After several days of beautiful sunshine, we’re having a gray and rainy afternoon today. Not surprisingly, the chimpanzees are staying warm and dry inside curled up with as many blankets as they can find. Jody has no complaints.
Archives for April 2014
you are amazing
There are a lot of non-profit organizations doing incredible work who have wonderful supporters, but, let’s just collectively acknowledge that Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest supporters are the best.
Without volunteers, donors, and people telling their friends about the sanctuary, we wouldn’t be able to provide a home for chimpanzees. YOU make the chimpanzees happy everyday.
I’m in the midst of preparing for the Hoot! Gala – mailing out tickets, thanking donors, uploading items to our preview site, and getting sponsor ads ready for the Hoot! Passport.
I’m thinking about all of the people who are supporting the event in all these ways, and at the same time I know that there are volunteers all over Seattle and beyond working late nights getting the booths ready, making silent auction boards, picking up donations, inviting their friends to be guests at their tables, and organizing event volunteers. I am blown away by the time, the dedication, the heart, and the money that people put into Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. Thank you all!
And speaking of time, dedication, heart, and money – go check out the Hoot! Gala preview site right now. I just uploaded a big batch of new items this afternoon, and have a few more to add in the next week.
Two that I’m excited about that are not yet on the preview site are a New Mexico getaway that includes a two-night stay at Hilton Santa Fe Historic Plaza and handmade, palm oil free soaps from the inspirational Brandon Wood of Make a Chimp Smile!
There are some really awesome Getaways (Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Leavenworth, and more); lots of Just for Fun items (a snowboard, an Owl Prowl adventure for 25, and your chance to photograph the chimpanzees with cool equipment and the expertise of professional photographers!), gift certificates to some of the best Restaurants in Seattle; Wine and wine tastings for you and your best friends; small batch distillery Liquor; Jewelry to die for (do people still say that?); and then there’s my favorite category (aside from Give a Hoot!) – Art.
Below are a few art items that are on the preview site. You can probably guess why I chose these. You really should check out all of the Hoot! items currently uploaded.
“Burrito Play” oil painting by Margaret H. Parkinson:
“Missy” graphite drawing by Nancy Lewis:
“Ms. Foxie” handcrafted artisan clay tile by Maggie Rascal Creations:
“Best Friends” photo transfer and acrylic paint on wood by Stephanie Perciful
“A Dream for Apes Mask #18” by Dominique Jacot
Now go get your tickets or make a Give a Hoot! donation!
How Apps for Apes helps conservation
In his first post, Rich Zimmerman introduced us to the plight of free-living orangutans in Indonesia. Here he tells us how his program, Orangutan Outreach, has helped with some of the issues orangutans face and how Apps for Apes helps raise awareness for those efforts.
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How has your work with Orangutan Outreach influenced conservation efforts in Indonesia?
Since its inception, Orangutan Outreach has been able to make a notable impact in the ongoing struggle to save the orangutans. Over the past few years we’ve been able to make substantial financial contributions to our strategic partners in the field, including Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS), IAR, Center for Orangutan Protection (COP) and SOCP. These funds go to rescuing, caring for, relocating, rehabilitating, and releasing individual orangutans back to the forest in Borneo and Sumatra. Working with our partners in the field, we’ve helped fund the rescue of individuals who, without our help, would otherwise have perished or been smuggled out of Indonesia by illegal animal traders. Our support has contributed immensely to the success of the BOS Nyaru Menteng orangutan releases. This release program is the first of its kind in history. BOS is literally re-creating a genetically stable population of orangutans in the wild and we are honored to be able to help them.
In addition to the work on the ground, Orangutan Outreach does a lot of online advocacy on behalf of the orangutans via our website, and our social media networks: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube. We’ve been able to bring people together from all over and create hubs of support among our fans and followers.
Rich helping to educate the public about the plight of orangutans. Photo © Orangutan Outreach.
Tell us a little bit about the Apps for Apes program and how this helps both captive and wild orangutans.
Apps for Apes was started a few years ago as a way to provide enrichment to orangutans in zoos and sanctuaries—and has now expanded to include chimpanzees! Apes are highly intelligent creatures who require mental stimulation to keep from growing bored and depressed. Every ape is a unique individual with his or her own particular likes and dislikes, and the quality of life of apes living in zoos and sanctuaries is highly dependent on the amount and type of enrichment they receive on a daily basis. With the Apps for Apes project, we are providing iPads to ape caregivers in order to provide them with unlimited enrichment opportunities. They have access to music, musical instruments, cognitive games, art, painting, drawing, photos and videos. I should also point out that we do not spend a penny on Apps for Apes. All iPads are donated. NatGeo gave us several dozen last year when they upgraded their field staff!
Apps for Apes has three goals: 1) to provide stimulating enrichment & immediate gratification for the apes using iPads, 2) to raise awareness among zoo visitors of the critical need to protect orangutans in the wild, and 3) to promote the conservation efforts of Orangutan Outreach. For Apps for Apes to be truly successful we need to achieve ALL the goals. It’s wonderful to provide something fun for a captive ape, but we want to take it further. We want the iPad enrichment sessions to become ‘teachable moments’. Whether via live caregiver talks or stories on the news, we have a golden opportunity to get people to think about orangutans—to see them as amazing, intelligent beings who are being brutally killed in the wild—and to help them! That’s our larger goal of Apps for Apes—for the apes in captivity to truly become ambassadors for their cousins in the wild.
Puppe and her son Budi at the Toronto Zoo with their keeper Matthew Berridge. Photos © Tom Pandi for Orangutan Outreach.
What can we do at home to help with conservation efforts?
People should try their best to avoid products that contain palm oil—and spread the word to all their friends. While boycotting all products that contain palm oil is not feasible, one can always make choices in what they buy. Consumers have power. By letting companies know you won’t buy products that contribute to the destruction of orangutan habitat you are making a powerful statement! Hopefully soon—but only with outside pressure from environmental groups—there will be products that only contain palm oil that is certifiably sustainable and that has not led to the deteriorating population of orangutans. Until then, use extreme caution when shopping, and read those labels!
A really fun way for people to get involved with orangutan conservation is by adopting an orangutan on our website. The adoptions are virtual—the orangutans stay at the care center (Believe me… people ask!). Adopting an orangutan is a great way for someone to follow along as their adoptee grows up. Donations are critical to keep the projects going, but spreading awareness is also key. People can’t act if they don’t know what’s happening far away in Borneo and Sumatra. We need people to share our website with their friends, join us on Facebook and spread the word. We have lots of online materials for young people to use in school. We cannot save the orangutans alone—only together can we make a difference!
CSNW was fortunate enough to be included in the Apps for Apes program and very much appreciate the iPad we received. Since then, we also got one from Shari H. so now the chimpanzees have two iPads! Now one person can keep Jamie occupied and someone else can play with the other chimps—perfect! Here’s a video of the chimps with their iPads:
Friends
Burrito can be a little intimidated by the other chimpanzees. Because of his social anxiety, he tends to play much more with his human friends than with his chimpanzee family, but he and Foxie have a special friendship (learn more about that here).
Social Complexity In Action
You may remember Diana’s post from last year about the interesting dynamic in the relationship between Jamie and Burrito. As it happens, Missy and Negra have a complicated relationship as well. When it comes to food, Negra is definitely more dominant and Missy will generally let her have whatever she wants, even if it is reluctantly. You might think that this dynamic would affect their friendship, but it doesn’t seem to, at least not in an obvious way. Missy doesn’t appear to hold a grudge against Negra for pulling rank and is just as happy to play with her as with her friend Annie when the opportunity arises.
It is interesting to note that a similar dynamic exists between Annie and Missy but in this case it is Annie that gives up her food at Missy’s request. So, I imagine it’s not just Missy and Negra or Jamie and Burrito that are complicated. Overall chimpanzee social relationships appear to develop much more complexity than a simple dominance hierarchy suggests.
Here is Negra taking one of Missy’s chow bags:
New boots
Laura Herzog, who donated this oil painting for the upcoming Hoot! auction, also sent some boots over to Jamie. I got some pictures of her looking pretty content in a nest this morning with her new boots.
When the wind blows
The chimps at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest have over 85,000 square feet of living space. Most of it is outdoors, on a hillside overlooking Cle Elum and the Yakima River.
But the chimps don’t want to be outside all the time – like today, for example. It’s warm outside and the sun is shining, but the wind will almost knock you off your feet. So they have choices. Sometimes they hang out in the playroom.
Other times they seek out some privacy in one of the four smaller “front rooms.”
But the best spot on a day like today seems to be the greenhouse – all the sun and warmth but without the wind.
Of course, nothing short of a hurricane could stop Jamie from her walks around the hill.