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Nature General

Chimps Of Fauna Sanctuary

by (author) Andrew Westoll

Publisher
HarperCollins
Initial publish date
May 2011
Category
General, Primates
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9781554686490
    Publish Date
    May 2011
    List Price
    $29.99
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781443408271
    Publish Date
    May 2011
    List Price
    $11.99
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781554686506
    Publish Date
    Apr 2012
    List Price
    $21.00

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Description

In 1997 Gloria Grow started a sanctuary for chimps retired from biomedical research on her farm outside Montreal. For the indomitable Gloria, caring for thirteen great apes is like presiding over a maximum security prison, a Zen sanctuary and an old folks’ home all rolled into one. But she is first and foremost creating a refuge for her troubled charges -- a place where they can recover and begin to trust humans again.

Hoping to win some of this trust, journalist Andrew Westoll spent months at Fauna Sanctuary as a volunteer, and in this book he vividly recounts his time in the chimp house and the histories of its residents. He arrives with dreams of striking up an immediate friendship with the legendary Tom, the wise face of The Great Ape Protection Act, but Tom seems all too content to ignore him. Gradually, though, old man Tommie and the rest of the “troop” begin to warm towards Westoll as he learns the routines of life at the farm and realizes just how far the chimps have come.

Brimming with empathy and winning stories of Gloria and her charges, The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary is an absorbing, big-hearted book that grapples with questions of just what we owe to the animals who are our nearest genetic relations.

About the author

ANDREW WESTOLL is an award-winning narrative journalist and internationally published author. A former biologist and primatologist, his books include The Riverbones, a travel memoir set in the jungles of Suriname, and The Chimps Of Fauna Sanctuary, which was a national bestseller and winner of the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction. The Jungle South of the Mountain is his first novel.

Andrew Westoll's profile page

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