Charlie’s Story- One Orphan Saved, Many More to Go…

Charlie is the proud patriarch of our chimpanzees, both a parent and grandparent. As the only male in our exhibit, he is the head honcho! However, Charlie was not born into this life of luxury. It was just by chance that he was saved by Edward Miller and survived the perils of the bushmeat trade.

Charlie was born in the wild forests of Africa around 1970. At the time, Edward Miller, a mineral contractor, was working in the mineral mines on the border between Liberia and Sierra Leone. One day Edward and his family saw some locals walking around town with an infant chimp and they knew that its mother must have been killed. Understanding the prevalent economy of the bushmeat trade, Edward realized that the orphaned baby chimp might end up being another bushmeat casualty. Edward offered to purchase the baby chimp from the locals, no questions asked. He named the chimp Charlie, which was the code name for the mining site where Edward worked.

Playing and sleeping alongside their three young boys, Charlie lived as a part of the Miller’s family for about a year. However, Edward knew that as Charlie grew his needs would exceed what his family could provide. Because Charlie could no longer survive on his own in the wild, Edward decided to bring Charlie to the United States (this was legal in the ’70s). It was settled that Charlie would be taken care of at the Oregon Zoo, but only under certain conditions: Edward wanted to assure that Charlie would get special treatment from his keepers, called “enrichment,” since he was already so accustomed to living and interacting with humans.

The zoo made the Miller family and Charlie a promise, a promise that has been kept and extended to the other zoo residents. Starting with Charlie, the zookeepers began to develop an enrichment program. During this beginning phase, the enrichment program focused on human/animal interaction, including working on language acquisition. Charlie learned American Sign Language and was able to respond to and initiate basic commands of communication. The enrichment program also involved playing, training, and physical contact with the animals.

After years of trying different enrichment strategies, the modern ideals of enrichment have shifted away from human interaction in order to preserve animals’ wild nature and behavior. Now, enrichment encourages natural behaviors through training, exercise and toys. Enrichment gives choice, change and control to the animals. By engaging all their senses, the animals receive mental and physical stimulation.

Although the focus of enrichment has evolved, it all began with Charlie here at the Oregon Zoo. Dave Thomas, Sr. Primate keeper at the zoo and one of Charlie’s original caretakers, says that working with Charlie and subsequently, with the other chimps at the zoo has started the careers of many dedicated people who work in further developing the enrichment program.

Now Charlie is a parent, and even grandparent. One chimp, who could have become a tragic casualty of the bushmeat market, has in turn changed many lives, both human and animal. A few years ago, Edward Miller came to the zoo to visit Charlie. It was difficult to say if Charlie recognized him, but once Edward left, Charlie kept looking for him!

Learn more about chimpanzees.

Home| Crisis Fact Sheet