Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Today J.B., Colin, and Noah worked on some Young’s Hill trench-digging around the entire perimeter. Here’s J.B. using what I have been calling “the crazy chainsaw for the ground” machine (though it’s actually called a ditch witch).
Trench-digging is also do-able with a pick ax and shovel, though I imagine it’s pretty hard work! Here’s Colin and Noah workin’ hard:
… and hardly workin’
Tickets are now on sale for Out of the Box 2011, Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest’s gala auction in Seattle. They are going fast, so get yours while they last!
There will also be an online auction for out-of-town supporters. The online auction site is up and we’ve added information about our important Fund-a-Need project. Auction items will be added in the coming weeks, and there will be some incredible items! The online auction is shorter this year: October 7-9th.
Individual Sponsorships range from $100 Head Nod / Table Sponsors to $5,000 Pant Hoot Sponsors, with some fun sponsor levels in between. Perhaps blog readers could team up to donate towards a particular level? Learn more about who’s already stepped up to sponsor and how you can do the same on our Auction Sponsors page or just send me an email: [email protected].
Out of the Box 2011 is truly our biggest event to date. Volunteers worked really hard to procure awesome things for you to bid on. The Seattle event is going to have a wonderful food and wine, thanks to the chef at Bell Harbor and generous donations from Field Roast Grain Meat and Goose Ridge Vineyard and Winery, plus more wine from Dulces Bistro & Wine, Chandler Reach and Saviah Cellars.
Personally, I can’t wait!
It’s really amazing to look through some old photos of when the chimps first arrived at the sanctuary. Their skin was so faded, they had so little hair, and they just seemed expressionless. Even after just a few months, we started to see some drastic changes. This post shows before and after pictures of Annie—with only about 3 months between. Well, I took a photo of Annie today sitting in the same exact spot as our “before” picture. It’s pretty striking how amazing she looks after 3 years in sanctuary.
Annie before (June 13, 2008)
Annie now (August 30, 2011)
We tend to get a lot of empty boxes around here at the sanctuary, and the other day Denice thought the chimps might enjoy this especially giant box. She was right, it turned out to be a lot of fun. Who knew a plain old leftover box could be so entertaining!
I just wanted to report that I did in fact run around the outside of Young’s Hill the other day. I was so grateful for all who donated to Missy Games, I felt I owed it to you.
There is a video of it, but it’s frankly pretty boring – just me moving (not nearly as fast as it felt) around the fence in struggled silence. It seemed like it took forever and the uphill was pretty challenging. I tried to go as fast as I could. The video says it took almost exactly 2 minutes. I should have timed it before we hooked up the fence to the raceway, but I’m guessing it would have taken 20 seconds or less to run around the entire building. What I’m trying to impart is that Young’s Hill is enormous. It’s really difficult to capture the size of it in photographs. I tried a few weeks ago from across the river – see the photo below. Just compare the size of the building in that photo to the hill.
Of course the indoor space will always be important for the chimpanzees, particularly in the winter. The design of the building incorporates vertical space, which is crucial to chimpanzees, and has a lot of options. It’s temperature-controlled and stays pretty cool in the summer and nice and warm even when it’s cold outside.
It will be so interesting to see how the chimps use the hill – where they hang out and what they do out there. There’s endless improvements and structures that can be added, but I think it’s a really great start to more freedom than Annie, Jody and Negra have known since their capture in Africa and more freedom than Burrito, Foxie, Jamie and Missy have ever known.
The next birthday that is coming up is Annie’s on September 10th. The hill won’t be complete by then, but it will be closer. Any suggestions for how we should celebrate?
We’ve made a lot of progress on Young’s Hill recently and it looks like we might be able to wrap things up in just a few short weeks. It’s hard to believe that the chimps will soon be wandering around their new, two-acre enclosure.
With construction in the final stages, it was time for us to begin fence training with the chimps. To do this, we built a small section of temporary electric fence just outside of the greenhouse, which the chimps can reach through the caging.
Teaching the chimps about electric fencing before letting them out onto Young’s Hill is important for two reasons. First, it is much safer for the chimps to learn about the fence in controlled conditions. The temporary fence ensures that their first contact with the wire will be with a fingertip and not some other, more sensitive, part of the body, and that they will be standing safely on the ground when they receive the shock. Second, the temporary fence allows us to separate the negative experience of their first shock from the experience of going outside for the first time. Because the temporary fence is just outside of their current enclosure, the chimps are able to retreat to a safe and trusted part of their home if they feel scared.
We began fence training on Monday. The chimps are naturally curious, and anything new in or near their enclosure becomes the object of intense examination. Jamie, of course, was the first to touch the wire. She screamed and jumped back. The other chimps came to see what was going on. As far as we know, the Cle Elum Seven have never experienced electric fence before, so the other chimps didn’t seem to know what to make of Jamie’s reaction. Soon after, Jody and Foxie both touched the wire. While Jamie stayed outside and kept an eye on the fence, Jody and Foxie retreated to the doorway.
Burrito was next to approach. He fiddled with the fence, touching the insulators and the post itself. Since we started this project, I had toyed with the idea of touching the fence with the chimps watching me. I mostly wanted to know what the chimps were going to experience, and I also thought it could serve as an additional opportunity for the chimps to learn about the fence. So, with Burrito in front of me, I touched my hand to the wire. This goes without saying, but the chimps are a lot tougher than me. While they screamed and ran away, I screamed and fell down. My knees literally buckled. While the shock was unpleasant to say the least, it only lasts 1/1000th of a second, and before you know it, everything is back to normal. But you have learned that you never want to touch the fence again.
Unfortunately, Burrito did not learn the lesson that I tried to impart, and he too received his first shock. By this time, the chimps were starting to understand what was going on. Missy, Negra, and Annie kept their distance. But later in the day, Annie’s curiosity got the best of her, and she touched the wire. The following day, Negra did the same. Missy still hasn’t touched it. It is possible that she learned from watching the others. The temporary fence will remain live until Young’s Hill is ready, in case she does want to learn for herself.
To be honest, I was dreading this part of the project. No one wants to see their friends upset. But it went as well as we could have hoped for – the chimps seem to understand and respect the fence, and no one has been traumatized. In fact, Foxie has been more playful this week than ever! Now that the training is out of the way, we can focus on the day when the chimps will experience the great outdoors for the first time.
