This story of Lucy follows a young chimp that was raised from a baby by a psychotherapist and a social worker who she viewed as her parents. This story shows the amazing capabilities chimpanzees have to adapt to a lifestyle they were never supposed to live. Eventually Lucy’s parents could no longer care for her and had to release her into the wild with a woman named Janis Carter to watch over her. Here Lucy could not adapt and couldn’t even function as a chimp. Janis moved her and several other chimps like Lucy to an island to allow them to cope and adapt more easily. There all the chimps could adapt and fend for themselves. In the end Lucy was killed by what they think to be poachers because of her friendliness towards humans.
Lucy was adopted by her two parents just weeks after she was born. At just one year of age, she could hold her own bottle and feed herself. By the age of 2 and 3, she could sit at the table, use silver wear, get dressed herself, make her own tea, read magazines, comfort those who were sad and even lie. At age 5, they began to teach Lucy sign language so she could communicate with others. She even started to make up new words for objects she didn’t know the name of. By age 10, she was no longer a chimp. Lucy was attracted to humans, acted like humans, and was even treated like a human. At age 10, her parents could no longer care for her and released her in the wild in Africa under the watchful eye of Janis Carter. Here Lucy could not survive. She got skin infections, lost her hair and was starving because she did not know how to get her own food. She simply didn’t know how to be a chimp. After a month or so of this, Janis moved her and several other chimps that were raised like Lucy to an abandoned island. Here the chimps still struggled to adapt and were only interested in Janis’s food and materials. In reaction to this, Janis built a cage for her to live in so she could watch over the chimps, but they could not come in contact with her. Soon enough all the chimps lost interest in Janis and began to fend for themselves. Although it took Lucy longer to adapt, even she began to lose interest and started living like a chimp. With this accomplishment, Janis then left. When Janis returned to the island several years later to check on Lucy, all she found were Lucy’s bones lying where Janis used to stay. Although they are unsure as to what happened, they believe she was most likely poached. Now Janis lives and works in Gambia to protect chimps and their fate.
One thing that I learned from Lucy is to have a greater appreciation for other species. As humans, we tend to look at ourselves as the only intelligent or important species out there. However, this is not true. Chimps are our closest living ancestor and are usually underestimated of their intelligence and capability. We as humans need to accept this and take in to consideration how we treat them and what we do to them.
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