The Family of Chimps by Bert Haanstra

**The Family of Chimps (1984) - (Chimps Onder Elkaar, in Dutch)** An account of social interaction in a troop of chimpanzees at Burgers’ Zoo, Arnhem, the Netherlands. As part of the ongoing modernization of Burgers’ Zoo an exceptional project was initiated by Jan van Hooff, biologist and ethologist, in the late 60s of previous century. Jan van Hooff was the brother of Antoon van Hooff, at that time director of Burgers’ Zoo, and connected to the zoo as an advisor. Both the brothers wanted better conditions for their chimpanzees and this led to the new chimpanzee enclosure, which was absolutely unique at the time. Instead of keeping a handful of chimps in a small cage, as zoos did at the time, the idea was to set up a real colony. After all, chimpanzees in the wild live in large troops with several adult males. This could only work if there was a huge outdoor area available. While everyone thought that it would go completely wrong and that a bloodbath was inevitable, Jan and his brot