| Jess | |
|---|---|
|
Gender |
Female |
|
Species |
Chimpanzee |
|
Born |
25 April 1993 (age 30) |
|
Family |
Rodney † |
Jess is a female chimpanzee. She is a member of Hananya's Group.
Biography[]
Pre-Monkey World (1993)[]
Jess was born at Windsor Safari Park to Rodney and Evie. She was rejected by her mother and was hand reared with her half-brother Arfur (who was two days older than Jess and had to be hand reared due to his mother Bixa not having enough milk to feed him).
Arriving at Monkey World and life in The Chimpanzee Nursery Group (1993-1998)[]
After Windsor Safari Park closed down, Jess along with Arfur, Rodney, Evie, Bixa, Buxom, Jestah and Jane (who later gave birth to Jess's half-brother Bob) moved to Monkey World on 31st May 1993. Jess and Arfur were then cared for by the park's Animal Director Jeremy Keeling.
Jess and Arfur were moved into the park's chimpanzee nursery group and lived with two young female chimps named Athena and Olympia, both of whom later moved to Butch's Group. In 1995, Jess and Arfur gained a foster mother after an adolescent female chimp named Sally joined the group. They were later joined by Bob (who was also hand reared by Jeremy) and a adolescent male chimp named Freddy. However Freddy was very humanised and struggled to fit into the group and was moved to Chico's Group.
On 28th August 1996, they were joined by four young male chimps named Hananya, Tikko, Semach (who were wild born and smuggled into Israel for the pet trade, but were confiscated by officials) and Gypsy (who was born at a zoo in Israel but was no longer wanted). The following month, another young male chimp named Simon (who was found in Spain tied to a post outside a petrol station). In April 1998, a young female chimp named Trudy joined the group.
Life in an adult group (1998-present)[]
In July that year, the staff at Monkey World decided to make a new chimp group made up of Sally, the current nursery group and two older male chimps named Charlie and Pacito. Four other chimps named Mojo, Chatta, Peggy and Mona, joined the group in August after their leader Chico died. Chatta was later removed from the group and moved to Paddy's Group due to her attitude towards the youngsters. In September, Bob tragically died from a stomach infection. When Sally fell ill shortly after, Monkey World staff, worried that Sally may have caught the same illness that killed Bob, temporarily put Jess and the other young chimps back in their old nursery enclosure away from the adults until Sally was well again.
In early 1999, Charlie, Pacito and Mojo were moved to the Bachelor Group (as Charlie and Mojo acted rough towards the younger chimps and Pacito was moved as he had a close relationship with Charlie). The group was then led by Rodney (who had been ousted from Paddy's Group).
Around this time, Jess entered puberty and began spend time away from Arfur (who had been her companion since infancy and had a close bond with) and spent time with Hananya.
After Hananya took over as leader of the group following Rodney's death in 2004, he mated with Jess, who gave birth to her and Hananya's son Rodders on 3rd August 2005. However, due to being hand reared, Jess lacked maternal skills and rejected Rodders, who then hand reared.
Currently Jess still lives in Hananya's Group.
Trivia[]
- Jess, Seamus and Arfur are the only children of Rodney to survive into adulthood. As Bob passed away in 1998 aged 4 from a stomach infection, Pip died in 2009 aged 7 from a heart attack due to a bad reaction to anesthetic and Ben died in 2017 aged 15 from a heart attack due to an enlarged heart.