Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Archives for April 2020

Happy Birthday, Therese!

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Today was sponsored by wonderful Therese Souers in celebration of her birthday!

“I am turning 65 on April 15th. In this time of social distancing, the chimps continue to bring me joy through the blog. I would like sponsor the chimps as a birthday present to myself.”

Happy Birthday, Therese! We just thank you so much for all you do to bring good and love to the chimpanzees. Your heart in sharing their lives with your students is inspiring and so important for our future generations’ desire to value and protect our fellow animals. We hope your day is a happy, uplifting day and are so glad to get to celebrate with you! These chimps, I think their joy and sheer beingness is carrying us all through these days, at least a little.

Beloved Jamie:

Good friends, Jamie and Foxie:

The charming Willy B:

Noisy Neighbors and Sock Puppets

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It’s a beautiful day here at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. The sun is out, there is a light breeze, and the chimpanzees are spending their time with each other both inside and outside.

When they were given access to Young’s Hill, Missy raced outside with Annie close on her metaphorical tail.

Jody was actually the first one out on Young’s Hill today, and also the first one back. What she really wanted was to spy on her neighbors. Once she realized her neighbors were not in the Chute at that moment, she headed back inside.

With Missy coming in right behind her.

Burrito, on the other hand, knows that he can just wait by the window for his neighbors to make an appearance without having to go outside to check.

And when their neighbors do make an appearance, be prepared for a lot of hooting and hollering.

Jody and Foxie caught a glimpse of Willy B as he made his way into the Chute and immediately began hooting.

Though Willy B, Mave, and Honey B spent a considerable amount of time in the Chute today, they also spent a lot of time keeping busy indoors, as well.

Mave decided she wanted to make a sock puppet.

She was actually pretty happy and satisfied with her sock puppet.

Willy B spent a lot of time napping and requesting his caregivers to play chase with him. When we wasn’t doing that, he made sure his neighbors knew of his presence by displaying in the Mezzanine.

It usually starts out with him dragging his yellow bucket around to make as much noise as possible as a buildup, before it crescendos into a scream and him boxing himself in the mirror.

When the mirror wasn’t used for Willy B’s shadowing boxing practice, Honey B used it to look at herself and her caregivers through the reflection.

The after after party

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After the chimpanzees’ exciting day of Easter foraging on Young’s Hill, and Jamie’s late night of walking with her caregivers until nearly dark while simultaneously doing a solo after party forage, they’ve all been relatively restful today. It’s even warmer so most have been toasting themselves in the super warm greenhouse in between taking breaks in the playroom to cool off.

I have to wonder if our “Californian” three, Mave, Honey B, and Willy B, are thinking, “Finally! Some weather we can get behind!” They’ve spent much of the day in their outdoor chute, chatting with the rowdy neighbors through the windows, and enjoying the sun, which is even hotter on that side of the building. But even the Californians have been hunkering down in the shade.

William, in all his floofy gloriousness:

Jojo Rabbit

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Jody has three nicknames that we frequently use when referring to her. “Jo” is the simplest and most common, but “JoJo” is the fun equivalent.

Every time I hear someone say the nickname Jojo, I think of two things. The first association is a song by Blind Pilot (a Portland-based folk band) that tells the story of a homeless man named Jojo. The song is called “The Story I Heard” and has a catchy melody that loops in my head whenever I see Jody’s kind, sweet face. It fits her perfectly.

The second thing that comes to mind, of course, is the Oscar-winning film Jojo Rabbit. (If you haven’t seen it yet, what are you waiting for?) Jody, with her gentle demeanor and love of all things that grow, would make a very fine rabbit. In fact, Jody’s appropriate third nickname is “Farmer Jo” because of how eagerly she harvests food from the chimps’ outdoor habitat. Chimps are not strictly vegetarian by any means, but Jody would be quite happy if all we ever gave her were heaps of green vegetables to munch on.

That brings us to today’s holiday celebration: a feast and forage to celebrate Easter Sunday and the arrival of spring.

The day (which was lovingly sponsored by two amazing and generous supporters) began with the usual breakfast chaos and subsequent socialization. As Diana mentioned in yesterday’s blog, Foxie and Jody were just reunited with the group after receiving some medical attention and are getting back to their normal routines. Meanwhile, Jamie is dealing with a draining abscess but is otherwise acting like her usual self. She seemed to feel a bit better after Missy (“Dr. Missy”) gave her backside some much-needed grooming. After her appointment with Jamie, Missy proceeded to engage Burrito in a playful session of wrestling. Jamie “payed it forward” by giving Jody some T.L.C.

Jamie allows Missy (not shown) to groom her backside
Missy (right) plays with Burrito (left)
Jamie (right) and Jody (left) groom each other

Meanwhile, CSNW co-directors J.B. and Diana spent some time planting this past holiday season’s evergreen trees. They were previously kept in pots after being featured in the Christmas Day celebration and are now taking root amid the bamboo on Young’s Hill. Maybe they’ll survive, and perhaps even grow, if Farmer Jo doesn’t prune off too many of their branches.

Back in the Greenhouse, the chimps could see us scattering food in their outdoor enclosure and got really excited.

Negra (below) excitedly greets Annie (above)

Once all of the caregivers, vehicles and tools were safely out of the enclosure, we were finally able to let the chimpanzees go out and forage for their Easter lunch. Negra led the charge out of the Greenhouse and up the hillside, followed by her six companions. The chimps were ecstatic to find caches of carrots, beets, watermelon slices, chow biscuits, and brand new troll dolls.

Missy (front left), Jamie (right) and Negra (rear left) search for food on the hill
Burrito eats watermelon in the cabin as Jamie approaches
Annie surveys the landscape for more food
Missy tries to out-compete the others (and successfully evades the camera’s auto-focus) by using the firehose vines to get around
Annie climbs to the top of “The Escher” to find the cache of food on top

Chimpanzees have a strong sense of fairness and, without interfering with their social hierarchy, we make sure there is enough food to go around at each meal. Even so, each celebratory forage usually has one chimp who “wins” by collecting the largest amount of the most prized item. As you all may have guessed by now, Jojo Rabbit won today’s Easter forage.

Jody carries her prized carrots as Burrito trails behind

Farmer Jo decided immediately that carrots were the most valuable of all the foods. She sprinted past her companions and began filling her arms with the enormous orange carrots as if she was scooping up rolls of toilet paper at Fred Meyer. Before the others could even figure out what was hidden out there, Jody was making her way back to the Greenhouse with an armful of crunchy loot. The other chimps each found a carrot or two, but Jody had a whole bushel.

Jojo munches on a carrot and gazes out at the other chimps

It’s hard to believe that Jody was the star of the show today after she just had a toe amputated last week. If my description doesn’t quite do it for you and you would prefer to watch today’s Easter forage for yourself, J.B. spontaneously streamed it live on our Facebook page so that all of our supporters could share the experience with us and the chimps. I highly recommend checking it out!

You may also be wondering how things went on the other side of the building. Mave, Willy B and Honey B had an exciting morning. For a short period of time, we opened the chute to their section of Young’s Hill so that they could have the opportunity to go outside. Per usual, they cautiously inspected their outdoor enclosure from the relative safety of the chute, although Honey B did roll a tire down the ramp and out onto the grass. She has developed a weird habit of noisily throwing large enrichment items through doorways, but that’s a story for another day…

Once the chute was closed back up, the three chimps enjoyed a hearty lunch and delicious dinner coupled with quick sessions of positive reinforcement training that allowed caregiver Chad to record their temperatures. It also marked the first time that they appeared interested in eating hard-boiled eggs (collected from locally-raised chickens, of course). Honey B and Willy B are now Easter eggs fanatics, although Mave doesn’t buy into the hype just yet.

Mave presents her forehead so Chad can take her temperature
Honey B devours a hard-boiled Easter egg

Jody may have won the day, but Jamie won the evening. It’s currently after 8pm and Jamie just finished scouring Young’s Hill for the remaining produce. Just a half hour ago, she found a whole beet that was still hidden in the foliage. She finally allowed us to close the door and is settling in for a good night’s sleep, so I’m closing up the Chimp House and heading home.

Jamie searches for food on the hill

Whether you celebrated today’s holiday or not, we hope that you had a great day. Stay healthy, everyone!

For all the beautiful chimps!

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Tami Roy brings us our second sponsorship of a day of sanctuary not only “for all the beautiful chimps”, but as the way she chose to celebrate her birthday!

This is so kind of you, Tami, thank you so much for adding to the chimpanzees’ lives by including them in your day. All of us here at CSNW hope your birthday is filled with whatever magic lifts your heart and brings joy to your life! Happy Birthday!!

I thought it would be fun to celebrate with some joy-filled, spring photos from Easter Sundays past as Easter Sunday present gets underway:

Jamie:

Foxie and Annie:

Farmer Jo:

Burrito whispering sweet nothings to his carrot haul:

Annie:

Missy:

Negra:

This will be the first Easter celebration for Honey B, Mave and Willy B since arriving to the sanctuary:

Honey B and Mave:

Willy B:

For two happy primates

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We get to begin this day with the gifts of two days of sanctuary for the chimpanzees! The first sponsorship of the day is from Lisa and Marcus Andrews, in celebration of the date “two happy primates met.”

Lisa and Marcus, thanks so much for choosing to celebrate a couple of human primates while making the lives of ten chimpanzees better! We all hope your day is a really wonderful one!

Thinking of primates meeting one another, this brings to mind how we are so honored and happy to have met Mave, Willy B and Honey B and to have welcomed them to our chimpanzee family last year. These three chimpanzee people continue to delight and amaze us with each passing day that we get the privilege to know them more and more.

Mave and Willy B:

Honey B and Mave:

Honey B and Willy B:

Honey B and Mave:

Routines

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I know you are not here to get yet-another take on the current state of the strange and unprecedented (most over-used word for 2020?) times we are living in or to add to your own personal stress.

Just like so many other people, this pandemic can be rather all-consuming for me too.

Every day, I do recognize that I’m so lucky to have a job. And not just a job, but a job where most of those I interact with (the non-humans) are not consumed by daily death tolls or endless graphs showing morbid peaks.

This week, however, the chimpanzee sanctuary has faced additional stresses. Foxie has been lethargic and hasn’t been eating as much as she normally does and Jamie had a recurrence of an old abscess (I won’t go into details right now, but you can read a bit about it here). All the while we are still closely monitoring Jody’s healing foot. Needless to say, we’ve been constantly in contact with Dr. Erin and consumed with taking temperatures and comparing notes about every possible symptom we see.

Before moving on, I will reassure you that all three of them are doing fine today!

Jody’s foot is looking good and I can hear her ripping up blankets for her nest right now. Foxie is still tired but was quite active today and seems to be catching on that we will sneak her any food she wants – Kelsi just gave her a banana well after dining hours were over. Jamie’s abscess is draining and she is feeling well enough to keep me late to join her on walks around the hill.

Here’s a photo I just took on our walk before sitting down to write this:

I have taken dozens and dozens of photos that look exactly like the one above and I could have taken hundreds over the years. Jamie is keen on rituals that she herself invents.

They say that maintaining rituals and routines helps to cope with uncertainty and stress. I’m personally not great at following that sage wisdom for myself and have found myself unraveling some this week. My own poor coping skills aside, we do have a lot of routines and rituals here at the sanctuary that I enjoy.

Anthony’s post How To Speak CSNW explained a few of them, like “going on a walk” (as above) and the serving of “night bags” to the chimpanzees at the end of the day.

Night bags are a routine that all of the chimpanzees appreciate, and I managed to get a few photos of the chimps enjoying their night bags tonight while I was spot-cleaning the playroom.

Here’s a close up of Missy’s hand where you can see the current night bag mix spilled out on the windowsill so she can pick through it and eat her favorite bits first.

This one shows Jody in the background in “phase one” of eating her night bag:

And here’s Jody’s “phase 2” – sprawled out on her stomach with the night bag between her arms:

Burrito got his bag and ripped it open to pick through with his lips:

Foxie enjoyed hers lying down on the upper deck of the platform:

Jody left her bag and Burrito quickly went to check out what he could scavenge:

Then it was Foxie and Jamie’s turn to see if any of those shells contained an overlooked seed:

With the nightly ritual of the night bags over, and me finished with the spot-cleaning, most of the chimpanzees retired to the playroom to make their nests for the night. But Jamie’s routine does not include going to bed right after dinner…

We’ll see how late she stays up, with me in tow, feeling thankful that she is allowing me to join in her disruptive routine.