June 6, 2002
Contact: Robert Lowery (509-963-1487/fax 509-963-2301/e-mail: loweryr@cwu.edu)
ELLENSBURG, Wash. - Moja, one of the sign language chimps from Central Washington University’s Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute (CHCI), was found dead at this morning (Thursday, June 6), according to Dr. Roger Fouts, CHCI co-director. Veterinarians at Washington State University will perform an autopsy on Moja.
“We want to have them determine the cause of her death,” Fouts adds. “She had been ill for a few days. We had our veterinarian visit her yesterday and she was on medication.”
Moja, 29, “was a very beloved member of the group,” according to Fouts. She was born Nov. 18, 1972, at the Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP) in Tuxedo, N.Y. Her full name was actually Moja Lemsip. Moja is the Swahili word for “first.”
Born in captivity, Moja was raised by Drs. Beatrix and R. Allen Gardner, who were conducting research into the affects of raising young chimpanzees as human children, especially with respect to development and continuity between animal and human intelligence, and the relationship between social and intellectual development and its expression in language.
Moja joined the Fouts family at the University of Oklahoma in 1979, and accompanied them to CWU in 1980.
Moja had been known as “the chimp who doesn’t know how to act like a chimp” and was considered the most submissive member of the family. She was also called “a bold explorer” of the CHCI outdoor enclosure in Ellensburg.
In the wild, a chimp’s life expectancy can reach into the late 40s. In captivity chimps can live to be more than 60 years old, though most die between 8 and 15 years of age, according to Fouts.
“Chimps don’t belong in captivity, period. Not even in a facility like this (CHCI),” Fouts states. “Captivity is not good for them. Our species has yet to learn that lesson, not only with chimps but with any species.”
Moja is the only chimp to die at CHCI, a sanctuary for adult chimpanzees who communicate with humans and each other using American Sign Language. The mission of CHCI is to protect and care for these chimpanzees, educate the public on the endangered status of wild chimps, help improve the lives of all captive chimpanzees through ongoing research and serve as a humane research facility for students.
