Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary for primates.

Archives for August 2020

Enrichment comes in many forms

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As you may be aware, Willy B and Honey B both love watching videos and checking out their photos on our phones. They also quite enjoy watching movies, more so than any of the other chimpanzees. Though we don’t play movies all the time, they are one more form of enrichment we offer the chimpanzees that they can choose to engage with or not. With Willy B and Honey B, as soon as the TV gets wheeled in they both get really excited! They seem to enjoy nature documentaries in particular, and will both sit in front of the TV, RIVETED, especially Willy B. (Honey is a busy woman and perhaps cannot contain her zooms quite as long as he does 🙂 ).

But we recently discovered the ultimate movie in Willy B’s opinion. He cannot get enough of it! I walked in Phase 1 after the chimps had lunch yesterday to find Willy sprawled out on the bench, glued to the TV, just like any of us might do on our couch. And his favorite movie??

Ice Age!

We have no idea what it is about this movie, but he LOVES it. It took me ages to get it set up and he somehow patiently waited for what must have felt like an eternity, never once losing interest. Some time later, one of us accidentally tripped the cord walking past and unplugged it and Willy B blew raspberries to let us know. Then one of us accidentally walked in front of the TV and Honey B waved her arms, seemingly suggesting, “Get out of the way!”

Willy B!!

But also just like most of us, I eventually caught him napping in front of the TV:

In other news, we caught Jamie and Foxie in a good ol’ game of head-butting (??). They were laughing so hard and then, these faces!!

And we recently had a kind supporter bring the gift of fresh mangoes for the chimpanzees! Annie is allergic to mangoes, so we cannot give them to the seven, but what a wonderful surprise for the three! Just to be on the safe side and prevent anything making it’s way to Annie, we don’t buy mangoes so we hadn’t yet offered them to Mave, Willy B and Honey B and we weren’t sure how they’d respond (they can be known to be a little particular with their food choices). Well, they knew exactly what they were and were so excited! Here’s Honey B enjoying hers at dinner tonight. And let me say, it’s incredible to watch them eat these! Literally, within seconds it’s completely gone and they spit out the pit that ends up looking like a Pringles potato chip. Honey B might suggest we all go try that.

Hype for HOOT!

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It would be an understatement to say that 2020 has been a rollercoaster of a year. At times, it’s felt more like a haunted house full of people who have all taken hallucinogenics (or something that is equally chaotic, confusing, and concerning).

Still, there are plenty of reasons to celebrate and we have much to be hopeful for. The chimps’ lives have been largely unaffected by the public health crisis and we’re working hard to keep it that way. Despite the economic uncertainty and logistical hurdles, we’ve managed to keep the residents happy and healthy, sustainably expand our staff, make upgrades to our existing property and facilities, and begin constructing new areas that will hopefully provide a home for more rescued chimpanzees.

All of this progress would be impossible without the financial support that comes from generous supporters, and we’re getting ready to host our biggest fundraising event of the year: HOOT 2020!

Unlike previous years, this edition of HOOT! will be a virtual celebration so that you can all participate from the comfort of your home (or office… we won’t tell anyone if you choose to spend your work day bidding on items). Of course, we’d love to be hosting you all in Seattle for a big ole’ shindig, but the “virtualness” of this year’s party has some benefits of its own. As always, there are some amazing items and experiences up for auction (bidding starts September 2nd!) and the itinerary also includes a happy hour and a pant-hoot contest.

The preparations have been underway for quite some time, but some aspects of the event are still developing. Burrito witnessed something that excited him today, but you’ll have to tune into the event to see what it was…

To get started, you can go to the HOOT! 2020 website hosted by Auction Frogs. Seriously, go to the website! I’m not going to post too many spoilers here, but we have a lot planned for this big event!!!

P.S. Here’s a little spoiler. Saxophone by Tobi Stone.

Never too old to play

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If Burrito and Negra in today’s video do not put a smile on your face and a desire in your heart to help support them and the sanctuary, well I just don’t know what will.

HOOT! is coming up fast! I’ll be spending the next few days madly uploading more auction items – there are some really fun and beautiful things to bid on, and there are a lot of reasons to give. Hope for the future!

P.S. I’m still waiting on your pant-hoot submissions – don’t forget!

Bronx Cheers

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I remember when I first learned that adult house cats “meow” almost exclusively to humans and not to other cats. It’s still fascinating to me that in the course of domestication, not only have we selected for certain vocal tendencies in cats but they have also exploited some natural human perceptual tendencies to be able to express what they want – for example, food, affection, or help when they are in trouble. It’s a language, if you will, that exists only between our two species.

Chimpanzees are obviously not domesticated but they certainly are smart, and they have also found unique ways to communicate with humans. The Bronx cheer, or raspberry, is part of the vocal repertoire of many free-living chimpanzees but it is typically used when grooming. Captive chimpanzees, however, have discovered that at full volume it’s a great way to get the attention of humans. And if you do it over and over again, louder and louder each time, the humans will eventually give in. Or go crazy. Either way, it’s enriching for them.

Mmmm larvae

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Most of us have probably seen the many photos of chimpanzees in the wild using tools to fish for termites.  As a general rule, chimpanzees that have grown up in captivity don’t have the same taste for insects that you see in wild chimpanzees. I would bet lots of money if you tried to serve Honey B a termite she would be totally disgusted with you. The chimps seem to find fishing for peanut butter to be a more ideal situation.

Here’s Jamie fishing for peanut butter in a PVC tube attached to the outside the caging:

I think we all have a tendency to forget that some of the chimps at the sanctuary actually do occasionally eat insects (but only wasp larvae, so far as we’ve seen). The wasps are most prevalent this time of year and  we try to remove any nests we find near the chimp enclosures to prevent both humans and chimps from the almost inevitable summer stings. Since the outdoor space is so large, we sometimes miss the ones being built on Young’s Hill. If you watch the above video you will get up close and personal with Jamie as she dissects a wasp nest she found on the hill.

Watching Jamie reminded me of a blog Diana wrote 5 years ago on the topic. In the blog she wrote: “Watching her, it wasn’t entirely clear to me how much of the larvae she was eating, because she seemed to be selectively eating some parts and not others, but she was clearly enjoying the experience.” After seeing Jamie’s careful deconstruction of the nest from a much closer vantage point (through a window), I’ve deduced that she seems to eat only the squishy larva stage of the wasp and not the older, more developed pupa stage. Don’t worry though, Missy was right behind her to finish off the rest of it.

Burrito Takes Over The Live Stream

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Today, we let you all watch one of the most exciting events that takes place at the sanctuary every day: lunch.

For those of you who were busy during the live stream or were unable to connect via Facebook, you can watch the recording here. (Unfortunately, it’s not possible to embed Facebook videos directly into the blog post.)

Despite some early technical obstacles, I was eventually able to broadcast a live feed that showed the Seven foraging on Young’s Hill, their outdoor enclosure. I then brought my phone to the Greenhouse so that the chimpanzees could join in on the chat. Burrito, of course, was interested in playing chase and seemed intrigued by the Facebook video being sent to all of you from the palm of my hand. As usual, he stole the show.

It was great to see so many viewers join in on the broadcast, despite the short notice and connection troubles. I tried to answer some questions during the stream while Diana typed out additional responses from the sanctuary’s office. I wasn’t expecting so much engagement (170+ comments in 24 minutes!), so I will do my best to address any additional inquiries throughout the day.

Thank you all for your patience, interest, and support!

Here are some still photographs to accompany the today’s events.

Annie:

Negra:

Honey B:

Burrito:

The Neighbor’s Horses:

And, finally, an intimate moment shared between Honey (one of our resident cattle) and one of the neighboring mares:

 

Enriching the Day

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It has been one year and one week since Mave, Honey B, and Willy B arrived at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. Since their arrival, we have introduced them to the nightly routine of evening enrichment puzzles. Talking to some of the other staff members, when the Three first arrived, they would have this look of confusion on their face when they received something AFTER their dinner.

The Evening Enrichment Puzzles are a way for the chimpanzees exercise their cognitive abilities while also receiving a food reward. Puzzles could also be seen as a means to try to alleviate boredom. The key to an enrichment problem is to not make them so easy, there is no challenge in completing them. It also means not to make them so difficult, they get frustrated and quit. There is a balance to be made when developing an enrichment food puzzle.

Now that the Three have been here for a year, they are used to (and sometimes anticipating) their evening puzzles. Here are some photos over the past several months of them engaged in their evening food puzzles:

Honey B cleverly found a new way to complete the PVC Tubes.

Mave decided to forego using her chopstick for the Dipper Tubes and just use her fingers.

Willy B searches for more raisins in his Raisin Board.

Mave searches for more hidden treats inside her Firehose Cube.

Honey B trying to find the sunflower and pumpkin seeds in a peanut butter Pine Cone.

Mave tries to fish out nuts from a Kong.

In the video, the Three interact with a puzzle called Frisbee Puzzles (or Hanging Frisbees). We realized after their party last week, that may have been the first time they received this puzzle. After it seemed they really enjoyed them last week, we decided to bump them up in the rotation and make the puzzles for them again today.