Carol L. Niemeyer

Carol L. Niemeyer received her Bachelor's Degree from the University of California at Berkeley. She was fascinated by the behavior of non-human primates, and studied their social behavior in the Departments of Anthropology, Psychology, and Zoology, earning an Independent Honor's major in "Evolutionary and Comparative Behavior and Biology."

After graduating, she was a zookeeper for the adult primates at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It was early in the summer of 1971, so she was one of the very first women to work with adult exotic animals at a zoo in the United States.

Women working with wild animals in zoos traditionally raised and cared for the infant animals in the Nurseries and Children's Zoos. Carol worked in the Children's Zoo at Franklin Park Zoo in Boston, Massachusetts in 1970. Simultaneously, she was a Playboy Bunny at the Boston Playboy Club.

One day, Carol was displaying a huge Traveling Zoo boa constrictor at a local park in Boston. She was sitting next to a chain link fence with the boa constrictor around her shoulders. Before she was aware of any danger, the boa constrictor had intertwined itself around her neck and the fence! She could not dislodge the massive, strong snake. Fortunately another employee, who drove the Traveling Zoo truck, was able to assist her.

At one point, interested in using her brains and making a bit more money, she returned to school to take more of the hard sciences in order to become a Psychiatrist. Following straight A's in those difficult courses, she was not even allowed to apply to take the Medical College Admissions Test! She was told it was because she "was a woman". ( New Orleans Louisiana, 1973).

So, she returned to zoo work, and was later a zookeeper at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. and at the zoo in Dallas, Texas.

At the National Zoo, she became involved with the Curator of Reptiles. One day, he went to the airport to pick up three extremely poisonous snakes from Southeast Asia. There was one each of yellow, green, and brown, with triangular heads, in two snake bags. The Reptile Curator took them home, and took them out of the bags to inspect them, using an improvised "snake hook" made out of a clothes hanger. Then he and Carol spent the night there.

The next day, the Reptile Curator found that he only had two of the very poisonous snakes! The zoo X-rayed the snakes to see if one had devoured the other one, which was missing. Nope. That evening, the Curator's roommate, who didn't even know about the lost snake, directed the Curator's attention to a bright yellow snake in their fireplace, stating "It doesn't look like a garter snake!" The snake had been loose in the apartment while Carol and the Reptile Curator slept.

Also at the National Zoo, Carol worked briefly with the elephants. One day, a young male elephant chased Carol out of the enclosure, ears and trunk flailing aggressively. Carol escaped this dangerous animal, but decided to return to work with the primates again.

At the Dallas Zoo, Carol was a Research Technician for the primates. She participated in Jane Goodall's study of chimpanzees in zoos, called "Chimpanzoo". Jane Goodall's work with wild chimpanzees had been the inspiration for Carol's career, and the two had met a number of times.

In between these two zoo jobs, Carol lived in the Amazon jungle twice, both times at least eight hours away from any city by boat, but in completely separate locations. In one location the ant was the "king of the jungle". In the other location, it was the mosquito.

In the first location, she assisted in a study of Titi monkeys. She learned what it is really like to study primates in the wild! The crew got up very early, and followed these tiny monkeys through their daily ranges, cutting trails with machetes, and watching them through binoculars thirty meters high in trees. To be truthful, the best part of the day was when she and the other woman, Barbara Sleeper, went to the stream for their daily bath, after following the monkeys all day in the hot, humid jungle. Barb Sleeper is now a very prolific writer.

Carol was also the Director of a Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in the Amazon Jungle. Among other things, she took an anteater for a daily walk, cradling a woolly monkey, who gripped her with it's prehensile tail as well as all four limbs. This felt Wonderful, like being held.

Tourists paid to come to the location, again about eight hours from any civilization by boat. Once, Carol and a group traveled by boat another eight hours away, through waters infested by alligators, with only their eyes visible in the dark night above the water.

The destination was to visit the Mayoruna Indians, who had a reputation as " fierce, nomadic cannibals", who did not get along very well with the white missionaries. Reportedly, they also used to eat their dead relatives, in order "to absorb their spirits." They made interesting facial tattoos that looked sort of like railroad ties, and inserted thin fibers of palm leaf into holes made in their noses and faces to make whiskers, like jaguars.

Fortunately, the group made it back safely from visiting the Mayorunas. But the tourist season in the jungle ended. One day, all of the employees at the camp mutinied and returned to civilization. They were no longer being sent edible food and drinkable water in their isolated location. So, Carol had to leave as well.

Carol continued her education in non-human primate behavior, obtaining a Master's Degree from the University of Stirling in Scotland. She was told at her "viva" that this enormous masterpiece was "really a PhD". She could have changed it to a PhD in about two semesters, but by this time she was very deep in debt from overseas student's tuition, so she returned to the U.S.

Back in the United States, she volunteered at the Oregon Zoo in Portland, on a study of Golden Lion Tamarin monkeys living free at that Zoo.

Subsequently, she utilized her Master's Degree working at the Oregon National Primate Research Center, first as a Primate Behavior Technician, and then was promoted to Animal Behavior Supervisor. Her duties were to "improve the psychological well-being of the primates". To do that, among other things, she formed pairs and groups of individually housed monkeys, who were often very aggressive to each other. She also provided them with devices to keep them occupied, and hopefully prevent self-injurious behaviors. And she arranged with a local supermarket to get special produce for them to eat. 

She supervised the Animal Behavior Technicians. Carol authored a number of articles, and gave presentations at national and international Primatological Conferences.

One day in 2002, something rather unexpected occurred. One of her assistants, who had done a good job for a year, resigned. The next day it was found that he was a spy for the radical animal rights organizations. Nobody at the Primate Center knew this.

Carol carried on, continuing to completely dedicate her life to helping the monkeys as much as possible. Although she was paid a salary and was expected to leave work at 4 p.m, she frequently worked until late at night. One day, not long after the spy resigned, the Administration decided that since Carol worked so much, she must also be a spy. And they got rid of her.

She found out much later that this was not the only reason she lost her beloved career: there was a woman working at the Primate Center who coveted her job, and that woman orchestrated Carol losing her career.

This was a very serious blow.

Carol still lives in Portland, Oregon with a very special Maine Coon cat, and is working on a book about her career. In her spare time, she enjoys singing in a choir, walking, pet sitting, ushering for theater, and participating in activities with the Society for Creative Anachronisms.

About Carol L. Niemeyer

Worked at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo Colorado Springs, Colorado summer of 1971, worked with Adult Animals. Worked in other zoos. Worked in the Amazon Jungle. In charge of Program to promote well being of primates at ONPRC. Worked with Monkeys at a Zoo. If grooming themselves too much give them devices grooming boards where they remove the hair from that instead of themselves.

Name: Carol L. Niemeyer

Phone: (503) 490-2520

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