Archives for August 2023

Lifespan

August 11, 2023 by Jenna

What is the lifespan of a chimpanzee?

Any chimpanzee above the age of 30 is considered geriatric. Therefore, all of the residents at CSNW are considered geriatric!

In the wild, the life expectancy of chimpanzees is 33 years, but on rare occasions, some live into their 60’s. In captivity, chimpanzees can sometimes live into their 60’s and 70’s (although rare). Heart disease is the leading causes of death in captive populations. Female chimpanzees typically live longer than male chimpanzees, as males are more prone to heart conditions. Captive female chimpanzees are more prone to renal failure.

I will reference the article I used here.

Photos from today!

Rayne (33 years old) sleeping in the Riverview Greenhouse:

Jamie (45 years old) working on a boomer ball with peanuts inside:

Annie (~49 years old) walking bipedally out on Young’s Hill:

Cy (33 years old) laying in the Oakwood Greenhouse:

Gordo (35 years old):

Beautiful Negra (50 years old) in her morning nest:

Rayne waiting for breakfast:

Cy looking up from reading:

A Day in the Life of a Caregiver!

August 10, 2023 by Anna

A peek inside the busy day of our staff and volunteers!

Moments Like This

August 9, 2023 by Kelsi

As caregivers, there is a lot going on all around us. We often catch quick glimpses of fun, sweet, or playful interactions between the chimps or even with caregivers. Today, I thought I would share just a few of the infinite special interactions we see throughout the day at the sanctuary or if we are lucky enough, get to be apart of.

Throughout the week, caregivers will often stumble upon a sweet grooming session, goofy play match, or someone being mischievous (aka Honey B). Last Saturday, something so funny and spectacular happened. It honestly might be one of my favorite moments with Honey B thus far, and there are a lot of favorite memories with Honey B. I was trying to to serve Willy B pudding, which was laced with meds, because well Willy B is a hard chimp to give meds to and pudding is usually a last stitch effort (a Hail Mary if you will). In attempt to increase my odds of Willy B taking his meds, I offered non-med pudding to everyone else so Willy B wouldn’t question his pudding (it worked like a charm). Sometimes if he knows we added meds to it, he will refuse. While I was offering Dora pudding, she swiped the spoon quickly and walked away. Honey B came over to me right as Dora walked away because it was her turn for pudding! I asked her if she could get the spoon from Dora because I had no other way to serve it. Honey B had no problem kindly taking the spoon from her friend Dora’s hand and returned it to me promptly so we could continue :).

There are so many amazing moments, I hope you enjoy the video 🙂

Bonus photos from Foxie’s party yesterday!

Jamie very proud of her collection of pineapples bowls:

Annie’s sweet face full of pineapple:

Missy enjoying her pineapple:

More bonus photos!

Missy watching her friends go out on Young’s Hill this morning:

Negra holding one of Foxie’s new dolls in her pelvic pocket:

Negra nesting this morning:

Foxie with her new orange blossom:

A Day for Foxie!

August 8, 2023 by Grace

Today was a busy, fun, crazy, happy day here at CSNW! We celebrated sweet and sassy Foxie’s 47th birthday- can you believe it?

She makes 47 look pretty darn great. 🙂

And we’d like to give our heartfelt thanks to Paulette Wrisley for sponsoring Foxie’s special day of celebration! It means so much to us to be able to honor Foxie, and each of the chimpanzees, for the amazingly special individuals they are.

We kicked off the celebrations with a delicious smoothie for the birthday girl, who loves smoothies and holds her own cup every morning. She got new dolls throughout the day, enjoyed a pre-party party, and then had a forage on Young’s Hill complete with Pineapple Bowls (!) full of yummy fruit, bok choy, cucumber, and cabbage. Despite the weather being quite warm, everyone went out on the Hill and was able to grab at least one pineapple bowl. Cy’s group also enjoyed pineapple bowls with lots of fresh goodies! Be sure to check out the video for more.

If you are new to following us, Foxie was born on August 8th, 1976 at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research. According to our records her mother, Winny, passed away at the Alamogordo Primate Facility in 2013. Foxie was used in hepatitis vaccine research and as a breeder while living in the lab. She had four babies- all of whom were taken from her when they were very, very young. In the wild, chimpanzees rely heavily on their mothers for many years and live with them through their adolescence. The practice of taking infants from their mothers in laboratories has long-term harmful impacts on both the mother and the offspring- I, personally, cannot imagine this sort of trauma.

When she came to sanctuary, she adopted a doll within the first month here. This single doll has turned into quite a collection and she has one, if not two, babies with her all the time. She enjoys games of troll toss and will often give one of her caregivers a doll to ‘babysit’ for her. She lets us know when she’s ready to have them back by blowing raspberries in the loft of the playroom by the human kitchen. 🙂 When she really gets going and is playing chase with a caregiver, she is known to do these amazing spins across the floor from one end of the room to the other. Or she will climb up the caging and flip so she hangs upside down. After all she has been through, her resiliency and silly nature is truly awe-inspiring.

Foxie is a sweet, spunky, forgiving, and absolutely precious soul who I feel lucky to know. Happy birthday, Fox. <3

Photos from the day:

Foxie allowed a mini photo-shoot in the front rooms this morning:

Negra scored a pineapple bowl during the forage:

Jamie, looking as regal as ever:

Jamie, winning the ‘How-Many-Pineapples-Can-I-Carry-At-Once’ Award:

Annie looking very sweet during the pre-party party in their greenhouse:

And on the hill:

Burrito decided to enjoy his pineapple bowl on Young’s Hill:

Burrito also enjoyed the Gatorade pools:

Birthday girl enjoying her pineapple bowl on Young’s Hill:

And a fresh green onion:

Ryan’s Party

August 7, 2023 by J.B.

What an interesting day!

We began early this morning with a quick follow-up exam on Willy B. A couple of weeks ago, Willy was treated in the clinic for swelling in his scrotum and given an echocardiogram. His echo showed some minor cardiac concerns and Dr. Erin is now working with the chimps’ cardiologist, Dr. Nelson, to formulate a long-term plan. The swelling was the result of a hydrocele, which was treated at the time with aspiration and sclerotherapy. This morning, Dr. Erin conducted a quick follow up to ensure that Willy was responding to the treatment appropriately. Most of the procedures we do take place in the clinic with the chimps on gas anesthesia but for brief, minimally-invasive exams, like this morning’s ultrasound, we will sometimes do them inside one of the front rooms so that the chimps can be more lightly anesthetized and get back to their routines more quickly. Thankfully, Willy B passed his follow-up exam and recovered promptly after the anesthetic was reversed. He is, however, demanding that his medications be administered inside cinnamon rolls. It’s amazing what they can get away with after a procedure when they realize how badly we need them to take their meds! Enjoy it while it lasts, buddy.

While Willy B was being examined, his group was involved in a soap opera with a scandalous sexually-themed plot line. Prior to the integration of the two Waystation groups, Terry would regularly copulate with Dora—especially around meal times. After the integration, when Mave discovered that her purpose in life was to protect her new best friend Dora, she put an end to those shenanigans (in what has become known around these parts as Mave’s Feminist Uprising). Well today, Terry though it was time to test the waters again. Sure enough, when Mave caught sight of Terry in action, she screamed at him. This time, however, Terry ran straight at Mave and thumped her on the back. Screaming and chasing naturally ensued. Upon hearing the commotion, Willy B even tried his best to return to consciousness so he could get in on the action…to no avail, of course. In the end, did Mave reassert herself as Dora’s ultimate protector or did Terry show Mave that he would no longer be bossed around? Stay tuned for tomorrow’s episode.

Later in the morning we had a visit from Friends of JACK Primate Sanctuary, a U.S. partner to JACK Primate Sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to share enrichment ideas and then held parties for each of our chimpanzee families in honor of Ryan Young, as shown in the video above. Many thanks again to Karen and Don for funding Ryan’s Lookout and sponsoring this special day. Chad placed a number of watermelon bowls on Ryan’s Lookout with the hope that several chimps would be able to enjoy them…but Rayne got to all of them first.