Jacob and his twin, Jonah, were born at a drive-through wildlife park where they were pulled from their mother and sold to a California trainer for the entertainment business.

They both worked in movies, TV shows, and TV advertisements. When they were only 8 years old – still juveniles – they were considered too old, too big, and too dangerous to continue to be worked in the Hollywood business.

Jacob, along with Jonah, Kenuzy, and Daisy arrived at the sanctuary from Los Angeles in August 2004 one week before the sanctuary was hit by Hurricane Charley. They also went through two more hurricanes (Francis and Jeanne) before they were even able come outside and play in their outdoor habitat. We can only imagine what they must have thought of their new Florida home having to endure 3 hurricanes during their first six weeks at the Center!

Although Jacob likes to play and interact with the others in his group, he prefers his twin brother and best friend, Jonah. Jacob and Jonah act just like typical brothers which includes an occasional small tiff. One day during lunch, Jonah took Jacob’s cauliflower, and Jacob turned to Jonah and punched him in the shoulder! They continued their lunch without further incident.

Jacob enjoys playing in the sprinkler during the hot weather. He also spends time making nests each day. He will use any material he has on hand such as firehose, bungee cord, banana leaves, palm fronds, T-shirts, or large paper bags. One of his favorite enrichment activities is looking at magazines. He loves to gather several magazines into his nest and flip through all of them. Jacob will even look at pictures of food and then make chimpanzee “food-bark” noises.