Applied Anthropology Among Captive Pan Troglodytes in Southern New Mexico

I began my day at 5:00 a.m., traveling sixty miles across the desert floor of the Tularosa basin in Southern New Mexico to my job as Director of Behavioral Sciences at the world's largest captive chimpanzee facility. At any given time, we house approximately 525 chimpanzees and 500 macaque monkeys. My arrival on site was heralded by the squall of macaque monkeys from their corn crib enclosures, which dotted the eastern flank of the facility like beach cabanas and lent a note of texture to an otherwise barren landscape. Although it was just like any other work day each week, this in itself, was enough to caution me from saying that it was an ordinary day.