Your donation on Great Apes Giving Day, October 4th, means that Effie and other members of her troop will have their habitat be the first to get a makeover that not only includes structural enhancements, but also improves the comfort and coziness of their bedrooms.  Every dollar that is raised on Great Apes Giving Day will go towards re configuring the bedroom enclosures with the chimp's well-being in mind. Staff at PPI have discovered that when sleeping, chimpanzees tend to crowd together to stay warm, so smaller bedrooms can become cramped. Creating two large bedrooms alleviates this issue. Increasing warmth will be even more appreciated in the winter months.  You can join us on October 4th, Great Apes Giving Day, and make a donation that will be hugely appreciated at the sanctuary! Save the date or schedule a donation right now by visiting this page. For more updates, follow us on Facebook or sign up for our email list.  Effie Effie, 29, was born at a research facility in San Antonio and then sold to the Coulston Foundation, a primate testing lab, in 1998. Despite animal welfare violations, Coulston grew to be the largest holding of chimpanzees for biomedical research in the world. Before it was shut down, chimpanzees were used for toxicology, pre-clinical drug testing, as well as infectious disease research.  She is one of our chimpanzees known for carrying their “baby” around. Effie uses stuffed animals, socks, and toys as her baby and will hoard even up to four babies at a time. Since most of our female chimpanzees were used as breeders in a laboratory setting prior to their release, they do this to satisfy their maternal need. Sadly, most of their offspring were ripped away from them soon after birth. Most recently, Effie has added two pillow pets to her collection as well as a toy snake that was recently donated by a member. Last year Effie had a hysterectomy to remove large fibroid tumors. We were told that the best possibility for her survival would be to locate a human gynecologist to perform this surgery…and that’s what we did. After the surgery, we noticed Effie’s personality blossom—she’s become more outgoing and frequently seeks out lots of attention.