Look who managed to bring in the biggest haul from the lunch forage today! Cabbage, celery, carrots, and green beans never looked so good.
Archives for September 2013
Shirt for you, $8 for the chimps!
Help us raise more money for your chimpanzee friends! This week FLOAT (For Love of All Things) has created a special “Hope. Love. Home.” design just for Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. They’ve raised $576 so far for the chimps, and there’s only 1 day, 22 hours, 20 min left to buy t-shirts and hoodies with that design or other apparel with select FLOAT designs.
Please help out by making your own purchase and letting your friends know asap by sharing the site. Anything you buy from the Float.org site before Sunday night will give $8 to the sanctuary. Thanks to everyone who has already bought their cool new duds!
One track mind
Burrito is known for is love of food, but there is one thing that has an even greater power to capture his attention…
Girls.
Specifically, tumescent girls.
Female chimpanzees have a menstrual cycle that is very similar to humans, but with one important difference: they advertise their fertility. Throughout their 36-day cycle, changes in hormone levels cause visible changes in the skin of the anogenital region. As they approach ovulation, this area swells and the skin becomes taut and pink, a condition known as tumescence. Male chimpanzees find this very attractive and the tumescent females find themselves at the center of a lot of male attention.
The females’ swellings have great power over the males, like an invisible tractor beam pulling them along. During the lunch forage today, Burrito got so distracted that he barely picked up any food.
Normally, males would mate more often with the tumescent females. But Burrito doesn’t exhibit normal mating behavior. And sadly, this isn’t all that uncommon in captive chimpanzees.
Many chimpanzees born in laboratories are taken from their mothers shortly after birth, either because their mothers aren’t taking proper care of them (they themselves were probably stolen from their mothers), because hand-reared chimpanzees are seen as easier to manage, or because the labs intend on breeding the mother again shortly (the normal birth interval for chimpanzees is about 5 years, but if the baby is taken away the mother will enter into estrus again within months). Laboratory born chimpanzees are also denied the opportunity to grow up in a traditional social setting, where they would learn from family members, other adults in the community, and their peers.
The result of this unnatural upbringing is a chimpanzee that is culturally adrift and frequently frustrated. Not only do chimpanzees like this lack a knowledge of societal customs and traditions, but even basic biological functions are left undeveloped without opportunities for social learning.
Maybe Burrito doesn’t know what he doesn’t know. He finds other ways to deal with his urges, and life goes on. But it is a daily reminder that so much was stolen from these chimpanzees that they can never recover.
Thank you, Michael!
Today was sponsored by Michael Lee who wishes for the chimpanzees “to have a stress free day, everyday, to do whatever they desire….even something naughty!” Michael further shared his gratitude for “all those who go out of their way to save the chimps and give them back a life they deserve, who will continue to look out for them and provide for their needs. I wish you all to have good health, and may you continue to be blessed with the joy of knowing that all your effort has not gone unappreciated. On behalf of all the chimps….Thank You.”
Michael, this is so kind and thoughtful of you. And as if that weren’t enough, I would also like to note that today is Michael’s birthday! I cannot think of a more generous thing to do than to honor others on one’s own birthday. Thank you so much, Michael, and have a wonderful day!
The Last Days of Summer
We are having a last burst of summer at the sanctuary this week with temperatures back in the 90’s. The flies and wasps are endlessly buzzing and the chimps and humans are all endlessly swatting. The chimp house is completely quiet as I type this. Negra is sound asleep in her window nest. Jamie is in her nest flipping through two new boot catalogs I gave her and filing her nails with an emery board. She is also making the occasional happy groan when she sees something she likes. (For those of you who are new to our blog, Jamie was raised in a human home by a trainer until the age of 9 and sometimes chooses to engage in more human oriented activities). Burrito, Foxie, Jody, and Annie are lying in the greenhouse with their feet propped up on the caging, arms splayed out to their sides. And Missy, always on the move Missy, just raced me through the chimp house to the window by the chimpanzees’ cherry tomato bush and asked me to pick some for her, and I of course was happy to oblige.
Autumn is definitely in the air these days although you wouldn’t know it right now. It’s hard to believe we will all be talking about cold temperatures and snow before long. But for now we can revel in the last lazy days of summer. We hope you are all enjoying the special days that only summertime brings as much as the chimpanzees. Here are a few photos of some of the chimpanzees during a forage on Young’s Hill this week:
Annie:
Missy:
Foxie and Dora:
Burrito:
Happy Birthday, Shannon!
Today was sponsored by Janet Henry in honor of her daughter, Shannon Noble’s, birthday! It’s Janet’s wish to celebrate Shannon and her love and compassion for not only the chimpanzees, but for all animals. Janet, what a lovely way to honor your daughter. Thank you both so much for caring about the chimpanzees and including them in your special day. Shannon, on behalf of the chimpanzees, we hope your day is full of pant hoots and food grunts! Happy Birthday!!
A Growing Confidence
Negra’s favorite spot is typically her nest which she builds every day up on the catwalk in the playroom. This is a narrow walkway around the upstairs perimeter of the playroom. Negra builds a big, fluffy nest next to the window that overlooks the neighboring fields and valley. From this vantage point she also can easily see the comings and going from the kitchen to the chimp area and I always look up and greet her as I pass by. Negra will often throw out her arm toward us or nod her head in greeting and seems content to keep her interaction at that (unless you are dancing for her, but that’s another story). The other day I passed by and glanced up to greet Negra, but she wasn’t there. All of a sudden, she came running (well, running Negra style) across the playroom toward me and stuck her lips outside the caging to ask for a kiss. (We offer the back of our hands to the chimpanzees if they want to kiss or tickle us, but for safety never cross the caging).
Now sometimes Negra offers us kisses, but sometimes Negra also feigns offering kisses and pokes and threat barks at us instead. Yes, Negra. It can be hard to tell when Negra is happy. Just like us, sometimes she’s just grumpy and sometimes it understandably might be something more. Negra was captured in the wild, we believe in 1973, but possibly earlier, and then spent over three decades in biomedical research. She has also been part of a study of post-traumatic stress disorder in former laboratory chimpanzees. So in short, even though Negra sometimes initiates interactions with her caregivers, you never know what response you may get in return.
But on this occasion, much to my delight, Negra not only offered me several kisses, she also presented her back for a knuckle rub. Now this is even dicier territory. Negra is particularly sensitive to touch and sometimes it triggers reactions that appear to be PTSD related. And even though she asks for you to rub her back, she sometimes responds by screaming or threat barking at you as soon as you touch her. These incidents are truly heartbreaking. Especially when you think about what life traumas she has experienced to evoke these responses, and even more so when you feel responsible for having triggered them. So holding my breath, I very slowly and gently knuckle rubbed her back as I spoke to her. Not only did she remain calm, but continued to ask for more!
And so it went between Negra and I for several minutes. Negra asking for kisses, back rubs, and even head rubs. And then…….Negra reached out to tickle the back of my hand and LAUGHED! Complete with a play face and droopy lip! I will tell you right now I got tears in my eyes. Not because I was so honored to experience this rare moment with Negra (though of course, I was), but because it seemed to be one more step toward healing for her. One more step toward peace and her confident chimpanzee self.
