Foxie has her choice of play partners here at the sanctuary, from troll dolls to other chimpanzees to caregivers.
Archives for April 2014
Losing your head
As you might imagine, routine is very important for the chimpanzees, especially after spending decades in the uncertain environment of labs. We all feel a little better knowing what to expect from our environment and the other beings in it, especially when someone else might have certain control over a situation that we don’t. One example of the chimpanzees’ routine here at CSNW is how we invite them to move from one area to another so that we can clean their enclosures. After we clean the chimpanzees’ play room in the morning we scatter a treat for them to forage for when they are given access to the room again. The chimps know to expect this and as they see us nearing the end of cleaning they start getting excited and want to see what we’re are going to put out for them. This not only helps us encourage them to move to different areas, but also gives them something to look forward to as well as to encourage their natural foraging behavior. But it’s always the chimpanzees’ choice to leave an area or not and if someone wants to stay where they are, well then, we just wait it out until they are ready to leave the area.
Today we decided to give the chimps a special treat by putting out entire heads of lettuce. For whatever reason, the chimps get pretty excited over lettuce in general and of course, it’s extra exciting to be able to have a whole item to yourself as opposed to pieces (kind of like me and chocolate bars, for example).
Jamie, enjoying her lettuce and mildly tolerating the paparazzi:
Despite it being an exciting forage item, the chimpanzees were all generous with one another and at some point, choosing to share their spoils with each other. In this photo, Jody had just asked Jamie for permission to have this lettuce and you can see her glancing to the side where Jamie is sitting out of frame:
Unfortunately, the light wasn’t cooperating for pictures of Negra but I can tell you that she had so many heads of lettuce that she had to scoot across the floor on her bottom all the way back to her nest because her hands and feet were full! Here is Burrito cautiously reaching toward Negra’s stash which she kindly allowed him to do:
Foxie finds some blueberries:
Annie scooped up her lettuce and headed for the greenhouse. But her plan to avoid the crowd failed and she found herself the center of a lot of food peering. Foxie is in the background here:
Foxie and Jody were very persistent in their attempts to convince Annie to share. But Annie was equally persistent in keeping her lettuce for herself. Even if she had to enjoy it in a rather awkward position (you can see Jody waiting patiently behind her):
Annie was surrounded as Foxie continued to peer from above:
Annie eventually did share her last bites with Jody and Foxie. It was probably all the “peer” pressure (sorry, I couldn’t resist). I didn’t catch any photos of Missy because she was smartly cornered away in the top of the playroom, out of sight. But in the end, everyone was able to enjoy some lettuce, whether they found their own, covertly took it from someone else, or found a friend in an altruistic mood.
Eyes on Apes website
One of our missions at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest is to advocate for apes everywhere, which is why we developed the program Eyes on Apes. The idea is to have one centralized area for people to learn about issues that apes face both in captivity and in the wild, while providing tools for you to take action.
There’s a lot of great information on the pages for each of the issues (entertainment, pets, roadside zoos, biomedical research, and free-living issues in Africa and Asia).
One thing we just added were some pages on individual trainers in the entertainment industry. This is a really nice resource for people to have when you hear about a chimp in a commercial or movie and are curious what it is like for them with their trainers. Each page lists facts about the trainers, any relevant USDA citations, and links to our action alerts about productions these trainers were involved in.
Please share this site with your friends, and help raise awareness for apes everywhere! You can ask them to sign up for our Take Action list in order to get action alerts and help make a difference for apes everywhere.
Take a look through all the pages—there’s been some makeovers throughout the site, like this informational map showing the current vs. historical population of African apes:
And, since this was a little bit of a wordy post, I thought I’d throw in a picture of Negra from this morning’s breakfast forage on Young’s Hill:
Playfulness
The weather in Cle Elum today finally has me convinced (and it seems like the chimpanzees as well) that Spring and Summer just might possibly be considering staying. It’s difficult to say definitively but there certainly seems to be a positive correlation between sunshine and play behavior here at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. Plenty of playful chimpanzees in residence today!
In the video below you’ll see two kinds of play, chimpanzee to chimpanzee, and chimpanzee to caregiver. If you watch the video with the volume turned up you can hear a perfect example of caregivers engaging in chimpanzee behaviors during filming. This is just one of the ways in which our staff and volunteers help to facilitate a healthy and happy home for the chimpanzees. To learn more about caregivers engaging in chimpanzee behaviors read about it here!
Carried Away
On a typical day at the sanctuary, we put out around 60 blankets for the chimpanzees. They use the blankets to build large, soft nests.
Jody, in particular, loves her blankets. (Watch a video from a few years ago of Jody building a nest out of a million blankets here.) She loves her blankets so much that she often picks up her whole nest and carries it with her when she decides to move from one area to another. While the other chimps tend to abandon their nests when they leave the area and build a new one elsewhere, it seems Jody doesn’t want to risk being left blanketless.
Thank you, Anthony!
Today’s day of sanctuary was sponsored by Anthony Blasioli! Anthony, thank you so much for your long time support of the chimpanzees and for thinking of them and giving them a special day today!
Here, Anthony’s Pals, Burrito and Annie (with Negra in foreground), hug each other in reassurance on their first day on Young’s Hill. While this is an older photograph, it’s power to speak to the gift of sanctuary never lessens. Almost three years later, Burrito, increasingly courageous, walks the perimeter of Young’s Hill with Jamie. And Annie, increasingly comfortable in solitude, can often be found sitting at the very top of the hill on her own, enjoying spring grass (when she’s not chasing her best friend, Missy, of course). We are so grateful to Anthony, and everyone who makes sanctuary possible for the chimpanzees.
Interspecies Awkwardness
Last October we were paid a visit by an elk, who we’ve since been calling Ellie. Learn more about that visit in this blog post. When the chimpanzees saw Ellie last fall, their immediate reaction was to defend their territory.
Ellie has been hanging out at the neighbors’ ranch for a while now, though she’s free to come and go. The last couple of days she has been visiting the sanctuary.
While Jamie tried to chase her off a few times, you’ll see in the video below that she’s becoming more comfortable with Ellie and perhaps trying to figure out if there’s a way to expand their relationship. The result was a little awkward.
I was going to write about the strangeness of captivity vs. freedom, what’s wild and natural, and what happens when humans become part of the equation in the lives of animals, but I’ll leave all of that pondering up to you.
