ELLENSBURG — The two remaining chimpanzees at a language center at Central Washington University in Ellensburg will be moved to a sanctuary in Canada, the university and a nonprofit group announced Wednesday.
The Friends of Washoe, which owns the chimps at the university’s Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute, will move the primates as soon as the necessary permits can be acquired from the Canadian government, chairman Greg Beach said.
The decision to move the chimpanzees from the center was made due to the chimps’ advancing age and the declining chimp population there, he said.
“This move ends a remarkable project that included landmark research in communication and language and starts a new approach to this field at CWU,” said a joint announcement from CWU and Friends of Washoe. “We celebrate the privilege we have had to know Washoe, Moja, Dar, Tatu and Loulis.”
The institute is a sanctuary for chimpanzees that use American Sign Language to communicate with each other and humans.
