Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Archives for April 2022

Much to Celebrate Today

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After a week of snowy conditions, there was the break in the weather where it was sunny and warm enough to celebrate today.

When Missy’s group were first given access to Young’s Hill this morning, everybody went out and explored the Hill. In fact, Negra was the first one out, if you can believe it or not! As the chimpanzees scattered across their outdoor enclosure, I saw Missy at the very top on the furthest structure surveying her domain.

Later on in the day, the weather still held out for a forage outside. Today was filled with paper eggs containing nuts, carrots, sweet potatoes, mini bell peppers, and hard boiled eggs for all!

Here is one of the paper eggs as seen in Willy B’s enclosure for reference (of course they celebrated too!):

Initially we caregivers thought Jamie’s group would run out onto the hill, grab what they could, and head back to their greenhouse since a slight, chilly breeze began to pick up. We were wrong! Every single one of them stayed out for quite some time, enjoying their forage.

Jamie:

Jody:

Burrito:

Foxie:

Annie:

Missy:

Negra:

On the other side of the Chimp House, both Willy B’s group and Cy’s group also enjoyed their set up.

Cy:

Terry:

Rayne:

Willy B:

Mave:

Honey B:

For those who celebrate, we wish you a:

Happy Easter!

Chag Pesach sameach!

Ramadan Mubarak!

Hello, Everyone!

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Well, hello, everyone! My name is Grace and I am the newest staff member at CSNW. I recently moved back to Washington from my home state of Ohio and words can’t describe how excited I am to be here.

My first day at CSNW was in 2017 as an intern with the Central Washington University Primate Behavior program, and it didn’t take long for my intern days to become the highlight of my week. I came to CWU after completing a Bachelor of Science in Anthropology at The Ohio State University (go Bucks!), where it took me a while to find my niche. While I couldn’t decide on a major, I began work as a seasonal keeper at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. This job presented me the opportunity to work with captive animals and help me discover my passion for great apes. This experience, along with a field school program with Field Projects International in the Peruvian Amazon, had me hooked. During my time at CWU, I studied the effect of sound on the chimpanzees at the Fauna Foundation in Montreal, Canada. As an intern, I lived on site for four months and I still miss hearing the chimpanzees pant-hoot late into the evening.

After graduating from CWU, I decided to continue my graduate education and I moved to York University to pursue a M.A. in Philosophy, as my interests focused on the intersection of captive welfare and ethics. While there, I had the opportunity to spend some time volunteering for Story Book Farm Primate Sanctuary north of the city. This was my first time supporting the care of monkeys in sanctuary and I loved it! It gave me the reassurance I needed to know that I was ready to step out of academia and into the world of hands-on caregiving.

I graduated from York right as the pandemic hit and I’m sure my mom would love to tell you about the time I had her drive with me to Toronto and back in eight hours, so I could move my stuff out of my school apartment as the borders were being closed. We made it, though, and I began the search for a career. In the next year and a half I worked a few office jobs, met some amazing people, and got married. When I was offered the opportunity to come back to CSNW, there was no question.

During one of my first days back in Ellensburg, Kelsi told me “Welcome home!“. As someone who struggles to find the right words, this summed up my feelings perfectly. CSNW has always felt like home and I am so thankful to be back.

Honey enjoying the sunshine before the recent surge of winter storms.

 

Goodbyes and Hellos

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Last week, staff member and longtime friend to all at the sanctuary, Sam wrote her last blog post.  Sadly, that means she is moving away from Washington for her next adventure. I will miss Sam for her easy going yet mischievous personality, welcoming nature and huge heart.  Everyone who knows Sam naturally loves her and she becomes a perfect fit for every team she joins. For the staff and the chimpanzees/cattle at CSNW, this isn’t really goodbye, it’s see you later!

Sam and Cy:

Sam racing Jamie:

Sam, pictured with her scarecrow doppelgänger and her cat Gracie’s doppelgänger (expertly played by my daughter Luna):

This blog post isn’t all bittersweet goodbyes though. As we wish Sam well, we also got to welcome our newest staff member Grace last month! Grace is a former graduate student intern that returns to us with her own wealth of knowledge and experience (more on that when she introduces herself on her first blog). Grace has been very busy getting acquainted and re-acquainted with the sanctuary residents, all while learning the ropes or our daily routine.

Cy and his welcoming stare:

Jamie gives Grace and her new boots a proper inspection:

Welcome Grace and best wishes to Sam!

Negra Hibernates

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April has surprised us with a lot of snow. Personally, I think we paid our dues back in January, but here we are. Negra saw her shadow and decided 2 more weeks of winter and went back into hibernation.

Negra breakfast in the front rooms:

 

Bonus photos!

Rayne sitting comfortably on firehose:

Cy day dreaming:

Plans? What Plans?!

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I can’t speak for all the caregivers at CSNW, but for me lead days require mental preparation ahead of time. Some of it is getting on the shifting mentality, thinking of material for the daily blog, planning the individuals that will be involved during introductions, etc. Today was one of those days that from the moment I woke up, all of that preparation went out the window. It turns out that as caregivers there are two things we can’t control: the weather and a group of riled up chimps.

Kittitas County woke up to a significant ongoing snow shower with more than 3 inches of snow already on the ground by 7AM in Ellensburg. Cle Elum did not get the same amount of snow, but the inch or so is half melted by now. The gloominess remains. Being inside was definitely the popular choice for the chimpanzees. This meant plenty of napping in the green houses and a lot of grooming.

For introductions, my wish was to have Gordo and Terry involved with Willy B and Mave. But Gordo and his 5 friends had other plans. While trying to sort them out, a fight broke out and although everyone was OK, it derailed the sorting. The final combination ended up being Cy and Terry with Willy B and Honey B. After many displays between the guys, the introduction remained through the mesh. At the time of separating the groups, Willy B and Honey B refused to go back into the Mezzanine. It wasn’t until dinner was offered that they decided it was the right time to go back to their enclosure and reunite with Mave.

View of our Spring snowy day

Jamie in the process of drifting into a nap in the green house

Terry grooming my boots

Cy and Terry grooming each other

Rayne, Cy, Lucky and Terry grooming

Rayne, Dora, Cy and Lucky grooming

The Mondays

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Do you all know that bit from Office Space about “The Mondays”?

(Here’s a link for those of you who have never seen the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AB9zPfXqQQ.)

I’ve been thinking of that scene a lot today.

To be clear, I have a neutral opinion on Mondays. For that matter, I don’t hold grudges against any arbitrarily-named days of the week. Still, I can’t help but feel like the chimps have been grappling with a case of “The Mondays” for a few days now. This morning began with more of the chimpanzee drama that J.B. recently described in Friday’s blog post: Grooming. Although everyone seemed to be contributing to the chaos in one way or another, Terry remained at the center of the maelstrom which continued to churn up the social waters throughout the day.

To paraphrase one of J.B.’s passages: chimps simply cannot keep going “full throttle” for long before someone calms down and starts putting the pieces back together again. In today’s case, the chimps eventually stopped screaming long enough to catch their breath. Within minutes, they had begun to groom each other in a collective act of reconciliation that lasted for quite some time. Chimps may have physical altercations more frequently than free-living humans do, but their ability to put that animosity behind them and quickly reach a bipartisan solution makes up for it.

I didn’t manage to record much of the action with a camera, but I did take some photos during the peaceful moments between the storms.

Cy looking down at caregivers through the overhead caging
J.B. adding to the wall murals in the new front rooms
Rayne grooming Cy
Rayne
Terry reaching through the caging to inquisitively touch a caregiver’s boots.