Burrito steals the attention of his caregivers while they are trying to clean. Meanwhile, Missy steals the spotlight while they’re trying to film.
Archives for June 2020
The Saga of Willy B, Part II
Last month Anthony wrote this detailed blog about the Saga of Willy B. It was a truly well written tale, packed full of suspense. As many things in real life, Willy B’s story lacked a proper happy ending. Well we don’t always get what we want in the world of chimpanzees, but this week we did get a little taste of that sweet satisfying closure.
An Xtratuf Book
Jamie loves books. She enjoys flipping through anything from larger bodied apes, to architecture, to a national geographic about mummies, a classic cowboy boot book, and her new favorite Xtratuf boot book. It has all of her favorite boots in one book! The book idea came about when Jamie’s love for Xtratuf boots happened. As many of you know, the chimps can’t have our cleaning boots because they are made of rubber, which they will sometimes eat. At night we always offer Jamie a pair, or two, or three of her favorite boots or a book before we lock up and leave for the night. Every night instead she would need to groom her favorite Xtratuf boots before bed. These grooming sessions could last anywhere from 25-40 minutes or forever in Jamie’s mind :). Some nights grooming was never enough. As a caregiver, you never want to leave until all the chimps are content. It can be very distressing to see someone like Jamie knowing she wants something she can’t have and then having to say sorry but know she is unhappy when you leave, even if you leave her with another favorite pair of boots she can have. I decided maybe if we made a book off something like, Shutterfly with everyone wearing their Xtratuf boots, maybe that would help her at night!
Well, what I didn’t know was how much she would love it. I knew she would like it, but if you read Katelyn’s blog on Monday, it was very apparent she approved of the book. And that the book evolved into her being able to communicate which boots she wanted right in that moment! On Saturday when I gave Jamie the book, I barely got to page two before she was pilo and running over gesturing for the book! Jamie took the book into the Playroom with a low groan of approval and quietly started flipped through the book. It felt like Jamie was saying, finally!
I only purchased one book because I had no idea how she would respond to it. Sometimes we humans get so excited to give the chimps something. We think “oh Jamie is going to love this” or “Jody is definitely going to use this” and then it’s a flop. Chimps are funny that way. While Anna and I were cleaning the other day we were thinking of different ideas like making a blanket with the boot pictures, or a pillow, or a new book with current and old volunteers shoes that she loved! Now, of course these could all be flops too, but you have to try to find out! If anyone would like to find out, I have put a Shutterfly gift card on the wish list so we can get another 2 or 4 copies of this book for Jamie. Or so we can make a new book for her!
Jamie nesting with the book.
Today I found her book with some pages bookmarked. This could be by chance. But, if we know Jamie she was probably folding those piece over to come back too.
This photo was taken pre-Xtratuf boot book! The other night Diana and I could not figure out what boots Jamie wanted to look at. So we brought her collection out. It turned out later she wanted completely different boots, but she had fun looking.
This book is now always an arms reach away from her.
Jamie up close grooming.
Don’t forget about The Queen’s Brunch. The online auction is going on now! I have been bidding on the Negra painting and keep getting out bid and I am currently in a bidding war for a beautiful Jody colored pencil drawing. Look out for me 😉 Please join us live on Facebook, June 13th for the brunch, it’s going to be so much fun. We hope to see you there!
Embracing Humanity
Working with chimpanzees leads most people to think A LOT about humans. It’s so easy to see us in them and them in us because they are our closest living relatives. We share most of our DNA with them.
Many of our physical characteristics are the same, like our hands.
We watch chimpanzees and are buoyed by the love, compassion, and empathy that they exhibit on a daily basis, and sometimes curiously confused by their interactions. I will give you one example from the other day.
On Saturday, we were bracing for a big storm. There were warnings of thunder, lightening, hail, massive rainstorms, and strong winds. The storm didn’t turn out to be as dramatic in Cle Elum as elsewhere, but the sky started to look very ominous right around the chimps’ dinnertime. Kelsi went to serve dinner to the group of seven chimpanzees while I tried to close off the playroom to spot clean.
Suddenly, there was repeated and rather deafening alarm calls coming from the other side of the building. I went to check on things and found Mave looking out the window towards the valley below, emitting her loud vocal warnings. I don’t know what she saw, but I suspect it was lightening.
Kelsi was unable to convince Jody and Missy to go to the greenhouse for their dinner because they did not want to leave the common wall that the playroom shares with Mave’s rooms. They were visibly concerned about Mave’s vocalizations. Maybe they were concerned for Mave herself (I would bet this was the case for Jody) or maybe they were concerned that whatever Mave was clearly very anxious about was something they should be fearful of as well.
I gave up trying to close off the playroom and instead brought Honey B, Willy B, and Mave their dinner to the top floor of their housing, the area we refer to as the mezzanine. Mave continued her plaintive cries while Willy B and Honey B ignored her and waited for me to serve them dinner, which I did.
I also gave Mave some food, hoping that maybe sweet potato, carrots, and night bags would serve as a distraction to the imminent danger she seemed to be feeling. She did something I’ve never seen another chimpanzee do before; she took the food and continued to loudly alarm call in-between biting and swallowing.
Though I was amused by Mave’s ability to multi-task, I was distressed listening to her persistent calls. Honey B and Willy B, however, proceeded to ignore her. Perhaps they’ve seen Mave overreact before. Maybe they just really aren’t that empathetic – empathy is certainly a variable trait. Perhaps the sweet potatoes were just that good. Or maybe they just didn’t know what to do, so thought it was better to pretend that nothing was happening. After twenty minutes or so, Mave, though still acting wary and looking out the window, finally ceased alarm calling.
We see so much variability in personality across the chimpanzees, and we see the wide range of emotions that they are capable of as individuals and a species.
We understand, for example, that they can be incredibly violent. They can lash out at one another in an instant out of fear, insecurity, or even as a calculated method of obtaining or preserving power or gaining access to resources. We can see all of this and recognize that humans are no different. Some of us may have a shorter fuse than others, but we are all capable of horrific acts of aggression and unfathomable indifference. Like chimpanzees, violence is a small part of our lives as a whole, but it’s there. It’s part of our DNA, as they say.
Being very social primates, chimpanzees and humans not only can but need to form tight bonds with one another; this is how we survive in the literal sense and thrive as emotional beings even in our modern day existence.
Unfortunately, there is another side to forming tight social bonds, and that is seeing those outside of our social group as not-us, as others, as enemies.
Before I began working with chimpanzee Washoe and her family in 1998, I marveled at a story that Roger Fouts wrote about in the book Next of Kin. Washoe, who had been enculturated into a human environment and taught the signs of American sign language, did not meet another chimpanzee until she was five years old. When she was moved to a facility with other chimpanzees and woke up in a cage next to them, she was asked in sign language what they were and she called the other chimpanzees, “black bugs” and “black cats” – neither of which she liked at all.
Washoe eventually learned to accept her chimpanzee-ness and became the matriarch of a group of five. By the time I met her she was well versed in chimpanzee behavior and was more likely to dismiss the clearly inferior humans (myself included) than her adopted chimpanzee family members.
At least in part because of the influence of Dr. Fouts, I’ve long struggled with the idea that humans sit comfortably outside of the animal kingdom with a huge gulf between “us” and all of the other animals living and extinct. It’s not a very biologically sound view of our existence.
Far more academic people than myself have argued for years about the salient qualities that do separate us from our primate cousins. Some behaviors that scholars pointed to as elevating humans above other animals, like tool use, were shot down years ago, with more and more evidence recorded of non-humans using and adapting tools as times goes by.
There is something, however, that I think does distinguish humans as a species, at least until evidence is uncovered about the mysteries of animal communication. It’s what I’m doing right now – storytelling. Storytelling and the ability to record and share information across generations has dramatically changed how we go about living and how we interact with the world at large.
Combining our biological capacity to empathize and bond with others and our knack for storytelling, we humans should have an incredible leg-up on other species in how we view and treat one another. But this doesn’t seem to be the case. In fact, I think it’s possible our storytelling abilities might just be the end of us. Humans can and do use this communicative talent to rationalize or re-frame what we otherwise should collectively view as outrageous and unjust behavior.
With stories we can organize, expand, and amplify “us” and “them” groupings and allow our self- and group-protective instincts to vilify anyone who differs from the group we identify with, whether that identity is tied to our genealogy, geography, educational attainment, the amount of pigment in our skin, or any number of beliefs and preferences or arbitrary physical characteristics.
As a species we are experiencing a tragic period in our history. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t felt overwhelmed by sadness, anger, and anxiety these past few months. It would be wonderful if we could turn towards the positive aspects of being social primates. It would be great if we could really listen to each others stories. It would be amazing if we could all remember to recognize that our empathy needs to stretch far beyond our personal lived experience.
I am incredibly saddened by the violence inflicted on George Floyd in Minnesota and the fact that he is one in a long line of black people who have been viewed and treated as “them” by white people in power. I am glad that the story of his death is being told across the world.
I would like to believe that we as a species are on a trajectory of widening the narrow view of “us” that we individually hold onto to include beings that I can’t even imagine, but we have a really long way to go.
For today, I just hope we can figure out a way to understand and embrace our own collective humanity.
Spring snippets and bidding begins!
As you may have seen over the last few days, we’ve been growing more and more excited for The Queen’s Brunch, our first ever virtual event celebrating the anniversary of the chimpanzees’ arrival to the sanctuary AND the birthdays of Negra (June 13th) and Honey B (June 11th). Naturally, I was unable to get photos of either of these two beautiful women, but! And as of today, online auction bidding is now open! Woot!! Hurry! Go look!
All proceeds will go to the direct care of the chimpanzees, as well as to our continued expansion so that we may bring more chimpanzees in need, home. Every single thing that makes it possible for these ten amazing chimpanzee people (and the family members to come), as well as our sweet bovine family, to live the lives in sanctuary they do is because of you. Every single thing is a direct result of your heart, your compassion and your dedication to helping ensure that their lives are full of joy, well-being, comfort, family and love. There are no words to thank you for all you’ve created here, for them, but from our hearts, we have the deepest gratitude for you.
In chimp house happenings, today was a bit scattered for the humans from the get go as Jody decided she wanted to make some changes to our daily routine. Of course, that’s one of many beautiful things about the chimps’ lives in sanctuary – the choice to make, well, their own choices about how their day will go and how they spend their time. As a result, I have some scattered springtime snippets from the chimps’ home to yours.
The mountain lupine that fills the sanctuary with the most beautiful, ethereal of scents:
Foxie decided to take her doll and brave the infamous spring winds rushing over the hill:
But quickly decided it was too much, hence the sneer face:
At which point she brought her doll back to the comfort of the greenhouse:
Missy loves a particular dandelion that grows around the sanctuary – the goat’s beard dandelion. She walked the entire perimeter of Young’s Hill with us this morning gathering armfuls and mouthfuls of the flowers which seemed to have bloomed overnight:
Sister honeybees busy at work on the blooming elderflowers:
Willy B continues to amaze and delight us in his growing comfort spending time in his outdoor enclosure. Today he could barely wait for me to open the gate and squeezed underneath it, heading out without an ounce of hesitation. And he even climbed up to the top of the climbing structure where he took a brief nap in the open air and sunshine! It’s incredible that he’s feeling comfortable enough to rest with ease in the most exposed location:
I was sitting outside eating my lunch today when I heard the loud chitter of baby birds being fed by their parents. I assumed it was one of the many swallow and wren families who typically take over the bluebird nesting boxes we have up. A supporter kindly made and donated these to us years ago, but I’ve yet to see a bluebird pair successfully hang onto one and they typically end up nesting in old woodpecker nests in the surrounding Ponderosa pines. Still, I can’t help but be happy to know any birds are using them to raise their families and so when I went to have a closer look I was THRILLED to see a family of bluebirds in the box! If you look closely, you can see one of the baby birds mouths wide open:
This spring the hillsides surrounding the sanctuary have been a literal sea of gold with the native balsamroot:
Burrito and Jody grooming quietly in the greenhouse:
Foxie and Jody enjoying their after lunch chow together:
And this! Staff caregiver, Kelsi, made this amazing book for Jamie! Almost all of the staff wear Salmon Sisters XTRATUF boots for cleaning and Jamie has decided they are THE boots de jour. This wonderful book is full of photos of all the boots, as well as each of us wearing our respective pair.
Because of the rubber, they aren’t safe for the chimps to have (in the event they were ingested) and while Jamie knows she can’t have them and doesn’t ask, she adores them all the same. She spends ages having us wear them in mixed variations, walking around the hill in them and just sitting with her so she can groom them. She knows every single pair we have and exactly which ones she wants to see at any given time (they each have different sea-themed linings). Let me tell you, she is CRAZY HAPPY about this book and it’s been the most amazing gift for her. She’s even figured out (of course) that she can use it as a guide for the humans. Today she turned to the page with the boots she wanted to see and shoved it under the door for Chad to fetch the boots and bring them on a walk.
From all of us in the chimp house to all of you out there, we’re hoping some of the ease and joy you make sure the chimps’ hearts are full of finds its way back to your hearts this evening.