Exciting things are happening at J.A.C.K. Primate Sanctuary as the six youngest chimpanzees (Sana, Fwa, Bere, Kindu, Lucy, and Tami) adapt to their new home in the nursery alongside Mpo, Linda, and Cal! They have officially phased out of Mama Angeline and Mama Mireille’s human care and into the care of Mama Maika, their surrogate chimpanzee mother.
If you are keeping count, you may have noticed that Mama Maika now has a total of 9 infants in her care! This is an extraordinary number of babies for one mother chimp to handle alone. But Maika, being the amazing chimpanzee that she is, is handling the situation with perfection and grace. She has a very special bond with Cal, assumingly the youngest of the group. Yet she is able to simultaneously care for the others, grooming them and building a necessary maternal bond to the best of her ability.
Maika’s ability to care for such a vast amount of infants does not come as a surprise. Even as a traumatized, sick, and injured infant, she was social and good-humored. She has always been patient and kind with a strong maternal instinct. Roxane, the foundress of J.A.C.K. Primate Sanctuary, has said that she very often felt that Maika is grateful to J.A.C.K. for having saved her life. This gratitude shines through in the way Maika consistently shows up for orphaned chimps the way Roxane once showed up for her.
Yes, Maika has stepped beautifully into the role of surrogate mother. However, this arrangement is unlikely to be sustainable long term. The sanctuary is meticulously planning for what the future of the nursery group will look like. They have to carefully select another female to help mother the group–a chimpanzee who will be submissive to Maika and maternal to the babies. Once that phase is complete, an alpha male will also be introduced to the group.
Both maternal and paternal relationships play a crucial role in the social development of young chimpanzees. We are excited to see how Sana, Fwa, Bere, Kindu, Lucy, Tami, Mpo, Linda, and Cal continue to grow, change, and revert back to ‘normalcy’ under the care of Maika and her future parenting companions.
