Roger
born
March 1, 1979Roger was born at a roadside zoo in north Florida where he was taken from his mother as a tiny infant and sold to a family in Connecticut.
At age three, he was re-sold by the family to a
circus trainer. The trainer worked Roger in the Ringling
Brothers circus for about ten years. After he retired from
the circus, Roger spent a few years living in the trainer's garage
along with an older female chimpanzee.
When Roger's female companion died, he was sent to a small tourist
attraction in 
Florida. He shared a cage with an adult male
orangutan separated only by chain link. The staff at the tourist
attraction said that Roger was very frightened of the orangutan (Radcliffe)
since the orangutan was twice Roger's size. (Note: While
infant chimpanzees and orangutans
are sometimes worked together in entertainment, this match-up is
quite unusual and unnatural since orangutans are from Southeast Asia
and chimpanzees are from Africa.)
When the tourist attraction closed in 2002, the Center was asked
to take in Roger (as
well as Radcliffe). At first, Roger was
very nervous in his new home at the sanctuary and even afraid of
the blankets and toys offered to him or left outdoors in his
enclosure. After a
concentrated effort by the sanctuary staff to make Roger feel
secure and safe, he now makes nests with his blankets each night,
and he plays with the many toys and enrichment
items provided to him daily.
Roger likes to watch the other chimpanzees at the sanctuary and
calls back to them excitedly throughout the day. He is in
the process now of being introduced to the sanctuary's oldest
female chimpanzee, Denyse. Once
Roger is comfortable with Denyse, they will both be integrated
into Butch and Chipper's
"group". Roger, Butch, &Chipper were all
castrated as infants by their trainer-owners. Hopefully they
will live peacefully together at the sanctuary.