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African Forest Chimp House
After years of planning and months of construction, chimpanzees have arrived at the Houston Zoo! When the African Forest opens in December, Zoo guests will see a family of ten chimps out in their new, naturalistic habitat. The zoo’s primate staff has been working tirelessly and the results are exciting!
The Chimp House
The centerpiece of The African Forest will be our new chimpanzee habitat. During operating hours our chimpanzee family will spend most of their time outside. But at the end of the day they will retire to their indoor facility to bed down for the night.
In the old days of zoo design, most nighttime animal holding areas were not much more than small, dark, sterile cubicles. Our new chimp building is raising the bar to a new standard of comfort and spaciousness. With an indoor living space of over 4,000 square feet, our chimps will be living in the lap of luxury.
The chimp building has been designed for both chimp and keeper comfort and safety. The entire building is air conditioned and heated with 16 skylights that not only let natural light in, but open for fresh air. Eight individual chimp rooms, measuring approximately 12’ x 8’ with 20’ ceilings, surround a giant central dayroom, which is 25’ x 46’ and 23’ high.
One of the rooms is dedicated to training and vet care.
While all rooms interconnect so the chimps can choose where they want to be, it also will allow us to temporarily separate animals in case of behavioral or medical issues.
Additionally, there is plenty of space for the keepers to feed and interact with the chimps. It has its own kitchen, food storage, computer area, and human bathroom.
Another unique feature will be the three feet of natural bark mulch that will cover the dayroom floor. This natural substrate material will provide a softer surface for playing and more enrichment opportunities. All the rooms will have numerous ropes, climbing structures and platforms for making nests to sleep in, as many chimps do in the wild.
There will be two high-definition cameras inside the dayroom to capture all activities of the chimps, day and night. These cameras will also be linked to our distance learning system, allowing young patients at the Texas Medical Center to enjoy these incredible animals while talking to a keeper.
Once the chimps arrived in mid-July and started settling in to their new home, three of them -- Charlie, the dominant male and patriarch of the group, Lulu, one of the adult females, and 6 year-old Willie -- got to try the place out. They took to it immediately, thanks in part to Willie's endless energy and playfulness!
