BILLY MOVES TO NEW HOME

BILLY MOVES TO NEW HOME
 
Big Billy, the way we call him to distinguish from Baby Billy, is one of the smartest chimpanzees of the Sanctuary. He has lived a great ammount of his life in a Circus, but he was born at Morrete Commercial Breeder, in Paraná State, which do not exist anymore. Billy is not very fond of the company of other chimps, mainly males, and has a good relationship with human beings that he trusts, mainly women.

Billy likes to draw, to talk in the fake mobile phone, to leaf thorugh magazines and is very careful with any toy that is given to him. He respects the electric fences and had been living, until today, in a enclosure with electric fence near Luke, his guardian. Billy is very emotional and when he senses threat his face shows his fear rapidly. In the past he suffered with emotional gastritis when Caco entered through his fence and attacked him. Billy is also afraid of heights. We put in his enclosure a toy for him to climb in order to see other chimps in their places, but he has never climbed it and always stayed in the bottom, looking. Other chimpanzees play frequently in their air toys and some of them even sleep, all night long, at their tops.
 
We were a lit bit afraid of Billy?s transfer to his new home. The enclosure had been ready for a month, but the air tunel which crosses the internal road of the Sanctuary and links all the enclosures, was not finished yet. Then we decided to wait for the tunel to be ready, and not to anesthetize him. On Friday, 4th of July, we took Luke and Vitor out of their fences, so that Billy would not be afraid, and opened all the tunels so that Billy could take his way to his new home. Billy took advantage of the time to go to other fence enclosures that he had never been to, walked near Hulk, who observed him with curiosity, and went to Vitor?s tunel, which leads to the main tunel that crosses the Sancturary road. He crossed the tunel quickly, as he does not enjoy heights, and entered in his new enclosure.

Billy?s new enclosure has interesting new charactheristics. Firstly, there is a painting of him in the external area in which he has one finger near the eye, as he was saying to people: BE CAREFUL, WE ARE PEOPLE TOO. Inside the enclosure, in the food area, there are table and seats. There are also table and seats in both sides of the fence, so that he can seat inside and interact with the keeper and human being friend, who seats outside. Both in the food area and in the bedroom there are drawings of chimpanzees, of other animals and of objects that he recognizes. All the interior area is made of glazed tiles, to make the cleaning easier. The external area has more than 2 thousand square meters and is located between the road and the forest zone, in which used to run a river that today is dry. In the same side of the road it is located Alex and Carol?s enclosure, that is linked to others through a tunel. In the other side, which represents a great area of the Sanctuary, is located Noel, Tião and Tatá?s enclosure, and, in front of it, Vitor?s. Billy will be able to share with Vitor the air tunel in alternated days and we hope that this helps him to lose his fear of heights. As a result he can be able to use his climbing plataform toy, in which we put an iron stair so that he feels more confortable and less afraid to climb.
The first imagens of Billy in his new home were already registered by a TV Programme on Rede TV the day after the moving. And Billy?s image painted on the wall shows to everyone who arrives at the Sanctuary his thoughts, that are shared by everybody in the Sanctuary... LOOK, HUMAN BEING PEOPLE, WE, CHIMPS, ARE PEOPLE TOO!
 
Dr. Pedro A. Ynterian