I am feeling quite lucky today as I just got back from a beautiful family vacation last night! After being away for a little while, the humans at the sanctuary are always happy to be reunited with their chimpanzee friends, and the feeling is usually mutual. I was delighted to see that Central Washington has maintained its mild winter, so the chimps and I celebrated the morning with multiple walks around a snow-less Young’s Hill.
Ellie the neighborhood elk has been spending most of her winter away from the sanctuary, but now that the snow has gone, she made an appearance on the property this morning.
At one point, I saw each of the 7 chimpanzees get some fresh air, including Foxie accompanied by her Dora doll.
More walks are in order this afternoon, so I’ll just leave you with a bonus photo of this much smaller non-human primate we saw leaping through the trees of a Costa Rican national park.
Anna says
These are all good!
Anna says
Jamie’s boot book is a classic! We can definitely add it to the list!
Carla RenΓ© says
Hi, Anna,
Thanks for getting back with me on this.
Francoise answered a question I didn’t really ask, and that was about whether there would be enough interns and staff once more chimpanzees were added. Naturally, I assumed there would be enough to handle whatever tasks would be at hand.
But in actuality, my real questions haven’t yet been addressed, so I’ll endeavour to state them better here. π
I think I addressed the chimps that wouldn’t be able to move on pretty well with my Negra example. Even if it’s ten years from now, I just don’t see her as being a chimp that will be self-sufficient enough to begin to live as close to being wild as she can. I think there was just too much damage inflicted on her, sadly. But, I do hope I’m wrong. If not, then that means there will be more just like her that will be unable to fully overcome the damage done to them in their traumatic pasts. Which then means you guys may also have a building for special-needs chimpanzees, as compared to those who are healing and on their way to needing less and less human interaction, just like Missy. One of my questions was whether *that* was a goal of the sanctuary–to try and move them to that point.
I never thought or implied that you guys would be expanding to the size of Save the Chimps, and I just need to make sure that my posts weren’t going to be taken that way. Frankly, I hope you never get that big. But I think it’s good that they have been able to expand. It seems to work for the chimpanzees they do have.
Do you not think I had valid points in bringing up the way the sanctuary (and chimps) will change when others are added? It’s great that they’ll have new play and grooming partners, yes, but isn’t it more realistic to surmise that for those who are psychologically healthy enough, they’re going to be challenging Jamie’s position, and each other? They WILL be fighting! Y’all WILL have to bandage more bite wounds and have to administer more stitches! It’s a natural thing for these troops to be dynamic, isn’t it? At least that’s what I’m leaning in my classes. I’m more interested in learning how the sanctuary goal is going to incorporate those social group dynamics–when things aren’t so rosy, and chimps are beginning to act more like the wild chimps they have instincts to be, instead of the nice, playful chimps we see on the blog so often. My concern/questions weren’t about interns enough to play with Jamie and Burrito, but rather what happens once one of the new guys begins regularly challenging Jamie for dominance and every group dynamic that exists now will change and trickle down as a result of that challenge. I know Jeeb has told me before that he wants to be as hands-off as possible, but will that also include larger and larger family groups; groups that contain other Jamies who demand so much human attention? I SO hope so.
I don’t know what you mean by “chimp’s chimp”, so can’t address that.
Why do you think it would be unkind to wean Jamie off your attention? I’m not saying I disagree or agree with this, so see this as a devil’s advocate type of response. But I’m curious as to why moving her more toward learning how to be a true chimp would/could be a bad thing as opposed to continuing to give her the attention she demands now. If done in a responsible manner, how could that not be a good thing? I realise we’re getting into the heart of the ” are they better off wild” debate, and I realised through the course of this discourse that this was where the heart of my questions lay. But it would be like “teaching” her how to be a chimp, and to begin filling in those spots in her “education” or “existence” that doesn’t know how to be a chimp. Why wouldn’t that be a better thing and even more psychologically healthier for her? Isn’t it realistic to expect that other troop members that *are* mentally healthier than Jamie WILL begin teaching her these things, IF she allows it? She’s so intelligent that she’ll begin learning other ways from other troop members anyway, so why not begin moving her toward that point now, in the way you interact with her?
Finally, I guess by your comment “hopefully some day we can be seen as just simple waitstaff”, I can infer that it IS the goal of the sanctuary to move these chimpanzees to a place of psychological well-being by helping them be as wild as possible, which WAS one of the original questions I had. Please correct me if I’m interpreting that incorrectly. I hope I’m reading that right, because I agree with that idea as I’ve said. And maybe that’s what you meant with the “chimp’s chimp” comment–that they would become as wild and self-sufficient as possible without needing human attention for playing or grooming.
That’s my wish for every chimp in a sanctuary, but I’m intelligent enough to be realistic enough about the idea to know that not every chimp will be able to overcome their past. I mean, hells, humans aren’t able to do it, so why would we expect a chimp to be able to do it??
It’s my fervent wish and hope that with these new chimps, there will be some in the group that will be able to overcome their pasts enough to begin living wild, according to their natural instincts, and in turn, will help Jamie, others, and maybe even Negra begin to learn how to rely more on her troop-mates and not her humans.
But I don’t know if this is the goal of the sanctuary in general, which was my other question. π
Y’all are so cool to answer our questions in general and help us understand what you do, and I truly can’t thank you enough for that. π <3
Jackie says
Good to have you back Anna. I’m sure the chimps were happy to see you. I’m glad to see that Ellie has reappeared.
Tobin says
Oy! How could I have possibly overlooked “Jamieween 2017”?! A classic!