Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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Archives for March 2016

The Luck o’ the Cle Elum Seven

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The Cle Elum Seven may not head to the pubs on St. Patrick’s Day, but they still know how to have a good time. We had a breakfast party in the greenhouse this morning with fruit smoothie in plastic shot glasses with lime garnishes, peanuts, and chow. The main event, though, was undoubtedly the whole green apples. The chimpanzees find whole fruit infinitely more exciting than the same amount of fruit cut into pieces. We put this morning’s apples inside socks and hung them around the greenhouse. The chimps were beside themselves. Here are a few highlights from the celebration.

Jamie went after the “apple socks” with a laser focus. She had some trouble carrying all her treasures, so she made good use of her opposable toes.

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Foxie with a lime wedge:

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and getting the last drops from a cup of smoothie:

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Negra held onto her apple for awhile before eating it:

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Burrito with an apple and searching for more:

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and enjoying smoothie:

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and more smoothie:

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Annie thought there must be food inside this big green plastic egg that volunteer Alex brought:

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Alas, there wasn’t.

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But she consoled herself with some smoothie.

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

A place in the sun

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It’s a beautiful bright blue sky kind of day at the sanctuary, but the wind is biting and cold. In between quick ventures onto Young’s Hill, the chimpanzees have each spent their day finding a variety of warm places in the sun to enjoy.

Annie running up the hill to check the tire swing for ice which she happily found and ran back to the greenhouse to enjoy – and that’s Foxie and Dora on the side:

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Jody has been making daily trips up the hill to check for the wild greens which haven’t started to come up yet. She did come back with what looked suspiciusly like a young bamboo shoot though.

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Here’s Foxie sporting a grimace in response to the cold wind as she quickly heads back inside with her Dora dolls:

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Back in the south facing window of the greenhouse, Foxie warms up with the sun on her face:

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Missy joins Foxie in the sunny spot:

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Burrito having an after lunch rest in the greenhouse:

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There are three levels in the greenhouse and with each one the heat increases significantly. The chimps often like to pile together at the very top where they can bake in the sun. Foxie and Dora are kicked back in the heat:

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Beautiful Missy decided to make a nest on the catwalk in the playroom in the south-facing windows:

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The chimpanzees weren’t the only ones looking for a warm spot in the sun today:

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I wasn’t able to capture any photos of the Queen and the Boss, but Negra has spent most of the day in “happy baby” pose in her nest, holding her feet and luxuriating in the glaring sun. And in between brisk walks, Jamie has also spent most of the day in a warm nest out of view. 🙂

Eat the best part first!

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Chimpanzees are very much “favorites comes first” kind of people. At Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, each chimpanzee has individual preferences in the types of food they like the most and they are eager to let you know about it. When they are served meals, they often request a different course to come before the one they are offered. Jamie will emphatically gesture for what she wants you to serve and Negra is infamous for her impatient love of night bags. Negra may even go as far as to avoid the rest of the evening meal entirely when she is too overcome with anticipation for the CSNW version of dessert, a small paper bag filled with nuts, seeds, and dried fruit. Caregivers will often hide the night bags until the very end so that the queen can focus on the produce part of dinner. After the excitement of the more desirable part of a meal dies down, many of the chimpanzees will revisit different parts of the meal they may have ignored before.

Today lunch consisted of green onions, baked squash, and beets (with the greens still attached). The squash, onions, and beet roots were quickly devoured, while the beet tops were cast aside. I entered the greenhouse just as lunch was finishing up to find Annie, Missy and Burrito playing cleanup crew and leisurely eating the leafy beet greens.

Annie:
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Missy:
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Burrito:
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Serving

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I’ve been wanting to write a blog post about serving food for a while now in response to a question I am frequently asked. How do we give food to the chimpanzees if we never enter the enclosures with them or stick our fingers into the enclosures? There are a few different options, including serving the food through the openings in the caging to each of the chimps and setting up forages for the chimps to gather the food themselves.

Serving entails serving food to the chimps’ hand or mouth (or sometimes foot). We make sure to cut foods to a size that will easily fit through the squares in the caging or we can drop food into food chutes (located in the Front Rooms). Things like celery, carrots and cucumbers are easy to hand to the chimps through the openings. Roasted vegetables are softer and we use small paper plates or serving trays that can be rolled up and passed through the openings. Liquids, such as fruit smoothies, (which are served at breakfast) are poured into cups and caregivers hold the cups up to the chimps’ outstretched lips. Serving allows us to know exactly how much each chimp is getting of each food. Check out this link to see examples of meals we serve throughout the day.

The following photos were all taken during the chimps’ dinner from the top of the Greenhouse when the panels were off this past summer. As you can see in the photos, some of the chimps prefer to hang, while others prefer to sit on the ground or utilize the plastic chairs or barrels.

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Foxie usually brings a friend with her to meals (hint, look at what is in her foot).
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Burrito eating his night bag.
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Annie
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Some of the chimps prefer to stay and eat all of their food where it is served, while others tend to gather their portions and go to a different area to eat them.

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Jamie prefers to open her night bag, pour out its contents and pick through the nuts, seeds, popcorn and dried fruit.
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Here’s a closeup of Jody eating her celery.
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Foraging allows the chimps to move around and gather the food themselves, which is what they would be doing in the wild. For forages, we cut the food into smaller pieces and scatter them throughout the various enclosures after we have cleaned (the chimps are locked out of the enclosure humans are in). Once we have locked up and done our safety checks, we give the chimps access to the enclosure and they gather the food themselves. Foraging gets the chimps moving (important for chimps in captivity) and gives the chimps choices over which foods they prefer to collect and eat first. Click on the link at the beginning of the paragraph for a great video of the chimps foraging on Young’s Hill.

Happy Birthday, Meg!

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Today’s day of sanctuary was sponsored by Seneca, Edan, & Gavin Konturas in honor of Meg Konturas for her birthday! They shared the following message about today:

“On her birthday, Meg wanted her gifts to be the chimpanzees’ gifts.”

This is so lovely! Seneca, Edan and Gavin, thank you so much for not only honoring Meg’s birthday wishes, but for giving the chimpanzees the gift of sanctuary!

And Meg, happiest of birthdays to you!! It is so kind of you to request that your gifts be to make the chimps’ lives better! What a compassionate way to celebrate life. We are honored to celebrate with you here today and happy birthday hoots from all of us, chimpanzee and human alike! And if you need any party ideas, the chimps just so happen to be Master Partiers…

Jamie:

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Burrito:

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Annie:

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Jamie:

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Jamie Chimpanzee

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Age: 38ish. Her exact birthday is unknown, but she was likely born in 1977. We celebrate her birthday on Halloween to celebrate her mischievous personality. Check out the following link to find out more about Jamie’s story prior to arriving at CSNW.

Nicknames: James. She is also referred to as “The Boss”

Favorite food: Pears

What she is known for: She’s known for being the leader, the one in charge (of the other chimps and us humans too!). She absolutely loves her cowboy/girl boots and doing perimeter patrols around her outdoor enclosure (sometimes walking until it’s dark). And she demands her human caregivers put on one or more boots and walk with her (humans walk on the outside of the fence, while she walks inside). She is an excellent tool user and loves using them for projects around the sanctuary.

Distinguishing physical characteristics: She is very muscular, has dark freckles on her face and her nipples are pink. Many caregivers (and blog readers) know her by her perfect posture and her distinctive strut, especially when she’s walking around Young’s Hill.

Personality: Where do I begin? It’s complicated; she’s complicated! I think Elizabeth did a great job of summarizing her contradicting personality characteristics. She’s extremely intelligent and serious, yet she has a playful side. And as much as she is demanding, bossy, stubborn, intense, mischievous and moody, she is also determined, passionate and uninhibited.

These are some of my favorite photos of Jamie taken last week (she didn’t want her photo taken today).
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Chimps and Dolls

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Chimpanzees are powerful, intelligent, adaptable, and sometimes aggressive wild animals. They do not belong in people’s homes as pets. They do not belong on training compounds used for television shows, music videos, movies and advertisements.

They belong in equatorial Africa where they live in large social groups, foraging and hunting their own food.

When that’s not possible, when where they belong has been taken away, and when they have been born into and grown up in captivity, a sanctuary is the best option for them. And sanctuary means taking the individual chimpanzees on their own terms and letting them find things they enjoy – things that may be very far from the image of the wild animals who they are.

For Foxie, that means dolls. It’s not that she is like a human child, or even that she’s using the dolls as substitute children (though maybe that’s part of it, given her history). Foxie has found something she likes, something that entertains and comforts her.

Foxie is still very much a powerful, intelligent, adaptable, and sometimes aggressive chimpanzee.

Foxie with red haired doll

 

And Jamie too. I can’t imagine too many things more silly than a troll scarf, but Jamie manages to wear a troll scarf while at the same time projecting the strong chimpanzee that she is.

Jamie wearing troll scarf