#captive apes

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The Wauchula Woods Accord by Charles Siebert

The Wauchula Woods Accord by Charles Siebert

Here’s just a really beautiful excerpt from this great nonfiction story. 

"We started back across the island toward Save the Chimps headquarters, where Noon was to print up for me directions for getting here to the Center for Great Apes.  As we were walking, Noon recalled for me a night back at Coulston when, just after the renovations to the old cages had been completed, the chimps were allowed to move into their outer enclosures and could see the dark desert sky for the first time.  Until then, they had been locked inside every day by 4:00 P.M.  Noon said that as she sat out on the steps of her house trailer that night at the back of the Coulston’s grounds, she could hear all of the buildings ""talking to each other.  Everyone was talking. 

"I understood some of it," she said. "It was, Look at the stars and look at the moon, and what do you think all of that is about? And how long do you think it is going to last? But then they started saying something different. Something I didn’t understand.  I struggled for the longest time to make sense of what it was.  And heres what I think they were saying.  They were announcing to themselves to the night, to the world.  They were saying, We live here, too. We exist.””