Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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Archives for January 2013

Food service

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At CSNW, we follow the philosophy that the chimpanzees are in captivity not by choice, and we see it as our duty to let them live their lives out in the best possible way. Essentially, we see ourselves as servants. We clean their enclosures, we serve them their meals, and we play games that cater to what they like best. For instance, I heard Sarah had a box with trolls in it on her head the other day. Anything to make Foxie laugh! And last week, I heard that JB wore some cowgirl boots for Jamie.

On Monday I posted a photo of Jackie serving dinner to the chimps on our Facebook page. It made me realize that we don’t really post about their normal food service—when we post about food it is typically because of a big fun forage. Forages are more similar to how chimps would find food if they were in Africa, but we don’t do a forage for every meal mainly because we want to make sure everyone is getting enough food. Since they aren’t in the wild and aren’t able to continually forage, they depend completely on us to make sure they get their yummy fruits and veggies. Sometimes we make a prepared cooked dish, like oatmeal, rice, or pancakes. They love prepared meals but they are perfectly happy with just fresh produce which is the healthiest option anyway, so that is usually what they get.

For breakfast, we serve a fruit smoothie with ingredients that change daily but always include protein powder. We cut up a couple different fruits and also have a bowl full of nuts as an appetizer. They also get multi-vitamins, probiotics, and fiber at breakfast. Lunch is fresh veggies—usually about 3 or 4 veggies each. Dinner is either a prepared meal accompanied by a fruit and/or veggie, or more often just fresh produce. I like to do a mix of fruit and veggies at dinner, but it doesn’t really matter too much. We cut all the produce into pieces that fit nicely through the caging, and the chimps usually take the pieces to their hands or straight to their mouth. Smoothie and other drinks are served by pouring from a cup straight to their mouth. (This video shows a little bit of the breakfast routine.)

Below are some pictures of dinner tonight.

Negra getting pear to her mouth:

web caregiver debbie serve pear negra GH_MG_0860

 

Annie getting pear to her hand:

web caregiver debbie serve pear annie GH_MG_0866

 

Jamie getting orange to her mouth:

web caregiver debbie serve orange jamie GH_MG_0875

 

Missy getting onion to her hand:

web caregiver debbie serve onion missy GH_MG_0857

 

Jamie getting banana to her mouth (and Missy enjoying hers in the background):

web caregiver debbie serve banana jamie GH_MG_0855

 

Foxie getting onion to her mouth:

web caregiver debbie serve foxie pear GH_MG_0880

 

 

A Big Day for Meg Lunnum

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Today is Meg Lunnum’s birthday and her last day of work before retirement, and she has sponsored the day to celebrate.  What a cause for celebration!  Meg supports Negra through the Chimpanzee Pal program.  We’ll make sure Negra gets lots of peanuts and lettuce (her favorites!) today in your honor, Meg.

web Negra under blanket lay down on top climbing structure GH IMG_7083

Happy birthday and congratulations!

 

Jamie and her barrel

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One of my favorite stories from Jane Goodall’s book In the Shadow of Man was the story of Mike.

Mike was a small, low-ranking male who was continually threatened and attacked by higher ranking chimpanzees until the day he discovered a pair of empty kerosene cans at the research camp. By banging the cans together, Mike’s displays made a sound that none of the other chimpanzees had heard before. Imagine hearing the clashing and booming of metal on metal, when even the toughest chimpanzees were stuck shaking branches and throwing rocks. Mike may not have had the size and strength of Goliath or David Graybeard but he was clever – clever enough to rise to alpha male and remain there for six years after his first kerosene can display.

I see a lot of Mike in Jamie. While Jamie is by no means small, she clearly knows how to use objects in her displays to her advantage. While Burrito runs around clapping his hands, Jamie shows him how it’s done.

web Jamie pilo erect arrange barrel start display playroom PR IMG_2136

web Jamie drum barrel look at camera start display playroom PR IMG_2137

web Jamie display drum barrel playroom PR IMG_2139

web Jamie display drum barrel playroom PR IMG_2140

Take Action Tuesday: NIH comment form

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Last week we sent out a newsletter regarding the good news from the NIH working group who met last Tuesday. To review some of the main points from the report, read Sarah’s blog here. They made several recommendations, but the biggest bottom line is: most of the chimpanzees currently being used in research should be retired into the Federal Sanctuary System, but a small number (they suggested around 50) should be held back in a reserve colony for possible future research.

The next step in the process is to solicit public comment regarding the recommendations, which is located here. It is quite daunting in its length and detail—but don’t let that stop you. All you need to do is fill in your name, email, and then scroll all the way to the bottom to fill in a box labeled “Overall Comments.” If you want to be more specific, leave a comment in the field for “Chimpanzee Research Colony Size and Placement: Recommendation SP2.” You can get to that field easily by selecting the “colony size and placement” option from the drop menu at the top of the page.

In your comments, encourage the NIH to accept the recommendations, but also remind them that there is no reason to have any chimpanzees in research—not even a small group of 50. You could mention that no other industrialized nation tests on chimpanzees. Chimpanzees have complex social, psychological, and physical needs that cannot be met in labs. They have been imprisoned for a crime they did not commit, and are injected with diseases or vaccines, forced to undergo surgeries, sometimes kept in solitary confinement, and regularly shot with darts to be anesthetized. Remember to remain polite and be succinct. If you want to share what you submit in the comments section here for others to see, feel free! We’ll share a copy of what we submit soon too.

If you haven’t seen it already, check out this site called “The Last 1000” that is a countdown to the end of chimpanzees in biomedical laboratories. You’ll notice that Negra’s daughter Heidi is on the list along with Jody’s children Levi and April, and Foxie’s son David. These remaining research chimpanzees deserve the kind of life that the Cle Elum Seven have—one with friends, laughter, sunshine, good food, giant nests, fun enrichment, and perhaps most importantly—choices.

Negra's daughter, Heidi
Negra’s daughter, Heidi

 

Missy before and after

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I sometimes think it is really interesting to look back at the photos of the chimps’ first few days in sanctuary. It’s shocking how much they have changed. Here is a picture of Missy in June 2008:

web missy sit on pr floor 100_0108

And here is one from earlier this month:

web Missy guitar ukelele gift bags presents birthday party playroom PR IMG_1732

Chimps and snow and decisions

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Even though the chimps have had access to it, it’s been too cold and windy to spend much time out on Young’s Hill lately. But they definitely love having the option! I love that even though we put snow in the playroom and greenhouse almost daily, the chimps sometimes see it as worth it to brave the cold to enjoy a snack on the hill. The other day, the large tub in the greenhouse was filled with snow so that the chimps didn’t have to go out to get it if they didn’t want to, but that didn’t keep everyone inside!

Annie on the hill:
web crop Annie sit under platform YH snow IMG_2388

Missy:
web crop Missy eat snow log bridge YH IMG_2375

But I guess Foxie and Jamie saw it as more appealing to keep their feet dry and enjoy their snack in the greenhouse.

Foxie in the greenhouse:
web Foxie eat snow GH IMG_2405

Jamie:
web Jamie eat snow GH IMG_2392

I have a plan

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I have a plan. As mentioned a few times lately, Jamie can at times be challenging to enrich. She is always keeping us guessing and we are continually trying to find new ways to keep her occupied. Sometimes she will request something by stomping and pointing her finger (but not always directed at something specific). At those times us caregivers go through a list of popular enrichment activities to try and guess what Jamie wants. Sometimes she is satisfied with a new boot, a pen and paper, or a scarf. Sometimes we simply can’t figure out what it is she wants, and I always feel bad that I haven’t been able to satisfy her.

I’ve been talking to the other staff lately about having some sort of board or display with pictures of all of Jamie’s favorite items, and when she starts to request something, we present the board to her and she can point to the item she wants. It is completely possible that this idea won’t really work, but I think it is worth a shot.

So, today on my way to the sanctuary I began to brainstorm how I was going to construct this board. Maybe I would print pictures of all the items and use velcro to stick them to the board (so we could rotate what choices we can offer her based on what we have at the time). And then I thought—if we could have an album of pictures on an iPad, she could point to whatever item she wants and it would be super easy to change up the photos. Not to mention, iPads are just enriching in general. The chimps like to watch videos on the iPad, and they also think seeing themselves in the app “Photobooth” is pretty cool.

Awhile ago, we asked if people would be willing to donate their old iPad if they are planning on upgrading to a new one. Check out that blog post where Jackie describes our plan for creating a chimp-resistant case so it would be able to withstand repeated use by the chimps. We’d also be able to use it at tabling events to show people videos of the chimps, so there’s other things we could do with an iPad. Most importantly though, I think it would be excellent enrichment! Help me help Jamie (and Annie, Burrito, Foxie, Jody, Missy, and Negra, too!)

Here is a video of Jamie enjoying a couple different apps on our personal devices—first a piano app on my iPhone, and secondly a drawing app on Jackie’s iPad. Foxie came down to join when I started to play a game of “Angry Birds” on my iPhone. I think she liked the goofy sounds.