Lucy the Chimp
India Waller
In sophomore biology we are learning about evolution. There is much controversy over teaching this theory in schools, but the truth is theories are quite factual. For example atoms and cells are theories as well. But this is not about whether evolution is true or not, it is about one of a species that we as a human race share a common ancestor with. A chimpanzee named Lucy. We listened to this story on a radio about a chimp that was taken from her mother the moment she was born and placed in the care of a human couple to be raised and socialized with human norms as an experiment. At certain age most chimps that have been raised in a human home become too strong and their chimp instincts start to take over and they can no longer live in a human house. When Lucy reaches this age she is sent to a reserve with other domesticated chimps to try to be introduced into the wild. This is when a woman named Janis comes into the picture. This transition is hard for all the chimps but none quite as much a Lucy. Janis then moves the chimps to a small deserted island. It has a tragic ending where Lucy is found dead skinned with her hands and feet cut off, the tail tell signs of poachers.
Lucy´s death felt like murder. After listening to this story and hearing how human like she became, the thought of some ignorant person taking her life without a second thought for a few hundred bulks is infuriating and incredibly heart breaking. Lucy was taught sign language which she could use pretty affectively. When guests came to the house she would make tea for them. She was aware of her human mother, Jane´s feelings and would try to comfort her if she was sad or sick. She could dress herself. She was attracted to human beings. She would look at magazines. Once she went potty on the floor and told her human dad that it was someone else. All these human characteristics and all that intelligence snuffed out for money.
When she became too old and wild to live with her human family she was sent to a nature reserve with a handful of other domesticated chimps to be re-socialized to live in the wild on their own. The beginning was rough for all the chimps but after a while most of them let their instincts take over and began to become self-sustaining, but Lucy just couldn’t let go. She became very stressed out. She got infections, she wouldn’t eat, and her hair began to fall out. Seeing this Janis, who had a special connection with Lucy, decided to take action. She and the domesticated chimps were transferred to a deserted island in hope that being isolated would help these chimps. At first the chimps would not leave Janis alone so Janis decided she had to make it so they couldn’t get to her. So for the next year Janis lived in a cage on this island. At first the chimps crowded the top of the cage and wouldn't leave, but eventually they moved on and began to establish a sustainable life on this island, all except Lucy. She wouldn’t let go, she kept making the hurt sign to Janis and telling her to come out of the cage. It went on like this for a while until finally Janis came out of the cage. It wasn’t until Lucy offered Janis a leaf and then Janis is turn offered it back to Lucy that this chimp finally began to scavenge for herself.
We can learn for Lucy by seeing how the socialization of animals to human norms is very complicated and can be detrimental to the animal. Lucy was stuck between these two worlds, being human and being a chimpanzee. When she came to the age where her instinct really started to take over she could no longer live with humans. She was torn away from everything she knew because she was never supposed to be there in the first place. She did not fit in in either world. When she was let back into the wild she couldn't let go of her human ways for a long time. Her story also shows us how we as a human race treat other animals. We think of ourselves as better, more deserving, and superior to everything else and we think that that gives us the right to treat other living things any way we please. A poacher killed this incredible, intelligent, emotional, feeling chimp with no consequences. I believe that the things that set us apart from other biotic beings like our brain, our opposable thumbs, and our bipedalism, should not give us the right to abuse these creatures, but should give us a responsibility to protect and respect our world and everything on it.
To listen to this amazing story yourself click on the link below!
