for its territory. Recommendation There are various strategies that can be implemented in the prevention of such unfortunate incidences occurring again. The sanctuary had previously experienced the same incident when an attendant attempting to provide food for the chimpanzees was also attacked. The two cases also present a case of historical injuries stemming not understanding and implement proper mechanisms of interacting with the animals. The first strategy that should be implemented when dealing with territorial animals is the provision of a large facility that ensures and guarantees enough space. Keeping a chimpanzee as a pet should not be advisable in case the area is small or inadequate. Adequate regulations on the necessary space should be implemented. Secondly, owning such an animal requires proper management approaches on how it should be fed, its cages cleaned and other important strategies. Persons coming into contact or interacting with the animals need to be taught better ways of doing it. For example, the facilities can have designated areas for food and the animal’s resources. Furthermore, proper methods of ensuring safety for the workers should be implemented. Such methods ensure the safety of both the chimpanzees and the workers in the facility. For example, workers should never get near the animal because they can be brutally attacked. Conclusion Chimpanzees are extremely territorial animals and in the incidences of Charla Nash and the intern, we can see that its territorial behavior can result in fatal outcomes. Chimpanzees engage in behavior meant to ensure the protection of its territory from any intruder. In groups, the territory is usually patrolled by male chimpanzees who also take the initiative of defending it violently from outsiders. Chimpanzees brutally attack any outsiders if they can overpower them otherwise they use other strategies. They are highly protective of its females, food, territory and resources, and they will brutally attack any individual or animal that threatens it. The above essay has looked at the two cases while recommending ways of correcting the issues identified. Works Cited Davies, Nicholas B, John R Krebs and Stuart A West. An introduction to behavioural ecology. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2012. Document. Watts, David P. "Long-term research on chimpanzee behavioral ecology in Kibale National Park, Uganda." Watts, David P. Long-term field studies of primates. Berlin: Springer, 2012. 313-338. Print. Read More