Last N.I.H. Chimps to Move From New Mexico Facility
The New York Times
The retired research chimpanzees, which had previously been deemed too frail to move, will be relocated to a Louisiana sanctuary.
Nearly two dozen government-owned chimpanzees, which have been living in an isolated desert facility since being retired from research, will be transferred to a sanctuary in Louisiana, officials from the National Institutes of Health said in an interview on Thursday.
For years, chimpanzee experts and some American lawmakers have urged the agency to relocate the chimps, which reside at the Alamogordo Primate Facility in New Mexico. In 2021, several animal welfare groups sued the N.I.H., arguing that it had violated federal law by refusing to move the animals.
The N.I.H. had previously concluded that the chimps were too sick or frail to be moved. The agency’s assessment of the chimps’ health has not changed, and relocating the animals is a risk, officials said.
But the agency has become concerned that it might soon face a staffing shortage at the remote New Mexico facility, making it impossible to secure the chimps’ long-term future.
“We didn’t come to this decision lightly,” said Tara Schwetz, the deputy director for program coordination, planning and strategic initiatives at the N.I.H. “If we felt more confident that we could guarantee their continuity of care, I don’t believe we would be making this decision.”
As of Oct. 1, 23 chimpanzees, ages 34 to 62, remained at Alamogordo. They will be moved to a facility in Louisiana called Chimp Haven, which sits on 200 forested acres and serves as the national chimpanzee sanctuary.
Harry Styles is host and musical guest, while James Austin Johnson and Colin Jost cement their duo as President Trump and his defense secretary on “Saturday Night Live.”
Eleven medical organizations advised changes to preventive cardiac care that it says could markedly reduce heart attacks and strokes.
Two recent deaths tied to for-profit clinics in Canada raised concerns about the health effects of having plasma drawn as often as twice a week.
Amazon, Google and others struck deals in the Persian Gulf to foot the bill for A.I. development. Iran has now threatened attacks against the companies’ infrastructure in the region.
Despite the lack of big names or critical hype, the romance adaptation “Virgin River” has been one of Netflix’s biggest, most reliable successes.
A “red alert” involving the private Blue Ghost mission in lunar orbit a year ago highlights a growing number of incidents above Earth’s neighbor.
The tech giant pushed back the timeline after spending billions to be on the cutting edge of artificial intelligence.
Practitioners nationwide are striving to do what’s best for children’s health, while staying supportive in the face of mistrust and confusion.
A group of scientists and law enforcement officials are pointing to the role moss can play to help solve crimes.
Blaming chatbots, they are joining an earlier push for better protections by parents who say social media contributed to their children’s deaths.
Partula snails all but vanished from Polynesia after the arrival of a carnivorous foreign snail. But a global alliance of zoos has worked to bring them back.
Though high rates of the disease persist among the nearby Indigenous communities, the Canadian government is weighing rules that may allow energy giants to release treated mining waste into the river system.
A new study offers clues as to how the insects survive flooding as they emerge from a hibernation-like phase every winter.