Like her mother (Oopsie), Jessie was pulled away as an infant and raised by trainers for work in television shows and commercials. When Jessie was too big to be handled safely around actors, she was put into a breeding group at a California exotic animal compound where she produced three infants for the entertainment business. Her first infant, a male, was sold as a pet, but ended up in a traveling circus and rodeo show. Her second infant (born in 2002) was a female named Kodua who was taken from Jessie and raised by humans. (Kodua now lives at the Center for Great Apes and has been reintroduced back to Jessie and her family.)

Jessie’s third infant (a “surprise baby” who was unexpected by the owner) was born only weeks before the owner retired from the apes-in-entertainment business and sent Jessie to Wauchula to live at the sanctuary. So, when Jessie arrived here, she had a 6-week old male infant on her body!

This was the first time Jessie had been allowed to raise her own infant, and there was some concern about what kind of a mother she would be since she was raised by humans. Jessie made a few mistakes in the beginning, but overall she’s been a very attentive mother to little Bobby Stryker. When he’s playing with the others in her group, she watches carefully and runs to him at the first little cry. She is patient about nursing him, and early in the mornings when they are still both lying in her nest, she tickles him and plays with him gently.

Jessie is very friendly to everyone, and now lives peacefully in a group where she has been reunited with her mother Oopsie, her older sister Boma, her two offspring Kodua and Stryker, and two adult males Sam and Bubbles.

She’s a bit of a fussy eater (although she loves her lunchtime onion and protein shakes), and an accomplished “tent-maker”, often constructing cardboard creations to make a splashguard when she wants to sit outside with her baby and observe the rain.