Archives for November 2021

As an atmospheric river flows over the Pacific Northwest and hammers the Cascades with wind, rain and snow, our sheltered valley has experienced an odd mix of beautiful and horrible weather this week. That hasn’t stopped one group of chimps from making use of their expansive outdoor habitat: Young’s Hill.

“The Hill” was completed in 2011 and serves as the primary outdoor enclosure for the original group of seven chimps. Over the years, J.B. et al. have furnished the habitat with groves of bamboo, a network of firehose vines, elevated wooden platforms, hanging tire swings and hammocks, and even an artificial termite mound. Since the enclosure contains an open pasture without any large trees, the crew has also added numerous pine logs for the chimps to climb on. While we monitor the larger structures for safety and stability, there’s not much we can do about the untreated timber decomposing at a natural rate. These need to be replaced every few years.

When we let the chimps have access to Young’s Hill yesterday morning, we were already aware that one of the logs (which had been sunk vertically into the ground) had blown over and was leaning on some firehose vines. Assessing the situation from afar, we agreed it still looked safe enough for the chimps to go on their morning patrol while we coordinated with J.B. to get it repaired.

After caregiver Chad did his routine race around the boundary with Burrito, Jamie demanded that someone accompany her on another patrol of the perimeter fence. I put the telephoto zoom lens on the camera and trudged up the hill while wearing her preferred Xtratuf boots. Burrito soon joined us, sprinting and laughing, and effectively replaced me as Jamie’s walking buddy.

I was resigned to finishing the patrol as the “third wheel” when I noticed Missy sitting on the aforementioned wonky post. Missy is an intrepid adventurer when outdoors, and she didn’t seem to care that the log was tilted askew and wobbled quite a bit. In fact, she seemed to even find the new perch to be comfortable.

As I continued to trek around the perimeter of the enclosure, I saw Missy again from a different perspective. This time, I could see that she also had “brought” a buddy with her: Annie. The two were sitting like gargoyles on adjacent structures, partially hidden in the maze of pine trunks and bamboo.

I saw the dark silhouette of another chimpanzee in the periphery of my vision, and turned the camera lens towards Foxie as she climbed up onto a closer platform.

Foxie seems to enjoy moments of solitude in the outdoors, but I remembered that she probably considers her dolls to be her adventure companions. Perhaps she doesn’t think of herself as being alone even though no other chimps are close by. Either way, it wasn’t long before Foxie also had a chimpanzee buddy: Jody. Together, they surveyed the valley and seemed most intrigued by a distant plume of smoke swirling upward from a prescribed burn.

Foxie and Jody resumed their journey as a duo, making their way through the tall grass to one of their favorite installations: the Lookout Tower. Foxie preferred to sit on the highest deck with her doll while Jody ventured out on the Shaky Bridge towards Carlene’s Tower.

 

After the chimps went back inside, Chad closed off the Hill and we did safety checks to unlock the enclosure for maintenance. J.B. was ready to go with a buddy of his own: a brand new Kubota L4060 tractor.

There are certain pieces of equipment that the sanctuary cannot do without, and a functioning tractor is one. J.B. has been planning to upgrade the sanctuary’s tractor for years and excitedly worked out the financing. With all of the maintenance and renovations to be done in the upcoming months, the time was right to welcome a new Kubota to the family.

To quote J.B. directly, “You can tell everyone that, second to my wedding day, the day the tractor arrived was the happiest day of my life.”

Importantly, the new tractor has a closed cab which will save us from freezing our eyeballs off while driving it in the winter. I’m excited that it came with cup holders so I can sip on cold brew while I plow the driveway in the winter, and J.B. personally added a Bluetooth music player so he can blast Van Halen (probably) while he moves things around with the forks.

Someday in the near future, even Young’s Hill will get a “buddy.” In addition to expanding the Young’s Hill perimeter to include more adjacent pasture and parts of the nearby woodland, we plan to build a second outdoor enclosure called The Bray. The new tractor will be invaluable as we tear down and build entire sections of electrified fence, plant more trees and bamboo, and furnish the two areas with new enrichment structures. (You can all read about our past, present and future plans for the facility in this blog post: The King of the Courtyard and His Growing Kingdom.)

Hopefully, the new layout will make things even better for the chimpanzees who call this place “home.”