Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Archives for September 2023

A Good Distraction

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For caregivers, there are many different types of distractions in the chimp house! Often when cleaning, Foxie will ask you to play troll toss, or Willy B would like you to stop cleaning so he can look at videos on your phone, or Cy wants to play chase, and of course there is the possibility of perimeter walks of  Young’s Hill with Jamie. Often the best distraction is when the chimps are playing with one another. We always stop cleaning for a moment to observe. For example, Burrito is often the best at getting his group members to play with him, even if they didn’t think they were in the mood. Burrito is so good at distracting, he can even get Jamie to be off-duty!

Of course there are other types of distraction that aren’t as fun, like when a caregiver is trying to write a blog and there is endless displaying on Willy B’s side of the building which turns into a fight that required us caregivers to respond to. For Burrito’s group, that same fight on the other side of the building, turned into watching their favorite reality TV show: Mave on the Bray. That is right, MAVE was on the Bray today! Although, the reason Mave was on the Bray may have been because all nine chimps went outside screaming and gave caregiver Kelsi and Jenna a bit of a scare, but Mave, Dora, and Honey B looked good out there! When Mave returned, Honey B gave her a big hug and Dora also fully embraced her. However, terrifying as it was, it was spectacular to see everyone out there. It was the first time the entire group were on The Bray. I am not sure when Mave or Dora will go back out, hopefully soon but maybe under different circumstances. Miss Honey B, on the other hand, may only go out when she is screaming at people (that seems to be her personal pattern so far). More updates to come if Mave, Dora, and Honey B continue to go out on The Bray!

I had more content I wanted to add to this blog, but naturally I got distracted ;).

Mave on the Bray:

Jamie:

Jamie and her book:

Burrito:

Negra and Burrito foraging in Neggie’s Cabin:

Negra :):

 

 

In memory of Carlene Olsen-Garza

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Our heartfelt gratitude to long-time supporter of the sanctuary, Joseph Garza, for sponsoring this day of sanctuary in memory of his late wife, Carlene, who loved the chimpanzees so.

“In memory of my late wife, Carlene K. Olsen-Garza on what would have been her 66th birthday. Carlene fell in love with the chimps when there were only seven and followed their adventures until the end. She loved to hear about what Jamie, Foxie and Burrito (her favorites) were up to and dreamed of one day visiting the sanctuary to see them in-person. That was not to be, but I was bestowed that privilege the year after her passing. Thank you CSNW.”

Thank you for allowing the chimpanzees (and us all) to be part of Carlene’s beautiful legacy, Joseph. We’re honored that her loving heart and memory continue to dwell here at the sanctuary, bringing so much to the chimpanzees’ lives.

Jamie:

Jamie in Carlene’s Tower:

Burrito:

Jamie, Foxie and Burrito (Carlene’s Tower in the background):

Foxie:

Missy, Foxie and Jamie in Carlene’s Tower, in it’s new location under the pines since the Young’s Hill expansion last autumn:

Negra and Her Corn

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It has been a beautiful day here in Cle Elum and we took full advantage of it with lunch forages for both groups! Forages are a great time to get creative and use up any last bits of produce that we have leftover in the fridge from previous meals. Today, for example, Negra’s group had a lunch forage that consisted of leftover mini sweet peppers, oranges, two leftover grapefruits, baby iceberg lettuce, leftover corn, and primate chow.

Despite the variety in today’s lunch forage, Negra focused on one of her favorites: corn. When she came back into the greenhouse I thought she had found one full and one half ear of corn, but when I looked closer I noticed that she had two half ears and one full ear of corn! Sneaky! (Side note: does no one else find it odd that we refer to corn as ears?)

I realized that I have quite a bit of footage on my phone of Negra enjoying corn- and thus the idea for today’s blog! I hope you enjoy the three minute compilation of Negra enjoying one of her favorite foods. 🙂

Bonus Photos:

Negra, coming into the Greenhouse from the lunch forage:

Annie, enjoying a piece of grapefruit:

Foxie, before the lunch forage, curled up in the Greenhouse with one of her babies:

 

Grooming with Terry

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Chimpanzee grooming vocalizations fall into a few broad categories. Generally speaking, you’ve got your teeth clackers, your lip smackers, and your raspberry blowers. But within those categories, every chimp’s vocalization is unique. Some are quiet, with the lips just barely touching as if they are whispering. Others are quite loud – I can often hear Willy B’s teeth clacking during the morning grooming sessions through the security camera system audio.

Each chimpanzee has a different style of grooming, as well. Terry likes to do two things: 1) gently brush your skin with his fingers, and 2) try to pull individual hairs out of your arm. Our safety rules prohibit us from allowing the chimps to use two hands while grooming us, so Terry is forced to try to pluck our hairs by grasping them between his index and middle fingers. Luckily for us, it’s not very effective.

For chimps like Terry, grooming seems to be more about spending quality time with chimp and human friends. For Honey B, on the other hand, it’s all about picking scabs and drawing blood. She gets frenzied when she sees something to pick at, and she will continually direct you to turn your arm or present a different body part until she finds something good. I actually feel bad disappointing her when I haven’t injured myself recently. Honey B is the reason why we sometimes turn around and wonder how someone got in a fight without us hearing a sound. Where did all those wounds suddenly come from? Turns out Dr. Honey B was on duty and she opened every nearly-healed scrape and scab on one of her friends!

I wish chimpanzees were always as gentle as Terry is in this video as he tries to shoo away the third wheel at his grooming party.

A Day for Annie!

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There can never be enough parties!!!

That must be one of our mantras here at CSNW. After celebrating HOOT! 2023 yesterday evening, we rolled into the chimp house this morning ready to celebrate again. Today, though, we are celebrating Annie’s 49th birthday! Like Jenna wrote in her blog yesterday, it truly takes a village to support the chimpanzees and cattle in our care. Thank you to everyone who participated in HOOT! yesterday, whether in person or remotely. It’s really wonderful to be surrounded by a community such as this one.

Today, we celebrated Annie’s 49th. It’s always shocking to me when I remember Annie’s age, because (for me) she is timeless.

Annie is a special lady. She is what we refer to as a ‘chimps chimp’, in that she prefers spending time with her group mates rather than with humans. She lets others in her group take charge and can be anxious at times, but loves spending time with Missy and is known to play rough with Burrito every now and then. She has had a tough journey- we celebrate her birthday on September 10th and we believe it’s possible that she was born in the wild. Before coming to CSNW, she spent her life in biomedical research where she was used in hepatitis vaccine studies. She also had quite a few babies while in the lab, potentially even up to 7, but they were all taken from her. In the lab, she wasn’t given the opportunity to decide how she would be known.

Here at CSNW, she is known for making her unique ‘bird-noises’ when she’s laying down, for washing her face with water that she cups in her hands and rubs vigorously across her forehead which leaves the hair on the top of her forehead all spiky. She is known for walking (or even running) bipedally while out on the hill, and for her love of human toes and comfy nests. Us humans often know when spring is coming after a long winter when we find Annie wearing one of her beloved head bands around her waist. She is sweet, kind, and often quiet, but will adventure to the top of Young’s Hill with her best pal, Missy. If you’re serving her, she will let you know if you are taking too long (or if she’s not ready to take something yet). Her food grunts when she’s eating something she loves (like pears at breakfast this morning) are deep and soothing.

We love her for exactly who she is.

 

A big thank you to Paulette Wrisley for sponsoring Annie’s birthday today- from everyone here, thank you for helping us celebrate this special lady!!!

BONUS PHOTOS:

Annie:

Foxie:

Jamie:

Negra:

It Takes a Village

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Today is the perfect day to express gratitude for everyone who helps Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest be the organization it is. I have been thinking about this a lot lately… how many people love the chimps near and far.

We have directors who have dedicated their entire lives to the chimps. We have staff who have moved across the country, away from their families, to work with the chimps. We have volunteers that help caregivers clean multiple times a week. We have volunteers that help us keep up with the endless amounts of laundry, that organize our kitchen so the caregivers have more time to spend with the chimps, and/or come and fill 100+ chow bags. We have donors who drop off a bag of peanuts and a bag of magazines consistently, without saying a word. We have online supporters that comment on our blog and social media every single day. We have supporters who buy something off of our Amazon Wishlist every week. This list goes on and on, truly.

There are so many little things that help us be hugely successful. Thank you so much for helping us care for the chimps! Thank you to all the volunteers for doing what you do. Thank you to my co-workers for caring for the chimps day-in and day-out.

We wouldn’t be able to do it without each and every one of you. Thank you for the never-ending support for CSNW.

Tonight is HOOT 2023, our biggest fundraising event of the year! If you are unable to join us in Seattle, you can join us virtually for free! Please secure your spot here and join in on the fun! Don’t miss it!

Photos from today!

Honey B with a bamboo stick:

Lucky (front) with Terry (back):

Mave:

Jamie:

Building Upon the Foundation (PRT)

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Following my recent blog about Positive Reinforcement Training (PRT) with Rayne, I thought I would do another PRT blog today with a new topic… Injection training!

Injection training is extremely helpful in case of emergency or routine procedures, where the chimpanzees would undergo anesthesia. Sometimes these procedures are planned and we can work on injection training for the months/weeks leading up to the procedure, or occasionally there is an emergency and a chimp needs to have an anesthetic procedure the same day. Therefore, we try to consistently work on injection training with the chimps, as we never know when their PRT skills will have to be put to use.

For injection training, we use a blunt needle as we are just practicing. We ask the chimp to present their arm (either left or right) by using the gestural cue for “arm”, then use our clicker to reinforce them presenting their arm. We will then ask them to hold the position while we pick up the needle syringe. We then let them know what we are doing by saying “poke” and press the blunt needle to the arm. As soon as the chimp allows this, the clicker is used to let them know that is what we wanted and then we follow with a reward (in the video today, it is peanuts). Injection training can be scary and nerve-racking for some chimps, so we typically give them more of a reward than we would with an easier task.

All of Cy’s group (who previously lived at Wildlife Waystation) do so well at PRT. It is clear that their former caregivers have put a lot of time and effort into PRT, and therefore, have built a strong foundation with all of these chimps. Thank you so much to all of their previous caregivers if you’re reading this!

Dora:

Burrito: