Rather than going to the expense of building sanctuaries, why not release captive primates in their natural habitats?
Captive primates cannot be released to their wild roots. For many bred here in the US, their roots may be a backyard, a breeding colony, a zoo, or a research lab. Like us, all primates have long childhoods and learn about the world from their families. Captive monkeys, chimps, and gibbons are taken from their mothers shortly after birth and often never encounter others like themselves again. As a result, they dont know the social codes of their species. They surely dont know how to be wild. They have neither the skills nor the savvy to hold their own in the wild. They only know how to live within the confines of the conditions that we impose upon them. The law of the wild is simple: survival of the fittest. Captive primates are not fit to survive in the wild; an imposed condition, not one of natural selection. Perhaps ironically, release in the wild would be cruel and ultimately fatal. Sanctuary provides them an option for safe and more natural lives.
