As with Jean, Pepper was also born at a Merck, Sharp & Dohme laboratory and spent 7 years at the Buckshire Corporation before arriving at LEMSIP, sent to this lab when she became too big to control. She spent a total of 27 years in research. While Ch-454 spent some time in breeding at LEMSIP, mostly she was to be used for research. Indeed, she was used: some 307 knockdowns, 36 punch liver biopsies, 1 open wedge liver biopsy, 6 cervical biopsies, 10 lymph node biopsies and 4 bone marrow biopsies. She spent most of her "free" time blankly staring out of her cage. Plagued by fear and anxiety, she will still rather starve herself than face an unpleasant situation. But after so many betrayals one can understand why.

  

Today, although she is still a very nervous individual, she is also very sweet. She spends a lot of time sitting by the window looking out at the rest of the farm, and she likes to play with the hose or sweep the wood chips in the play area, putting them into buckets.Pepper is also one of our chimp artists, this painting is featured in our set of art cards available from the Fauna store.

  

Date of birth: 1970. Pepper's birthday is celebrated on World Conservation Day, December 3rd.    
Aka:Miss Pepper, Peppy, and Pepp

  

Personality:Pepper’s most outstanding personality trait is her mental strength, a quality that helped her survive her years in a lab. She has incredible will power and determination.
Her loyalty to those she loves is admirable. Pepper is considerate, compassionate, wise, and full of love.  You need to earn her respect and love, as she does not give her heart so easily. It took one year before Pepper laughed in her new sanctuary life, and many years for her to be open and outgoing with the people who care for her on a daily basis.

Pepper’s emotional scars are deep. Her life in the lab gave her a lot of insight into humans and their failings. Pepper is a very wise soul. We always respect her wisdom. Her intuition is extremely strong. When she is afraid of someone, her fear is justified.

Her close and caring friendships with Donna Rae and Sue Ellen helped Pepper find some kind of purpose in her captive life. Her loyalty to her friends is that of a sister, unshakeable. She is hopelessly devoted to those she loves; defending them even when she too is frightened.

Pepper can be the most gentle and loving soul, until she has been crossed. Then she loses her patience and becomes another personality all together. This is when her speed and strength kick in. She is very agile, strong and quick. If you had to deal with an angry Pepper, you would never know what hit you.  Mostly what angers her is when bad things happen to those she loves.

Pepper does not tolerate disrespect.  This leads to one of the problems she has with the younger residents, who never learned chimpanzee social etiquette. Pepper will treat you with the same respect you show her.  And, she never forgets. If you are rude to her, she will retaliate one day when the opportunity comes. Weeks after an incident, she can still be upset with someone, always remembering, never forgetting.

Despite her innate strength, Pepper is soft and gentle. She is quite petite, but behind that little frame is an agile, athletic and very quick individual. On the outside, she typically looks very peaceful and totally at ease with whatever is happening. Yet, when necessary, she can take care of any situation, and she has the friends to support her in doing so. Many try to be Pepper’s friend but only a few have succeeded. She commands loyalty and if she gets it, you will have hers.

Social Status: Strong social position, it is important to have Pepper’s friendship to co-exist with her. She is an amazing friend and without her support an individual will not make it in her group.

Favorite Activities: Pepper loves to be busy. She is always looking for something to do. Like so many of our residents, she loves to use the hose and clean. She sweeps up little piles of trash and puts it all very neatly into paper cups or boxes for us to put out.

Pepper’s very favorite pastime is spending time with those she loves -- grooming or just sitting around. Inside the chimp house, Pepper can most often be found sitting looking out the window. She loves to see what is going on at the farm.  Pepper seems to know everything that happens at Fauna. She does not miss anything.

In the summer, it is hard to get Miss Pepper inside. She can spend hours out on the island. She keeps herself very busy, looking for things to eat from the vegetable garden, or picking the fresh clover and dandelions that grow naturally. Ever curious about how things are put together, you’ll find her checking out the construction of something or disassembling things just for fun.  Then she politely hands us the pieces of wood, screws and bolts that she has removed. Pepper has even spent entire nights out on the island in the summer time.

She takes a pile of blankets to her favorite spot, makes a comfortable and elaborate “night nest” and sleeps under the stars and the moon – just Pepper and the sounds of the crickets and frogs that live at Fauna.

Speaking about beds, making a night nest has to be Pepper’s very favorite thing to do.  From the moment Pepper arrived at Fauna in 1997, from her first night that October, she has never missed making a bed. She is the queen of nest making. Her technique is quite unique. She shakes out her blankets and flattens them out on the platform where she wants to sleep.

She takes her time to get it all nice and neat --  shaking her blankets, laying them out just right, then lying on them to test if they are perfect. Once she does the first test, she sits up and modifies if necessary.

Most often, she thinks it is necessary. When she gets it to what she thinks is just perfect, she lays on her back, and takes the last blanket and places it over her legs, feet and chest, putting her arms out over the top. Pepper making and getting into her bed is truly one of the most beautiful and amazing sights at Fauna.

Favorite Foods: Pepper loves ripe and juicy fruits, like melon, cantaloupe, mangos, grapes, watermelon, and peaches. She adores fresh tomatoes -- any kind as long as they are ripe and delicious. In the summer, she can be seen happily picking tomatoes from the island’s gardens. Pepper savors every bite of the juicy treat. Fauna grows our own vegetables and fruits for the chimps including ground cherries and peppers. Then come winter, you won’t see Pepper eat peppers again until summer – she is a savvy and very discriminating consumer.    
   
Pepper adores a party and all party treats like juice or pop, make her very happy. Every day, Pepper loves her hot tea time. She usually chooses to take her tea to an isolated place and sits quietly, sipping and enjoying it while looking out over the farm.