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Date: 7/13/2023
WEST SPRINGFIELD — Anne-Marie Mascaro first met a chimpanzee when she was 8 years old at a county fair. The encounter changed her life.
“At that age, I had an intrinsic knowledge this was unnatural and not fair to the chimp, but I couldn’t express it,” said Mascaro about the fair near her hometown in upstate New York, where a chimp who starred in a TV series was forced to pose for pictures with youngsters like herself. “Like lots of people today, I wrestled with the desire to interact with a wild animal, yet I also knew it was exploitation. I just couldn’t articulate it then.”
Today, more than 40 years later, Mascaro advocates for chimpanzees and other primates to protect them from exploitation around the world and conserve their habitats that are threatened by various factors. She does it through her nonprofit charitable organization and website, monkeyfriendly.com, that she runs from her West Springfield home.
Seeds for her website were planted by watching TV programs featuring some famous primatologists — Jane Goodall, who worked with chimpanzees; Dian Fossey (gorillas); Birute Galdikas (orangutans) — and from viewing old National Geographic shows of Koko, the gorilla that learned sign language.
Mascaro’s website is joining other primate conservation organizations to mark the fifth annual World Chimpanzee Day on July 14 — the date in 1960 when Goodall started her trailblazing research on wild chimpanzees in Africa. Mascaro will post to her blog and call for others to launch their own projects and link to worldchimpanzeeday.org.
While Goodall and others triggered Mascaro’s idea for her website, it was animal behaviorist Linda Koebner who had the strongest influence. A TV show featuring Koebner’s work to create a retirement sanctuary for lab chimps in Florida so inspired Mascaro that Koebner became her mentor.
“I was so moved by Linda’s program that I reached out to offer to volunteer in any way. I had no science background, just a passion for chimpanzees and a [bachelor of arts] degree in an unrelated field,” said Mascaro. She remains grateful to Koebner for recognizing her drive to help primates.
Importantly, Mascaro’s work with Koebner began a chain of events that ultimately led her to a master’s degree in primate conservation. Mascaro was caught in the “proverbial rat race” of a New York City job that paid the bills, but left her feeling like she wasn’t pursuing her calling.
So, despite naysayers who told her she was “too old” or “too crazy” to leave a job in private banking and become a student again in her 30s, Mascaro applied to graduate schools abroad.
“I wanted to get a degree that aligned with my passion to see if I could make an impact on a cause that had been bubbling inside of me since I was a child,” she said.
For her thesis, Mascaro wrote about creating a collaborative space similar to LinkedIn for the conservation world. People worldwide could connect with each other and collaborate to launch conservation projects. Additionally, it could serve as a website to educate people on different issues — from conservation to learning about lesser-known primate species.
Her degree in primate conservation broadened her understanding of highly complex wildlife conservation issues, Mascaro also has an undergraduate degree in communication that sharpened her writing and marketing skills, while an MBA allowed her to look at things through a more critical lens rather than a purely emotional one. Together, the degrees shaped how she designed her nonprofit.
Mascaro’s idea finally moved from theory to practice during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Like most people, I had time to reflect on what was important to me and what I wanted to leave behind to the world,” she said. “For me, there’s always been a strong connection with wanting to leave a legacy helping primates in some way. It was the perfect time to make a concept and a thesis practical and actionable.”
Mascaro said the website provides a platform for like-minded people from different disciplines to find one another, and potentially collaborate on projects. There are also inspirational stories, educational tabs, and links to websites so people can take action locally and globally.
Nonprofit status gives Mascaro a greater chance to obtain international grants and encourage donations, since they’re tax-deductible.
“I want to use the power of commerce, donations and grants to help fund my grassroots conservation efforts,” she said.
“Most people know about the popular great apes, but fewer people know about the wider range of primates,” she said. There are hundreds of primate species that visitors to the website can learn about in the educational section.
Many challenges that primates face aren’t easy problems to solve because of economic and political aspects, Mascaro said, but they’re worthwhile ones.
“Educating yourself about the problems, coming up with creative solutions and then taking action is what the website is about. I believe in education and action.”
The website’s emphasis on connection, collaboration and awareness can lead to action by promoting causes and broadcasting questions, ideas or events in its community forum:
“It’s a welcoming space for people who aren’t traditional field biologists or anthropologists who want to help protect primates,” said Mascaro.
The website allows people from all walks of life and different disciplines to create a free account and to find one another, communicate with each other and collaborate on projects.
“One of our members, Tina Alberni, is a talented artist who uses her artwork to help fund conservation,” said Mascaro. “Tina’s donated money from selling her beautiful paintings of orangutans to a sanctuary that helps protect them. Her work is on the website and is an example of the collaborations we want to showcase.”
Mascaro said it’s important for people to become more aware of the threat primates face around the world.
“I was shocked when I learned primates could ever be seen as ‘pests’ by some, such as areas where they raid farmers’ crops. The view most people have here in the West is not necessarily views adopted worldwide,” said Mascaro.
She said primates are seed dispersers and are literally the “gardeners of the forest” on which humans depend for survival.
“If you are someone who doesn’t even have half the passion for primates that I do, I would hope you have a passion for life itself — and realize that both are inextricably linked,” she said.
For more from Mascaro about World Chimpanzee Day, visit monkeyfriendly.com/blog/2023/05/20/celebrate-world-chimpanzee-day-july-14-2023.