Visitors to the Indianapolis Zoo will soon get an up-close look at humanity’s closest living relatives when the International Chimpanzee Complex opens to the public this weekend.
The new complex features three separate buildings at the zoo, connected by the quarter-mile long elevated chimpanzee trail. It’s an enclosed structure that allows the chimpanzees to freely move between the community hub, cognitive center and culture center.
“The purpose of the trail is to give them choice as to where they want to go, where they want to be, who they want to spend time with, that connects from the Community Hub to the Cognition Center,” said Cody Mattox, a public relations specialist at the zoo.
The Community Hub and Culture Center buildings will give visitors a glimpse into the chimpanzees’ social structure and interactions. In the Cognition Center, visitors can watch — and take — the same cognitive tests as the chimpanzees using touch-screens.
“It really dives into a whole new aspect as to what these great ape species are, allowing people to learn about chimpanzees, the chimpanzee community, what makes them a community, what makes them chimpanzees, and also getting inside knowledge as to their cognitive abilities, because chimpanzees are very intelligent,” Mattox said.
Indianapolis is one of a small number zoos in the U.S. that are home to the endangered primates. The complex can house up to 30 chimpanzees. Indianapolis currently has 21 in residence.
“Ben, he's something else,” Mattox said. “He's a charmer. … Sue, one of our female chimpanzees. She loves the attention. She's the superstar.
“There's so many, they're all very unique, very fascinating.”
Mattox says wildlife conservation of primates is central to the zoo’s mission.
“We created the international chimpanzee complex to recreate the functional naturalism that is of chimpanzees in the wild,” Mattox said. “And a lot of these chimpanzees, they don’t come from the wild.”
Most of the chimpanzees in the exhibit came from other accredited zoos, private ownership and biomedical labs. Mattox says the chimpanzees are still in the process of getting to know one another.
“It was a matter of making the introductions to everybody, because, obviously, they don't know each other,” he said. “And, you know, there is that element of, especially among males of establishing, who's the dominant one? With these females, who gravitates towards who?”
The chimpanzees have also been acclimating themselves to their new environment and can already be seen exploring the chimpanzee trail.
“Just watching them like walk across the trail there above you, it's something else,” Mattox said. “It's unworldly, and it's, it's very cool.”
The zoo opens daily at 9 a.m. It closes at 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday and at 7 p.m. Friday through Sunday.
