Johni turns 19
On this day, back in 1999, there was a surprise arrival in what was still known as Paddy's chimp troop. Clin, one of the females, who was by then in her late teens herself, gave birth to a female infant. One of the directors of the sanctuary, Alison Aimes, found Clin holding an infant by the neck. There was disbelief that the infant was hers considering that she had a contraceptive implant under her skin (which obviously stopped working or was pulled out through over-zealous grooming among chimps). Clin, an eccentric chimp by nature, had no skills to mother the infant therefore the baby was taken away and handreared by the then head keeper Jeremy Keeling. The infant was put in an incubator because she seemed rather premature. The baby was named Johni after the sanctuary's vet John Lewis. She was also bottle-fed alongside her late half sister Hebe and in 2002 when both infants were around 3 they were briefly reintroduced to their mothers in Paddy's troop but poor sensitive little Johni was attacked by one of the adult males and taken back into Jeremy Keeling's care in the chimp nursey. It was not until 2006 at the age of 7 that an adolescent Johni was put again into an adult group, Rodney's former family now headed by the Israeli king Hananya! She made quite an impression; dominating all but three of the females and flirting with the males. She gained a high rank rather fast for a young female her age and still holds it today. Johni has gotten darker with age and not the pink face of her infancy! She is relatively large and confident, and intelligent. She may never see her mother Clin and father Paddy but the group she is in certainly suits her. Since the sad passing of Peggy, Johni is now the number 2 female in Hananya's dynasty, second only to Cherri (and Thelma) on the power ladder.