Meet Hannie, the 'Big Aunt' at Second Chance Chimpanzee Refuge

Birth date: Oct. 28, 2001

Hobbies: Grooming her friends and eating bananas

Background: Used in medical experiments

Born in a lab and subjected to painful experiments for years, Hannie was later abandoned on an island with her mother who died of starvation during Liberia’s civil wars.

Today, Hannie lives at our Second Chance Chimpanzee Refuge in Liberia, West Africa, where we care for dozens of chimpanzees, most of whom were once used or bred for experiments. She protects and guides the chimps when there’s tension in the group and has assumed the role of surrogate mother to the younger chimps who, like her, lost their moms at a young age. Clinton Tarwuleh, director of animal care, calls her the “Big Aunt” because she enjoys grooming her chimp companions. She loves bananas and papaya leaves, and always makes herself a cozy nest with fresh straw in the same spot every night.

The faces of animal testing