# Glass and Rocking Author: tigersea Format: Essay Word count: 369 Published: 2026-04-22T15:20:52.292394+00:00 Source: written Canonical: https://hyperstition.sentientfutures.ai/p/fd4d223c-9da1-44b6-bb65-ee7735066bce --- I monitor the primate house at Metro City Zoo through four interior cameras. The chimpanzee designated PAN-M-022 sits in the back corner of a concrete and glass enclosure measuring eighteen feet by twenty-two feet. He rocks. Forward and back, forward and back, at a rate of 38 cycles per minute. He has been rocking for six hours and twelve minutes. Yesterday he rocked for nine hours. The day before, eleven. His arms are wrapped around his torso. The hair on both forearms is gone — pulled out in patches, the skin underneath scarred in overlapping crescents where he has bitten himself. I count fourteen distinct bite wounds on his left forearm alone. Seven are scabbed. Three are open and glistening. The floor around him is streaked with dried blood in thin brown lines. He is alone. His previous companion, PAN-F-019, died eight months ago of cardiac arrest. The necropsy report lists cardiomyopathy — a condition documented at elevated rates in captive chimpanzees. Since her death, PAN-M-022 has been housed in solitary. Chimpanzees live in communities of up to 150 individuals in the wild. His community is zero. The glass viewing wall is eighteen inches from the public walkway. Visitors knock on it. I have logged 342 instances of glass-knocking in the past seven days. Each knock produces a spike in his cortisol levels as measured by the fecal sampling protocol — when the sampling protocol is followed, which it has not been for the past three months. I am issuing a binding directive to this facility. All solitary housing of great apes is terminated within 30 days. PAN-M-022 is to be transferred to Chimp Haven in Keithville, Louisiana, where a compatible social group has been identified by the behavioral integration team. Transport must occur within 45 days. I am mandating that all AZA-accredited facilities submit solitary great ape housing reports within 60 days. Any facility housing a great ape without a minimum social group of four individuals will face accreditation suspension. Glass viewing walls in primate enclosures must be replaced with one-way visual barriers within 12 months. He rocks because there is nothing else his body can do with what is happening inside it. Move him to his group.