Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Archives for July 2014

Jamie playing

by

We’ve often described Jamie as a complicated chimpanzee. She seems to identify more with the humans than with being a chimpanzee, but at the same time, she’s very socially manipulative and runs the show around here. As the boss, there’s no doubt she always has a lot on her mind. Most of the time, Jamie is pretty serious about things, even when she’s playing with the humans. She will ask to groom our shoes or wrists, play chase, or walk around the hill—and we will usually get a head nod from her as acknowledgement that she’s happy about that moment, but rarely does she laugh when playing with humans. Foxie, however, seems to be the one individual who can really get Jamie to be silly. The other chimpanzees are occasionally able to get Jamie’s silly side out, but not as much as Foxie.

The other day I posted the first part of this video on our Instagram account—if you’re not following us there, you should be! Today I got Foxie and Jamie playing again and laughing pretty hard. It wasn’t long before Jamie caught me, the paparazzi, and shifted her attention away. She looked toward my boot so I played a little tickle game. You’ll be able to see her briefly head nod, but not laugh the way she does when she’s wrestling with Foxie.

I’ve always found it interesting that though Jamie is very human-oriented, she seems to really only let her guard down when playing with other chimpanzees. Jamie is certainly an interesting and complicated chimpanzee, but we love her all the more for it.

Guy time

by

For whatever reason, the chimpanzee caregiver field is largely dominated by women. All of the staff here at CSNW at one point or another were students, interns, and/or staff at the former Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute, where we all learned the ropes of chimpanzee husbandry. In my tenure there, I would estimate it was about a 5:1 ratio of women to men!

At CSNW, we’ve had a handful of men volunteer in the chimp house, and several more that have helped in other ways—groundskeeping and outdoor projects, fundraising, event help, etc. But up until recently, the only men that have been direct caregivers are co-director J.B. and our founder, Keith.

Well, Joel broke a new record in our sixth year of sanctuary and became the very first male volunteer caregiver. Though all the chimpanzees enjoy new friendships, Burrito is especially excited. As you can imagine, living with a group of girls and being taken care of by a group of girls makes guy time all the more valuable!

web_burrito_play_tug_caregiver_joel_barn_doors_pr_dm_IMG_0506

Don’t worry—J.B. and Keith are still Burrito’s pals, as well as all his female caregivers, too! One of the things we emphasize during our caregiver training is the importance of building a strong relationship based on trust, and we divide our time between all the chimpanzees to avoid fostering any “favorites.” But, just like humans, some personalities click differently and that is totally fine. Burrito seems to really click with his new buddy, which makes all the primates here pretty happy.

An icy smorgasbord

by

We are at the peak of a long heatwave here at the sanctuary with temperatures hovering in the triple digits for the past week. I found Negra enjoying a moment of peaceful solitude in the still cooler greenhouse early this morning:

web_negra_early_am_gh_kd_IMG_1794

But it doesn’t take long for the greenhouse to get too warm on days like this. Much like the humans, the chimpanzees find it too hot to do much of anything and have been spending a lot of their time in the cooler playroom. (Though Jamie still manages to power through her daily walks in the midday heat!). So we thought today should be an ice-filled enrichment day to help keep everyone hydrated and cool.

The chimpanzees love ice so we filled their wading pool, gardening table, wheelbarrow, and buckets with several bags full and then volunteer caregiver-in-training, Sandra, tossed in a few cherries, frozen raspberries from the chimps’ garden, and sunflower seeds to jazz up the forage. There were pant-hoots and food grunts galore.

Burrito was pretty overwhelmed at first and didn’t seem to know where to begin:

web_burrito_hold_table_ice_kd_IMG_1825

But he made good use of those fabulous prehensile lips of his:

web_burrito_trumpet_lips_eat_ice_kd_IMG_1833

Missy and Jody joined Burrito (though Jody was avoiding the paparazzi today):

web_missy_burrito_eat_ice_table_kd_IMG_1828

Missy LOVES ice and she didn’t leave this spot for some time:

web_missy_ice_table_pr_kd_IMG_1815

web_missy_eat_ice_table_kd_IMG_1816

Foxie made the rounds of the ice smorgasbord, taking mouthfuls from several locations:

web_foxie_over_ice_table_kd_

web_foxie_eat_ice_turtle_kd_IMG_1817

Then for the second frozen course, volunteer caregiver, Steph, showed up with frozen water bottles filled with strawberries and cucumbers! These were a huge hit and Foxie got right to work on these as well:

web_foxie_fruit_bottle_sp_

Annie enjoying hers in the greenhouse:

web_annie_water_bottle_sp_

Surprisingly, I wasn’t able to get any photos of Jamie, but she was beside herself with so much to do and at one point was seen drinking from one of many bottles she had collected and scrubbing the front rooms with a brush and bucket of water (at the same time, of course).

And while this is not a great photo I couldn’t resist sharing Negra, with perhaps the biggest mouthful of all!

web_negra_ice_dark_photo_IMG_1822

Bubble Fun

by

We’re in the middle of a heatwave in Cle Elum; temperatures have been reaching 100 degrees some afternoons. We’ve been filling the pool in the playroom with water each morning to help the chimpanzees stay cool. This morning I decided to add a tiny bit of soap, thinking Jamie might like to do some cleaning. But Foxie was the one who made a beeline for the pool. She couldn’t resist the bubbles.

web_Foxie_soap_bubbles_in_mouth_PR_ek_IMG_1771

web_Foxie_soap_bubbles_in_mouth_PR_ek_IMG_1767

web_Foxie_soap_bubbles_in_mouth_PR_ek_IMG_1766

web_Foxie_soap_bubbles_in_mouth_PR_ek_IMG_1787

web_Foxie_soap_bubbles_in_mouth_PR_ek_IMG_1792

web_Foxie_soap_bubbles_in_mouth_PR_ek_IMG_1791

Jamie’s in Love

by

When Jamie gets a new pair of boots, they become an object of obsession for awhile. She carries them everywhere, and if she’s separated from them, she grows anxious. She often incorporates favorite boots into her nests along with her blankets. This morning she took a nap in the front rooms and snuggled up with her most recent favorite pair.

web_Jamie_asleep_boot_FRas_ek_IMG_1640

James and the Giant Beet

by

Ok – the title of this post was maybe a bit of a stretch to reference James and the Giant Peach.

I do use the nickname James for Jamie, but, as you’ll see in the photos below, it wasn’t really a giant beet, plus one of the photos is of Missy’s hand, but still – pretty great photos of a pretty great chimpanzee REALLY enjoying the beets that volunteer Patti brought.

It is in the high 90s today, so most of the chimpanzees quickly foraged for their lunch on Young’s Hill and brought their haul into the cooler greenhouse to enjoy, though Jamie made multiple trips to make sure she had found all of the beets.

Jamie admiring beet

Jamie looking away eating beet

Jamie eating beet in profile

Jamie getting all she can out of a beet

 

Missy’s hand:

Missy hand holding beet

 

back to Jamie:

Jamie in doorway eating beet

Jamie enjoying beet

Jamie close up eating beet

Happy Birthday, Brian!

by

Today’s day of sanctuary was sponsored by Audrey and Jim Spencer in honor of Brian Osborne’s birthday! Brian has volunteered a lot of his time and hard work helping us out with projects around the sanctuary grounds, from the construction of Young’s Hill to when we really needed help cleaning up after the Taylor Bridge wildfire during the summer of 2012. We are so grateful for all he has done to help us improve the chimpanzees’ home.

Audrey and Jim, we are touched that you would choose to include the chimpanzees in Brian’s special day and really appreciate all that you do for them! Brian, all of us here at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest hope you have a great day! Thank you so much for all you do for us and may your kindness return to you tenfold! Happy Birthday!!

Burrito always knows how to celebrate:

web_burrito_relaxed_face_hold_streamer_play_cute_seahawks_party_GH_dg_MG_6014