One of the ongoing and typically lengthy discussions at our weekly staff meetings involves coming up with ways to encourage Honey B, Willy B, and Mave to go outside. Would a forage in the courtyard help motivate them or lead to frustration? Does the presence of staff reassure them or do we make them nervous? How can we modify the chute or the courtyard to put them more at ease? While we are willing to try anything and everything within reason, we also know from experience with the Seven that it often just takes time.
I’m excited to share that Willy B’s time may have arrived because this morning he took a few small steps outside.
During his first few attempts, he clung with one hand to the inside of the chute, leaning out as far as he could without losing his connection to something safe and familiar. Once back in the chute, he would psych himself up for another go while tapping his knuckles on the floor, all while keeping his eyes on the prize – a handful of grapes, scattered just outside the door. Eventually, when he had retrieved all of the grapes within reach, he released his grip on the caging and sat squarely outside of chute on the boardwalk. It was then that he stopped reaching for grapes altogether and just sat for a moment to look around. Over the course of about 30 minutes he did this again and again, until he decided that he’d had enough for one day and returned to the building. Sometimes we make progress in small steps.
You wouldn’t know it now, but many of the Cle Elum Seven were just as terrified to go onto Young’s Hill when they first had the chance. Missy and Jamie took to it almost immediately, but Annie, Burrito, Foxie, Jody, and Negra were extremely hesitant (click the links for blog posts we wrote at the time). It took time – in some cases months or years – and plenty of encouragement from friends for them to overcome their fears.
Here’s Jamie, back in 2011, throwing her arm around her pal Foxie to encourage her to walk further outside.
And here’s Foxie again, this time with a little extra motivation…
We hope that Willy B will step further and further outside each day. Who knows, maybe one day he can be the one to throw a reassuring arm around Mave or to lure Honey B through the grass by carrying her favorite scooter or fanny pack. And just as it was for the Seven, the once-terrifying great outdoors can finally start to feel like home.
Congrats Willy B! and thank you!!! I really needed some tears of joy!!!! I’m so happy for you and hoping your buddies will soon follow you! Brave boy!!! xoxoxox
I knew the weather would bring them out!
Thanks, JB! You can see him just fine. Were his groupies on the hill at the time, or did you avoid that distraction?
Also, would those be Neggie feet on the top photo? 😛
Hi Linda – We are alternating the groups’ time on the hill until we can proceed with construction and begin to divide and enlarge the hill into two separate 2-acre areas. Having said that, the groupies were in the Playroom windows watching, and predictably, Jamie would scream every time Willy B grabbed a grape.
Oh, and those are Jamie feet. The photo is from years ago, when Jamie and Missy had spotted a snake in the grass and Jamie was attempting to keep one foot and one hand in the air at all times.
Thanks, JB…lol, how dare he eat grapes!
For some reason, I thought they already had their own smaller section; I didn’t realize they were accessing the same rec area as the 7.
The layout has gotten confusing, I know. They do have their own section (the courtyard), in that it is separated by a fence from the rest of Young’s Hill and the Seven can’t access it. But it is only separated by a single fence and we require multiple fence lines between groups so for now they take turns. It’s all a patchwork attempt to maintain progress until the rest of the expansion can take place.
HIP, HIP, HOORAY !
This is very exciting news 🙂
Tears of joy for these small but very important steps! I look forward to the day when they will venture into their yard and run around performing their own patrols. Patience is a virtue and one day it will most certainly pay off. Thank you so much!
Yay for the brave Willy B!! You must have been so pleased to see this! You all do such a fabo job with them!! Love and hugs to you all…
This was timely! I am zooming with each of my third graders every week. As a motivator I share videos of the chimps at the end of our work sessions. The students LOVE it. We also have a weekly class zoom meeting where I share chimp videos. Today I was looking for a video of the chimps first time in the outdoors. I can show these?. Mrs. Souers’ class love the Cle Elum 10!
lol, wish I could show mine chimp videos! They just think I’m crazy! 🙂
Spectacular…. one bit at a time Willy B… we have all the patience needed to let you 3 explore as your comfort zone allows.
Way to go Willy B! Many thanks to the PI for the photo proof. But it’s your description J.B. that just might be better than a photo or video. (Thanks for including the old videos too) Hard for me to imagine the courage this took. I am so proud of Willy B. Small steps are big steps.
Courage indeed. The longest journey begins.
Oh how wonderful. The courage it must take to step into the unknown, and then just sit with it for a while. He’s an impressive guy. Thank you for sharing this moment.
I am sure you know that the 3 have spent years in cages, not being able to go out and walk in grass
or sun. Their situation with you is a totally, completely different experience from their past. As far as I am concerned,
they have gone “to heaven” and just need to realize it.
Heartwarming way to start my day. The description made it all so real. Loved the hanging onto the structure and reaching out as far as he could without leaving his feet from the safe floor. I look forward to hearing each day if he ventured out a few more inches from his safety spot.
Very interesting. Congratulations to Willy B. So brave. As you said it just takes
time as with any animal in unknown territory. Thank you.
Yes, beautiful way to start the day, especially in these difficult times. Thank you so much.
JB, sorry, another question…I remember you used to use go pros to capture footage of the 7 out on the hill….any chance you could sneak one of those into the caging at the end of the chute, to get a shot of their forst forages? Or is he too smart to let a camera get away from him?
Check out the blog later today 🙂
What were their living conditions at Wildlife Waystation? Were they in separate cages or housed together? Have they ever walked on grass and dirt before? Do you know if they’ve ever been in the open without anything over their heads? I remember at Save the Chimps they had to build an outside tunnel with a tarp above their heads because some of them were so used to being inside and having a ceiling. Maybe it’s not having a ceiling over their heads that makes them nervous. What about putting their favorite toys like a slinky or a cart on wheels outside for them. Maybe use temporary fencing just to give them a small boundary of the outside for them because all of that open space worries them a little.
Hi Candace! The three were living together as a group at the Waystation (and had been for a couple of years) in an area referred to as Q1. This was built many years ago to serve as a temporary quarantine area but ended up being permanent housing. It consisted of a series of cages (I’m guessing 15′ x 15′ x 10′ high) on concrete with a pole barn style roof overhead. A few of the cages had a connection to a roughly 8’x 8′ cage sitting outside of the covered area, also on concrete.
When the three lived at the lab (LEMSIP), they lived in horrifyingly small cages indoors, but because they were young they were also often brought home at night by employees so they had some exposure to the outdoors. Once they got to the Waystation, out understanding is that some continued to be taken out on walks, but of course that would have ended as they grew larger and stronger. So yes, they’ve been on grass before, but it has likely been about 20-25 years.
The courtyard is our version of giving them a temporary smaller space initially…it is probably about 50′ x 50′ and you can see all of the boundaries from one spot, which eliminates any worry about things you can’t see. The biggest challenge here vs. a place like Save the Chimps or Chimp Haven is that the chimps also have to learn about electric fencing, and that is certainly challenging at first (though once they’re used to it they have no anxiety about it again). Chimps usually want to stick to the edges of new things, where they can cling to something familiar like walls or caging, so asking them to go straight out and avoid the edges is a tall order at first. As you can see from yesterday, Willy B is making great progress and pretty soon I think he’ll be a good role model for Mave and Honey B too.
Hi I’m new here; will all the chimps eventually become one group or will these 2 groups always be separate? I saw some videos on Youtube of the groups meeting each other, but since then they have always been separate if I’m not mistaken. Why is that?
And thanks for everything that you guys do for these animals, you’re awesome <3
Hi David – We had hoped to integrate the two groups but our final attempt last fall ended in a conflict that left Burrito with serious injuries. He’s fine now but the severity and suddenness of the aggression (after a mostly peaceful week) made it clear to us that it was too risky to make any more attempts. So our focus now is one building out our facility so that we can take an additional group from the Wildlife Waystation (where Willy B, Honey B, and Mave came from) and assess what possibilities there are at that time for further integration. Ultimately, the three would benefit greatly from living in a larger group, so we won’t give up but instead wait until we have more flexibility.