Lucy, The Human Chimp
Monday, C4 HD, 9pm
AMERICAN GRADUATE STUDENT Janis Carter was 25 when she took a part-time job working for psychologists Maurice and Jane Temerlin in 1976.
The Temerlins had adopted Lucy, a baby chimpanzee, when she was two days old, and were raising her among humans to find out whether nurture was more powerful than nature.
Carter’s job was to ensure that Lucy was fed and her cage kept clean but, as one-off documentary
Lucy, The Human Chimp explores, the two developed an almost unbreakable bond.
PART OF THE FAMILY
‘I became a friend from outside of the nuclear family,’ Carter recalls. ‘It was at a time in her emotional development that she needed more than just her mum and dad all the time.’
Lucy became famous for being able to communicate in sign language, but when she reached the age of 11, the Temerlins saw that she was becoming too strong to live safely among humans. They made arrangements to take Lucy to the Abuko Nature Reserve in Gambia, West Africa, and asked Carter to join them to help Lucy adjust. It was a process that took far longer than any of them could have predicted.
In Gambia, Lucy’s health deteriorated after she refused to learn how to forage for her own food. As Carter realised that she could not return to the US as planned, she put her studies on hold to stay with Lucy.
They were later joined by three more rescue chimps. But when the time came for the chimps to move on to their new home on a remote island, Lucy was still struggling to fend for herself, so Carter went with them.
‘I was dropped off alone – I felt abandoned,’ she says. ‘I couldn’t show this in front of the chimps, because I was supposed to be the leader, but I did not know what we were doing.’
Janis and Lucy lived together in the wild on the island for six years, until eventually Carter left. When she later returned to check on Lucy, she’d finally adapted to her new life.
‘I showed human objects to her, and the mirror that was her favourite thing meant nothing,’ she recalls. ‘It had been so hard for so long, but Lucy had finally made it. She was comfortable with herself, and she was in control of her own life, which was what we’d wanted.’