You know it’s hard out here for a chimp — unless they live at the Tulsa Zoo. Then they get a birthday party.
Just like a human child’s birthday, there were carefully wrapped gifts torn to shreds in no time and guests climbing everything. Enloe, now 1 year old, is the 13th chimpanzee born at the Tulsa Zoo since the 1950s. Zookeeper Mo O’Leary said he’s hitting all the important milestones in development.
"We're seeing him eating food, going and foraging on his own now, but he will be continuing to nurse on mom, Jodi, until his fourth year of life," O'Leary said.
He's also copying the other chimps' daily nest building.
"And he's going to start learning a lot of male behaviors, mimicking them, watching his uncle, Morris, and then also his dad, Bernsen," O'Leary said.
Enloe is the fifth chimp mothered by zoo resident Jodi and the first chimp born at the Tulsa Zoo since 2007. It’s likely he'll spend his entire life at the Tulsa Zoo.
"It's a little more tricky to integrate a male into a new social grouping," O'Leary said. "In the wild, the females are the individuals that emigrate out, and then the males usually stay in their natal communities."
Enloe was named in honor of Tulsa Zoo volunteer Joe Enloe, who died in 2013.
