Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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Archives for December 2014

Keep away

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This morning, I caught Missy in a rare moment of stillness.

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But not for long. Suddenly, she stood up and began scratching vigorously with both hands.

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Chimpanzees display self-scratching behavior when they are physiologically aroused. It’s thought that the scratching may be a response to sensations in the skin resulting from autonomic processes like piloerection (hair standing on end). In other words, something excites you, you involuntarily get goosebumps, and in turn you feel like scratching your skin. Often this occurs during times of stress, like when a subordinate male sits next to a dominant male. But sometimes the arousal is positive, like when Missy wants to play.

After scratching, Missy ran over to Foxie, took one of her trolls, and ran away across the shaky bridge.

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Foxie doesn’t like to walk on anything that feels unstable, so the best she could do was to climb up to Missy’s level on the platform.

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Missy wanted to keep the game going, so she ran back to Foxie and sat on the end of a beam.

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And then, when Foxie wasn’t looking, she disappeared down the ladder.

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Missy ran over to the tunnel, tempting Foxie come rescue her troll.

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Foxie didn’t respond, so Missy climbed atop the grassy mound, teased Foxie one last time, then took off up the hill.

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That did the trick.

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Foxie used to get anxious when the other chimps took her trolls, but now she enjoys it. In fact, she doesn’t even try to get them back right away. Allowing her friends to hold onto her dolls while they play chase is Foxie’s way of keeping the play session going.

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Missy took that as a cue to make the game even harder. She climbed back up where the troll would be tantalizingly out of Foxie’s reach.

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Again, Foxie did her best to get close to Missy.

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But after a while, she’d had enough, so she placed her one remaining troll on her back and headed back towards the greenhouse, perhaps hoping that Missy (and her troll) would come along too.

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Only Missy wasn’t following the plan.

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Foxie went back, but Missy was now holding her troll on top of the termite mound – another object that she doesn’t like to climb on.

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This game wasn’t fun anymore.

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Foxie had to resort to the only sure fire way to get her troll back: whimpering.

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Missy, being a good friend and knowing that Foxie was upset, ran after her to return the doll.

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Outtakes

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Today Missy was combing her hair and I grabbed the camera and took a series of photos. They all turned out blurry and dark. Here are a few of the better ones:

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On a typical day, we take dozens of photos of the chimpanzees. The vast majority of these are deleted. Our photos have improved in quality by leaps and bounds over the last six years – partly due to better camera equipment and partly due to practice – but I would say that 90% of the photos we take on a given day are pretty bad. They’re blurry or the lighting is poor or someone’s eyes are closed. The chimps themselves often don’t help matters either. They love to spend their time high off the ground and in other places that we photographers just don’t have easy access to.

Negra’s favorite spot is in front of this window on the playroom catwalk. Because of the light coming in from the window, she is usually backlit. She is also typically covered up in a blanket. Not great photo conditions.

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This is the only line of sight to Jody’s preferred spot:

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The playroom loft is another favorite of the chimpanzees. Here’s Annie kicking back, well out of camera range.

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In the greenhouse, the chimps love to hang out on the highest platform. This photo of Jamie is a pretty good depiction of how much we can see of them when they’re up there:

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And certain folks rarely sit still long enough for us to get a clear photo:

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The ladies of mystery

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The ladies of mystery…Annie, Jody, and Missy. We always intend to share the lives of each of the chimpanzees equally on the blog. But some of the chimpanzees have different feelings about being the subject in front of the camera (just like we do) and we always want to respect that and never invade their personal space uninvited.

If you’ve been following the blog for awhile you’ve probably seen that Missy (often with Annie right behind her) is always on the go and rarely sits still long enough to photograph. And Jody, who loves to relax in luxurious nests, is often tucked away just out of sight of the humans, especially in the winter time. But then, all of this speaks to the beauty of their lives in sanctuary. They always have a choice.

So while today two of the ladies of mystery still remain a mystery, I was able to recently capture one of them, the beautiful Annie:

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From scrawny to brawny

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When the chimpanzees first arrived at CSNW six and a half years ago, they were frail, weak, almost sickly ghosts of themselves. Through the years we have seen their once physically and mentally deprived selves transform into thriving, healthy, and fit chimpanzees full of personality.

The other day Jamie was sitting on a step in one of the front rooms and it struck me how strong her thigh muscles have become from her daily perimeter walks. It’s really very impressive!

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She’s really come a long way. These photos from the first days in sanctuary really highlight her fragile, atrophied leg muscles.

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In this photo you can see not only how scrawny and skinny her legs look, but also how much she plucked her hair from her belly while in the lab, likely due to sheer boredom:

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Sanctuary has provided Jamie the opportunity to patrol her territory, stretch her legs, and keep her mind active. Her life now is full of so much enrichment—both for mental stimulation and physical activity—that she doesn’t get as bored as she used to.

Of course, captivity is not perfect and Jamie still does pluck her belly every now and then, perhaps because it became a habit but also possibly due to periods of boredom. No matter how great we make her environment, we can never recreate the life she and all captive chimpanzees should have had in the wild. But for Jamie, the next best thing is taking walks around Young’s Hill while her caregivers follow along on the other side of the fence—always with at least one of her favorite boots, of course!

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Rain, snow or shine

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I’m often asked if the chimpanzees go onto Young’s Hill when it is raining or snowing. The answer is yes, they still venture outside, although I think we can all agree, sunshine is probably preferred.

As I’m writing this, Jamie is on her fourth walk around the hill (it’s currently foggy and sprinkling). And she wasn’t the only one to venture outside. Burrito, Missy, Jody and Annie joined her on the hill for a little while after lunch despite the fog and rain.

Sometimes the chimps go out to gather a “snowy treat,” as you will see in the some of the following photos.

It seems that no matter what the weather brings the chimpanzees still choose to go outside.

Annie

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Burrito

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Jamie

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Missy

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Snuggling up with blankets: A retrospective

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This post may reflect what I would like to be doing on this cold and damp day…

In any case, below are some photos – some oldish and some newish – of the chimpanzees getting snuggly with blankets. We give out at least 60 blankets a day. Sixty is a somewhat arbitrary number, but it’s based on the amount that we can successfully get washed in a normal day with our current washer. We (and the chimps) like fleece blankets, because they are very comfy and the wash and dry fast and easy.

As you probably know, Negra is never far from a blanket, and she often has one draped over her head and/or shoulders:

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The photo above is on the holiday card available for purchase in our Zazzle merchandise store!

 

Negra blanket covering body

 

Missy sometimes “imitates” Negra’s blanket style, even nesting in Negra’s usual spots:

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Always the athlete/acrobat, however, Missy incorporates interesting moves when she is nesting. For the full nesting sequence the  photo below was taken from, see this post:

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Jamie also occasionally sports a blanket over her head when nesting:

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though she often chooses a sheet instead of a blanket for the job:

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Jody is known for her nest making (she also likes straw nests – see this video from 2009 as an example):

Jody nesting

I don’t think I’ve ever seen Jody with a blanket over her head, but she still looks darn cozy when she’s curled up in her blanket nest:

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Annie is also a nest builder, and can frequently be found gathering nesting material and moving it to another area:

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Once she’s made her nest to her liking, she always strikes me as very satisfied:

Annie nesting

 

Burrito and Foxie are not much into building nests. Though nesting has a strong instinctual component, it seems there is a period of learning involved. Both Burrito and Foxie do mostly what we call “phantom nesting.” Once in a while, Foxie will actively nest with blankets:

Foxie in nest

but more often than not, she has a more passive relationship with all of the blankets we give out:

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Burrito is also more on the passive side of the spectrum when it comes to nesting, though he does like to snuggle up, particularly when someone else has done the work of making the nest:

Burrito on blanket

 

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Let us not forget, blankets are not just for nesting, but can also be great props when playing too:

Burrito clutching blankets playing

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ghost play

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I hope this inspires you to get snuggled up in your own nest tonight, or maybe play a game of ghost with a friend?