Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
A few photos from the day, in no particular order! Happy Thursday everyone!
Glamorous Rayne:
Nutmeg in a fresh field of green (photo by Chad):
Mave and Dora have a sweet budding friendship. What a delight watching them play and groom together this afternoon:
Negra on the mend:
During the last few days we have been making sure that Negra is comfortable in her isolation front room and that she is taking all her medications as prescribed by Dr. Zamzow. Her surgical site is looking amazing so shout out to Jim Repsher, PA-C for the amazing suturing work! As of now Negra has been a stellar patient with zero complaints about being separated from her group. We can call this a mini vacation because with privately catered meals and a break from rowdy group mates, Negra has been truly having the time of her life. It is a bit unfortunate that this comes after a big fight, but all seems to be forgiven since members of her group have been visiting and playing through the caging with her several times a day. Between controlled interactions Negra has spent the day nesting under blankets like only she can do and watching Shrek on TV.
Negra eating her lunch chow:
The other chimps have been enjoying their naps and playing with caregivers all day.
Cy napping in Oakwood green house:
While he was watching some chimp videos with caregiver Chad, Cy was caught dozing away into sleep:
Burrito sleeping on one of his teddy bears this morning:
Burrito during a play session with his favorite person in whole wide world, caregiver Chad:
In their natural habitat, chimpanzees help maintain their ecosystem by helping with the dispersal of seeds. They disperse seeds by either ingesting the fruit or nut and later depositing the seeds elsewhere in their feces, or wadging the seed or nut and leaving it somewhere else in their habitat. Once the chimpanzee leaves the seeds via droppings or wadge, it germinates and a new generation of fruit tree can begin to grow. It is one of the many upon many of reasons protecting wild chimpanzee populations is important. It helps maintain the natural ecosystem.
Seed dispersal can also occur in captivity. Last summer, we had noticed a couple of pumpkin plants growing in the Oakwood Greenhouse. This year is no different. In fact, this years seems like there is more of a variety of plants growing throughout the sanctuary. Some of them can be attributed to the night bags the chimpanzees receive at dinner, while others are a bit more curious. They are sometimes part of the ingredients we use for the chimpanzees’ morning smoothie, and the only way they could have started to grow is by the chimpanzees passing them.
Here are some of the plants growing in the greenhouses (currently):
Pumpkin Plants
Elderberry
Blackberry
Sunflower
It also appears that growing is not exclusive to the greenhouses:
Though these plants probably won’t grow to their full potential since the chimpanzees will probably root them out at some point, we can only hope they are left untouched and can start growing some fruits/veggies.
Here are some of the seed dispersers today!
Jamie:
Honey B:
Gordo:
Foxie:
Mave and Rayne:
And some photos of our recovering Queen Negra:
Negra seems to not mind this set up. She has been staying out of the family politics, been covered in blankets, receiving a lot of attention from the human caregivers…
And yes, Hawaiian rolls!
As J.B. summarized in yesterday’s blog post, we’ve been hard at work caring for Negra as she recuperates from a trip to the sanctuary’s clinic.
Neggie continues to enjoy her cozy solitude and appears to be making a speedy recovery. We caregivers have been supplementing her cocktail of meds with enrichment puzzles, movies, and even the occasional sips of Sprite and nibbles of a sweet Hawaiian roll. It’s safe to say that, despite the laceration on her backside, Negra is thriving in this temporary clinical setting. (Think of Forrest Gump happily eating ice cream despite the bullet wound in his buttocks.)
Despite the unpredictable events of the Chimp House, J.B. and special projects volunteer Adam found time this weekend to complete a facelift of the upper pasture. The area was previously grazed by our neighbor’s horses but will now be the main enclosure for the rescued bovines during the summer. This afternoon, Betsy, Honey, Meredith and Nutmeg made the trek up from their winter paddock to the new frontier. The area is currently dotted with wildflowers and partially shaded by pine trees, and we think they’re going to love it up there once they get used to the terrain.
(Note: the wildflowers include quite a bit of lupine, which is problematic for pregnant cows when grazed in large amounts. Since none of the cows in our small herd are breeding and they generally avoid the lupine anyway, we’re allowing it to remain on the pasture for now.)
Here are some photos of Betsy taking an initial romp around the new area:
And here is a wider shot of the four bovines hanging out at the far end of the new pasture:
There aren’t many things that get the Jersey cattle to show their excitement, but giant fields of green grass seem to do the trick.
The group of seven got into a fight yesterday and poor Negra sustained a significant laceration on her back side that required stitches. The staff got her isolated and Dr. Erin began mobilizing for the procedure. We are grateful to have been joined by Jim Repsher, PA-C, from Kittitas Valley Hospital who, with his background in surgery and emergency medicine, was able to tend to her wound while Dr. Erin, Sofia, and other staff gave Negra a full workup.
Negra handled the procedure well and got an ultrasound of her heart, x-rays, blood work, and a dental exam while receiving her stitches.
Diana ensured that Negra’s IV remained in place while Negra was repositioned for various diagnostics.
Sofia examined Negra’s teeth and gums.
Identification tattoos on each of Negra’s thighs serve as a stark reminder of her decades spent in various laboratories.
Negra’s caregivers often have to hold her arms to ensure that the various cuffs and catheters stay in place. These moments bring us some comfort, even if Negra is unaware of our presence.
Getting sutures to remain in place, especially in fragile tissue, can be a challenge with chimpanzees, who are prone to pick at them and pull them out. For this reason, we often employ distraction techniques so that they will direct their attention elsewhere while they recover. In some cases, we place shallow “distraction sutures” in areas away from the injury. Here, Sofia paints Negra’s fingernails so that she will have something else to pick at while she recovers. It’s a tip we learned from colleagues at another sanctuary and it certainly can’t hurt to try.
Before long Negra was back in the recovery room in a pile of blankets and stuffed animals, with her team of caregivers monitoring her closely.
By morning she was alert and ready for some juice.
She made a nest next to the caging and gave kisses through the mesh before eventually falling back to sleep.
That is, until Annie started spitting water on her to get her attention and make sure she was OK! Once Negra sat up, Annie was satisfied and let Negra go back to bed.
We’re pretty confident that Negra will have an uneventful recovery – after all, she lives her whole life on restricted activity! But she will remain isolated, with her caregivers watching over her and her chimp family next door, until Dr. Erin is confident in her healing.
The life of a chimp vet is never dull. For the last month, the staff have been taking turns doing overnight duty, sleeping on a cot in the chimp house foyer to monitor the newly integrated group of nine and respond in the event of a serious conflict. Friday night was Dr. Erin’s night, and I’m sure she was looking forward to a day of rest following her shift. The chimps had other plans, though. As always, we are grateful to have Dr. Erin caring for these sixteen chimps and four cattle and we hope she can get some rest today.
If you’d like to contribute towards the veterinary care of Negra and her friends, we have had (thanks to the folks who purchased these so quickly!) a dental scaler and a polisher on our Amazon wish list that would be a huge help the next time one of the chimps finds themselves in the clinic.
Today was very busy in the chimp house, but I thought we could play a game! Can you guess these lips?
Only one rule: don’t scroll down too quickly or the answer will reveal itself!
One hint: he is a handsome devil!
⬇️ Scroll down for the answer! ⬇️
It’s Willy B!
I know we’ve been uncharacteristically quiet when it comes to the integration of the two Waystation groups. Superstitious or not, none of us want to jinx it! But now that we’ve made it through the first three weeks, I thought I’d take this opportunity to fill you in on just a few of the things that have been happening with this new group.
Who’s the Boss?
One of the biggest questions we all had prior to integrating the two groups was who would maintain the alpha role. Willy B and Cy are both large, powerful males who held comfortable positions as alphas in their previous groups. Their initial one-on-one introductions had us all holding our breath due to the obvious potential for aggression, but they generally got along quite well and the relationship was promising. Once the entire group was together, however, the dynamics became a lot more complicated and neither showed any signs of submitting to the other. Willy B would engage in his characteristically lengthy displays that are seemingly designed to drive everyone crazy – he would find a metal panel or cage door that rattled and he shake it incessantly until everyone else started displaying. While chimpanzee dominance behavior is often viewed through the lens of Machiavellian strategy, Willy B seemed more like someone just bursting with nervous energy and nowhere to direct it. Cy would respond by crashing into the room, bashing on the walls and windows, and stomping his feet on the floor. Throughout the day and all through the evening, they would trade thunderous displays in the playrooms and front rooms, leaving the other boys displaying in their wake and the girls running and screaming. None of us were getting any sleep. Each episode felt like it could be the match that would ignite a larger fire, and though the two would regularly interact in friendlier ways, neither would confront the other directly during times of tension. Until last Sunday.
On Sunday afternoon, Willy B was engaged in one of his protracted displays and the tension was building within the group. Eventually, some smaller conflicts erupted and Cy decided that he’d had enough. He faced off with Willy B in one of the front rooms. Cy was on a bench below Willy B in Front Room 5, and after gradually building up a display he leapt directly at Willy B. Grace and Katelyn were just feet away, garden hose in hand, anxiously hoping that everyone would come away unscathed. As Cy came flying toward the upper bench, Willy B revealed a huge fear grimace and swung around, presenting his back side to Cy. Cy landed on the bench and embraced Willy with both arms. After two weeks of negotiation, Cy had put his foot down and Willy had submitted.
Since then things have seemed a little more orderly within the group. Cy is a patient leader and he doesn’t intervene unless he feels it’s necessary, but if he thinks Willy B is stirring the pot a bit too much, or if Gordo is pushing his luck with Willy B, he has no problem stepping in and quieting everyone down. For his part, Willy B seems a bit relieved to have someone else in charge. Now he can focus all that energy on playing with his new pal, Rayne. And Cy seems relieved to get back to his magazines. We often liken him to a father that tells the kids to play outside so he can read the sports section in peace.
Bosom Buddies
We always knew that Mave would do great in a larger group but we’ve been pleasantly surprised by how well Willy B and Honey B are getting along with their new family. Willy B adores Rayne – I’ve never seen him as expressive as when he is playing with his new pal. And while Honey B tends to be more of a loner in general, she is part of a new clique that Diana has dubbed “the mall walkers”. Each playroom has a second floor catwalk that extends around all four sides of the room and overlooks the main floor below, similar to those fancy indoor malls where people of a certain age do their speed-walking. Each morning, beginning around 7am, Honey B, Dora, and Rayne walk laps around the second floor of each playroom together, often playing but otherwise just getting their steps in.
Eight is Enough
Each morning we serve breakfast in one or more of the greenhouses and playrooms and attempt to close off an area for cleaning. Eight of the chimps happily cooperate. Honey B does not. This isn’t any different than when she lived in her group of three, but early in the introduction process there was a concern that we’d have to reintroduce her each morning if she was separated during cleaning due to her reluctance to shift. Despite the fact that she would have been living happily with the group just hours prior, these reintroductions had the potential to cause tension and hinder the integration process. Thankfully, she has been able to come and go as she pleases without issue, and a couple hours of alone time seems to give her a great deal of comfort.
Family Ties
It can takes months, even years, for two groups to become fully integrated, meaning that they no longer fall back on old, familiar patterns of association. Right now we are seeing two distinct patterns. During the day, the chimps act as though they have always been one big group. Willy B is often at the center of early morning grooming parties on the greenhouse tree structures, Honey B plays and walks laps with Rayne and Dora, and Mave is everywhere at all times doing everything with everyone. But at night, it’s back to three and six. Mave, Honey B, and Willy B make their nests in the front rooms – specifically Front Room 6 – while the others sleep on the catwalks and nesting platforms in the two playrooms. They are all free to sleep where they choose, but for now it seems there’s comfort in sticking with the old gang when it’s time to let your guard down and catch some sleep.
One Day at a Time
When it comes to group formation, there is no point at which we will pat ourselves on the back and declare victory. But whatever happens, I think we can celebrate the introduction process and these first three weeks that they have lived as a full group. Honestly, there have been many days over the last few weeks when the Cle Elum Seven bickered more than the nine. And they’ve lived together for 16 years! Still, chimps will be chimps, and there will be plenty of fights ahead. More importantly, however, there will also be plenty of playing, grooming, reassuring, even mall-walking – all the things we’d dreamed about when we first met Honey B, Willy B, and Mave and imagined them in larger family.
