Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Archives for December 2020

‘Twas the day before Christmas

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This morning the chimpanzees were greeted by a sparkling frosty outdoor wonderland on Young’s Hill. Frost licking (if you’re a chimpanzee), is the next best thing to snow snacking. Negra was first outside after breakfast and even chose to soak up a little sunshine after sampling some frost.  I always imagine Negra’s forehead acting as a solar panel when she needs a recharge.

Foxie frolicking through the frost (say that five times fast).

Frolicking- with an emphasis on licking.

Mr B:

Jody:

And Jamie:

Speaking of Jamie, the boss spotted one of her Christmas presents sitting out in the foyer before we could wrap it. Naturally, she demanded that Kelsi toss up her new pair of boots immediately.

Good thing for Jamie and her friends, there are plenty of additional gifts waiting in the wings for tomorrow’s festivities. Kelsi and Chad have been wrapping and assembling presents all afternoon long:

One more sleep till Christmas- Wishing everyone a happy and safe holiday!

In Honor of Kathleen and Stephen Hero!

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Today is sponsored by Caroline Hero in the memory of her parents, Kathleen and Stephen Hero!

“In memory of our parents: Kathleen and Stephen Hero. Thinking of you every day, forever in our hearts. Every day is difficult when you lose a parent and Christmas is a particularly difficult time of year. Once again, instead of buying presents, I am giving my siblings the gift of love and support for those in need! Reading the blogs and watching the videos brings great joy to our hearts and supporting the Cle Elum family is my idea of the best present to both give and receive. Christmas is about giving and sharing, and I wish you all health, happiness and every success caring for these beautiful animals.”

Thank you so much for this extremely thoughtful gift and way to honor you parents! We all hope you and yours have a wonderful holiday season!

Negra with Burrito, Jamie, and Annie in the back:

 

Taking in the sun:

Betsy with Honey in the back:

Betsy grooming her son, Nutmeg:

 

The Forest for the Trees

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It’s been a busy week at the sanctuary, but that’s not stopping us from feeling a little bit of holiday cheer.

For the most part, the holidays don’t interrupt our operations. First and foremost, the chimps need the same amount of specialized care that they always do. Additionally, the ongoing construction of new chimpanzee areas will continue right up to Christmas and is set to resume immediately after. Since the electrical work that Anna mentioned last week is still in progress, the seven chimps living on that side of the building have been somewhat inconvenienced. For the past few days, they have had to hang out in the heated Greenhouse and cozy front rooms while the larger playroom is unavailable.

That hasn’t seemed to bother them too much, though. They have ample enrichment puzzles, nesting materials, views of the contractors, human caregivers to socialize with, and each other’s company.

Burrito
Burrito (and the Holiday Tree!)

Jamie seems to enjoy watching the electricians. Although she can’t see their faces because of their masks, Jamie nodded approvingly at their footwear today. The guys seemed proud when I told them The Boss was pleased.

Jamie

Fortunately, the first days of winter have been relatively warm and consistently clear, so the chimps have also felt comfortable making frequent excursions outdoors. The amazing weather convinced us to spread forages on Young’s Hill both Saturday and Sunday, but they seem to be motivated by other factors in the days since. Maybe they want to survey the land and spy on the neighbors, or perhaps they’re just looking for some recreation. Either way, it’s nice to see them using the large outdoor enclosure this late in the year. I took the following photos during Sunday’s special activities and today’s regular patrols.

Jamie (front) and Burrito (back)
Annie
Foxie
Foxie
Foxie
Annie
Missy
Jody
Jamie
Negra

Foxie, in particular, seems to value her time outdoors. Based on her tendency to wander off from the others, I’d guess that she enjoys the brief periods of solitude.

Foxie on “The Escher” structure
Foxie atop “Neggie’s Cabin”

Of course, she may just be taking in those sweet views of the surrounding pastures, forests, and snow-covered mountains.

Foxie

Mave. That’s It. That’s the Blog

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Today, electricians continued their work connecting the existing building to the new area of the expansion! This meant there was a lot of human activity in the Chimp House. Similar to last week, the chimpanzees were extremely patient while parts of their enclosures were closed off to ensure the safety of both chimpanzee and human.

As the electricians worked and caregivers spent a majority of the day processing all the amazing Christmas gifts everybody donated from our Amazon Wishlist (sidenote: thank you all so much! There is a lot for us to process!), there was a lot of grooming going on with the chimpanzees. The few times I tried to get some photos of the massive grooming party happening nearly all day with the Group of Seven, Burrito halted every chance. Playtime is more important than photo time to Burrito.

However, I was able to capture a few photos of the Group of Three sporadically throughout the day.

Honey B chewing on some sugar-free gum.
Willy B pondering if he will continue to allow me to take photos, or decide he needs to review the photos I captured. (He lip-smacked at this one, which I took as him telling me this was the shot to use.)

Then there is Mave!

Mave is generally low key. As Katelyn described yesterday, Mave can be laying down one second, then be more than a foot in the air the next. Sometimes I feel she can put Tigger to shame with her jumps and bounces. Though Mave can be very playful with human caregivers when she wants to, sometimes she just likes the quiet company. Unlike Honey B and Willy B who want to play chase, groom boots, play poke, or watch what ever screen a human has, be it a television or smartphone, Mave generally just likes the humans to sit there quietly with her. As we sit with her, she usually grooms herself or lays there drifting off in to Dreamland. If we attempt to leave, she will jump up in the air in a flash. Though sometimes we mistake this for her now wanting to play, she will immediately resume her prior activity of self-grooming or setting sail to Zzz-Town. When Mave is ready, she will let us know if it’s play time, or if we can go. The former is usually accompanied with laughter and her fingers extended toward us to play poke. The latter is usually just no objection to us getting up and continuing to work.

Here are some photos she allowed me to take of her as I sat with her today.

As also mentioned yesterday, we just never know when she’s going to do it or who she’s going to direct this invitation toward. I can’t speak for the other caregivers, but I am certain they are like me in cherishing these quiet moments with the Marvelous Mave.

A family through the seasons

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It was still a little dark when I arrived at the chimp house this first day of winter morning. I always like to greet the chimpanzees by quietly opening their doors and whispering “good morning” so they know it’s me. Just as one would in anyone’s home, we try our best to start the day quietly, leaving their lights off until they are up and active. Of course some days they’re already hooting and hollering before we even walk in the door, but that’s their business.

The construction folks start their day even earlier than we do and Mave, Willy B and Honey B are usually up by the time we arrive, their space lit softly from the workers’ lights next door. But when I poked my head in their door all was still and quiet, the only light, their Christmas tree. That’s when I spotted Honey B, right across from the tree, sound asleep in her nest with the blanket pulled up to her chest. I wish you could have seen her! By the time I pulled out the camera, she was up and ready to say hi. Solstice morning made, right there.

Much of the day was shrouded in fog and rain which kept us all indoors for the first part of the day:

As the chimpanzees shifted seamlessly throughout their home as the humans cleaned around them, I feel like every time I looked at them, they were busy. Jamie sitting in her nest looking at her books, Honey B engaging in her daily ritual of dragging all the warmest and heaviest blankets out into the chute where she builds a cozy nest and sits and watches whatever it is she watches, Burrito on an endless loop of chase with a steady stream of humans, Foxie playing with her dolls in between fiercely kicking the neighbors’ door and yelling chimp profanities at them, Jody wrestling with Burrito and Negra wrestling with Burrito and Foxie wrestling with Negra, everyone sitting together grooming, everyone curled up napping.

All the while, we humans wound our way through an ever-shrinking path that winds between ever-growing heaps and stacks of holiday gifts for the chimps (thank you!!!). Doing laundry, cleaning this and cleaning that, baking sweet potatoes and apples, serving meals, doing dishes, spending time with our chimp friends, Christmas trees aglow. I don’t know, all this to say the entire day felt so much like one big family, hanging out at home, weaving between one another, together and alone.

Willy B enjoying a movie:

Beloved Annie only has eyes for her best friend, Missy, and to be precise, Missy’s whereabouts. Once the rain stopped, Missy, along with Burrito and Jody, raced up the hill on a mission. Annie declined traipsing through the wet grass (can’t say as I blame her), but waited patiently in the greenhouse doorway, her eyes peeled for Missy’s reappearance:

After zooming around, Missy decided to take in the foggy sights, like the true Pacific Northwest chimpanzee she has become:

And Annie watched. And Annie waited:

Then there was Mave. When Mave is excited, be it playful, angry, greeting her chimpanzee friends, or otherwise, she becomes a spring. Quadrupedal, she literally springs straight up into the air (at least a foot or more off the ground) and she does this repeatedly. It’s impressive and unexpected all at once. It’s hard to capture because you just never know when she’s going to do it for sure. While we cleaned the mezzanine, she was enjoying some time to herself in the front rooms and whenever I walked by she’d suddenly be airborne in a bounce, then play bow and roll over laughing, and the next she would look like this, as if nothing had happened and I was making up the tallest of tales. She is a joy and a surprise every minute.

May you all find the rest, comfort, beauty and magic held in the special days and long nights that this solstice season holds. May you celebrate something every day, no matter how small. And may you know in your hearts how deeply we appreciate you being part of our chimpanzee (and bovine!) family.

Happy Winter Solstice!

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This day of sanctuary is sponsored by Dylan Most in celebration of Winter Solstice!

Thank you so much, Dylan, for your thoughtful gift to help celebrate the first day of winter (or summer, as the case may be) and a magical season!

Jamie during a winter past:

Jody and Foxie:

Burrito:

Honey B:

The Return of the Queen

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Yesterday’s big milestone came as a surprise to us all.

If you have not yet read Diana’s descriptive account of the shocking event, you can do so by looking at yesterday afternoon’s blog post. For those of you who are wary of hyperlinks (or just too lazy to open up another tab in your browser), I’ll give you the CliffsNotes summary: Negra exceeded all of our expectations by climbing higher than ever before… in pursuit of a pineapple top.

Today, we decided to set up another outdoor forage to provide afternoon enrichment for the chimps. Of course, we had to put another pineapple top on the  highest lookout just in case Negra was feeling adventurous again.

Spoiler: She was not.

The Red Sox don’t always beat the Yankees, the Starks don’t always defeat the Lannisters, and Negra doesn’t always want to go outside.

In today’s case, Negra did not spend the afternoon roaming around the grassy hillside in search of food. She didn’t even spend much time outside. In fact, she only went out for a few seconds, grabbed the closest mouthful of leeks, and retired back to the warm indoor areas where she spent the rest of the day napping alone in a pile of fleece blankets.

Naturally, Neggie did not need to do anything differently. I needed to fix my expectations.

As J.B. eloquently mused in Friday’s blog post, it’s easy for people who work with captive wildlife to only tell the stories that fit a certain narrative and skew public perception. To combat this, we can strive to tell “the best obtainable version of the truth.” To best appreciate yesterday’s triumph, it helps to understand some simple facts about Negra that may provide some valuable context.

As far as I can tell, singular moments of curiosity and bravery are rare for Negra. Instead of the grassy outdoor habitat, Neggie usually prefers the familiarity and security of indoor enclosures. In particular, her individual well-being seems inextricably tied to the comfort of the heated loft and the reliable provision of staple foods. During today’s breakfast service, for example, she declined fresh apple slices in favor of the bland, processed chow that she gets at every meal. She chose to savor every little piece while sitting on the plain bench in Front Room 4, all while looking out at the forested surroundings through steel caging and fogged glass.

Yesterday’s unexpected journey seemed to have satisfied Negra’s modest appetite for new experiences, but it perhaps had a greater effect on the staff. I think Diana may have captioned this story the best: “This is going to take me well into 2021.”

Today, of course, Negra resumed her normal pattern of sticking to the safer options. She napped, snacked, and snuggled up indoors as if nothing exciting had happened yesterday. Apart from her half-hearted foray onto the Hill to scoop up some leeks, she ensured that today was remarkably unremarkable.

That’s just fine with us. We’ll continue to celebrate her regardless.