Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Archives for September 2019

Beautiful Jamie

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The seven chimpanzees are pretty busy these days trying to keep up with/spy on/display toward/get excited over the happenings of the new neighbors. And when nothing much seems to be happening with the new neighbors, the seven are quick to stir the pot, if you will, anxious for responses from Mave, Honey B and Willy B. They haven’t been as interested in spending their usual amount of time with the humans or other typical activities.

Lately, Jamie has even been forgetting to collect her boots from the chute at night! So when I saw her sitting in the front rooms in an as of late, rare, quiet moment I had to scurry down the hall with the camera. (I am laughing and shaking my head as I type this because while everyone else is in bed for the night, Jamie is at this very second, repeatedly kicking the “howdy door” and hooting and screaming at the top of her lungs attempting to elicit a sign of life from her neighbors who are all quietly tucked into their nests for the evening and choosing to ignore their loud and unruly neighbor).

They are who they are. And we love them all the more for it.

Happy autumn everyone!

For Carrie and the chimps

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This magical day was sponsored by Sylvia Gandolfo in honor of Carrie Miller:

“Happy Autumnal Equinox to Carrie (Miller) and the chimps as the beauty of fall surrounds all of you.”

Many thanks to you, Sylvia and Carrie, for helping us celebrate this most wonderful time of year! Happy autumn hoots from your Pals, Burrito and Annie. 😉

Have a beautiful day!

Silly B:

Annie:

Change

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I don’t think a day goes by at the sanctuary right now without significant change of some sort. Learning behaviors and personalities from new chimpanzee friends, seeing new behaviors with long-time chimpanzee friends, new areas for chimpanzees and humans to access and former ones temporarily closed off, new procedures and protocols, new ideas, new volunteers and interns for autumn, scheduling changes, and even, well, things like one minute someone has their ear and the next, they don’t. Change, expected and unexpected, is always occurring, just on a more obvious level these days. And now, on this last official day of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, we seem to have moved straight ahead into autumn. (Though in my book, I’d be thrilled with nine months of autumn).

I think as humans, or at least as this human, we often expect, or at least prefer some things to remain the same, predictable. But even though we celebrate things such as the transitions of one season into the next, if we’ve been paying any attention at all we’ve seen all the tiny every day things that lead us ahead into the next phase of life. With breaths of fresh air, new inspiration, new beauty to appreciate, new beings to love.

The chimpanzees last day of summer was a cool, rainy one here. It worked out well enough as they were all busy supervising the many humans working hard to expand their outdoor habitats which will be bringing new experiences to them in the days to come. Along with hopeful new friends and family when we soon begin introductions. Always changing, always growing.

The evening air is filled with the slowing song of crickets and frogs while the dark of night is increasingly alive with geese calling as they pass overhead on their way south. The chimps are all tucked into their blanket nests for the night, I suspect milling over their own thoughts and anticipation of change. May your hearts be as full from the beauty and bounty of summer as you’ve helped the chimpanzees’ to be, as you listen to the last sighs of summer rustle the changing leaves of autumn.

I had these photos of beautiful Foxie saved to share with you, which just happen to be pre-ear biting incident.  She’s still just as beautiful. 🙂

In memory of Ronald & Betty Kreuscher

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Today was sponsored by Ronalyn Huenergard who shared this note about her gift of sanctuary:

“Just to remember my parents and hope they know their kids and their kids are just fine.”

Thank you, Ronalyn, for remembering your parents with such compassion and thoughtfulness. We appreciate your gift and the difference it makes for all who call the sanctuary home. May you and your family have a day filled with comfort, love and joy.

Mave:

Foxie:

Jody:

Negra:

Getting to Know You

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Honey B, Willy B, and Mave have officially completed their 30-day quarantine period, but we’re still waiting on results from a fecal exam before we move on to introductions. As we wait, we are carefully observing the interactions between the two groups for cues to help us develop our introduction strategy. Jamie and Burrito will likely present the greatest challenge because of their backgrounds as pets and performers – chimps raised in human environments are often at a disadvantage when it comes to navigating complex social situations. And Foxie, while socially adept, has been slightly more reactive than we expected (this is a nice way of saying that she screams a lot). Our instincts, along with tons of data from our friend and former intern Jake, told us that Jody, Missy, and Annie would be a strong subgroup to welcome the new folks to the neighborhood, and today’s interaction seemed to back that up.

We hope that these ten chimps will be compatible but we are realistic about what lies ahead. Even if a full group formation is unsuccessful, it will be an absolute joy to watch some of the Cle Elum Seven meet new friends after all these years. Just look at the excitement and anticipation in Jody’s eyes.

The other side of things

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As caregivers, we all love to write and talk about the best aspects of chimpanzees. We celebrate each chimpanzee that we know as an individual and of course cannot help but compare them to ourselves. Like humans, chimpanzees form deep friendships, they play and laugh, grieve their lost love ones and generally display the same wide range of emotions that we do. It’s no wonder that we all find them to be so deeply fascinating and relatable.

This brings me to today’s blog post, the other side of the chimpanzee “coin.” When we talk about both humans and chimpanzees, we cannot always separate out the good facets of our nature from the negative ones. The truth is, chimpanzees (like humans) fight. They have disagreements, hold grudges and can sometimes appear to be incredibly irrational to outside observers. They can also hurt each other (even those that they are incredibly close to). When we watch the chimpanzees fight and argue, we see them express themselves in the most intense and dramatic ways possible. They scream and they hit, they bite and they kick. Despite the perceived drama, most arguments at the sanctuary do not end with an injury. But sometimes they do. Yesterday, good friends Burrito and Foxie got into a fight. While the conflict was resolved relatively quickly, Foxie lost a large part of cartilage from her left ear. Luckily, the injury appears clean and she doesn’t seem to be particularly upset by the loss (chimps are TOUGH). Apart from some pain and swelling management (using oral medications), we shouldn’t need to do any medical intervention. As you might imagine, Foxie does look a little different now.

Here she is exploring Young’s Hill with her new troll doll this morning:

You may also have noticed that having missing portions of ears is not unique to Foxie. Negra and Burrito have also sustained similar injuries in the past. We have always known them to look this way:

Quick fights that end with injuries like these ones are also great reminders of why chimpanzees make terrible pets and why humans never go in the enclosures with the chimps. They’re also great reminders of how forgiving chimps can be. Yesterday, Diana spotted Foxie and Burrito grooming together probably 10 minutes after the fight was over.

“Forgiveness is the final form of love.”
― Reinhold Niebuhr