Archives for September 2023

CSNW’s Funniest Home Videos: Part Two

September 7, 2023 by Grace

It has been quite a busy day here in the chimp house, so I’ve decided to keep my written blog brief and hope the video speaks for itself! 🙂

Back in January I wrote a blog titled ‘Cheers to The Goofy Moments‘- the first instillation of our own version of America’s Funniest Home Videos. We’ve been continuing to collect blooper moments throughout our work days here in the chimp house when we can. I hope you get a chuckle out of watching them just like we do!

Enjoy!

Bonus Photos:

Annie, gazing lovingly at the Frisbee Puzzle Enrichment they received today:

Terry enjoying the cool, cloudy afternoon by taking some time for himself out on The Bray:

Being Jamie’s Friend

September 6, 2023 by Kelsi

Being Jamie’s friend means you have accept her on her terms, love her for who she is, and take her on her good days and bad days (or minutes or hours). I love Jamie to pieces, but I also understand that living with her is probably not the easiest at times. She can be a tad bit controlling or even manipulative. Sometimes being her friend is knowing that she will beckoning you to come over, making you think she wants to groom or play when really she just wants you to give her grapes. Or that at some point while grooming she may decide she is over it and want you to go away, but instead of disengaging from the interaction she will act like she is going to throw poop at you or even actually throw poop at you. Sometimes being Jamie’s friend is watching her make questionable social decisions in her group. However, these are all parts of Jamie, it makes her who she is and Jamie is a remarkable chimpanzee.

I know I have written a blog like this many times, but I think the sentiment is worth repeating, especially for a chimp like Jamie. She is so extremely intelligent and very aware of her situation. Jamie uses her brilliance to her full advantage, as she should! For example, not letting us close off Young’s Hill at night, making it so staff can’t go home. Jamie is tough, stubborn, and controlling. However, Jamie’s controlling nature gives her power in a situation where she has surely felt powerless in her life. In sanctuary we want the chimps to feel free to make choices and give them that power back. I think chimps like Jamie show how comfortable they are in sanctuary when they can be themselves and are accepted for it.

As serious as Jamie is, it’s important to take advantage of the times when she does decide to let loose. When Jamie wants to play, you drop everything and say yes! Like this morning, Jamie was so funny. We played chase for a long time and Bat Jamie even joined us! Jamie has so many different layers to her and I love each and every one of them :).

Bat James:

Testing, Testing 1-2-3

September 5, 2023 by Chad de Bree

It has been a little while since we have talked about enrichment for Rayne’s group. If you happen to have been wondering, yes. They are still destructive in comparison to Jamie’s group. We have been taking it slow to see what works and what doesn’t. The problem with that is that it is what it is; slow. Though more and more things are added to their growing repertoire of enrichment, some in that group have a burning desire to eat plastic, stuffing from stuffed animals, and some other things. Just because they are destructive, does that mean we should stop trying? If you’re hardheaded and stubborn like myself, then you know the answer is “no.”

It has been a slow process of introducing them to new things, but things are still moving along. We recently attempted to introduce them to firehose cubes. Before Mave, Honey B, and Willy B integrated into the Lucky Six, firehose cubes were on the list of food puzzles they received. Since the cubes are pretty durable, we decided that was going to be the next step. The first trial run was overall a success! There was some minimal damage when caregivers were able to retrieve the next morning, but nothing that would stop the second trial run.

Though six of the group of nine have not experienced firehose cubes before, they had some to show them the ropes.

Mave working her way through a firehose cube as Dora looks on

Willy B reunited with one of his favorite food puzzles

For others, it came naturally. For instance:

Rayne, the queen of all natural intuition, didn’t even hesitate to grab one and rummage through it

(Cy is to the right perusing through a magazine and Lucky is in the back)

Hopefully (fingers crossed) you all will be seeing some more photos of firehose cubes with Rayne’s group.

Here are some bonus photos from today:

Mave being silly with a sock

A photo montage of Missy before and during a lunch forage today

Jamie during today’s lunch forage

(Always has to keep an eye on what everybody else is doing)

Negra looking like the queen that she is

Burrito returning from a “walk” (read run) around Young’s Hill

Perimeter Patrol Parkour

September 4, 2023 by J.B.

While the caregivers were preparing breakfast, Burrito and his family set out on their first patrol of the day.

Sometimes patrolling is serious business, like when there are strangers on the property or unusual animal noises coming from the hillside above. But most are a more laid back affair, with the object being to enjoy some fresh air, climb as many structures as possible along the way, and, occasionally, grab the feet of the person ahead of you.

In this video you can see Burrito selecting his stick of the day, which he then carries back with him to the chimp house. I remember working for days to clean up all of the slash debris from the trees we cut down to create the extended fence line. Thank goodness I gave up trying to get it all. Clearly these are some great sticks! Ultimately, these end up along with Jamie’s library of well-worn-but-still-clean-enough-to-keep books on the windowsill between the playroom and the kitchen.

It’s not all sunflowers and rainbows

September 3, 2023 by Diana

Crafting public messaging for a sanctuary can be challenging. As you all know, we tend to err on the side of transparency with Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. One reason that I think we are able to do this (aside from having the best supporters in the world who take the time to really get to know the sanctuary) is that we share so often and include the many different voices from the caregivers who post to this blog.

As a community, I think sanctuaries and animal welfare organizations (us included) can do themselves a disservice by presenting the story of the animals in our care in very black and white terms, sometimes implying that after they are rescued or released from their past lives of exploitation, they never have a bad day again. We know on an intellectual level that this is not possible. As intelligent, emotional, and social beings living in a complex environment, all animals, no matter their circumstances, will continue to experience pain, fear, boredom, depression, and all of the other emotions that they have evolved to experience. At the same time, we want, with all of our hearts, to believe that sanctuary = a paradise free from any negative experiences. Everyone is a sucker for a happy ending.

And sometimes the messaging in our field emphasizes that unreachable ideal. So, when an animal does have a bad day, or gets hurt, or is struggling with an emotional or social issue, followers (particularly the more casual followers who may not know as much about a sanctuary) can become disenchanted and accusatory, which could lead, ironically, to a sanctuary being less transparent.

Of course, there are facilities out there that are truly not good for a variety of reasons. Unfortunately, anyone can call their place a sanctuary. These facilities (I’m thinking of Myrtle Beach Safari, as an example), may have a very polished social media presence with multiple trainers that have millions of followers, all the while they deal in wildlife trafficking, dangerously misrepresent the true nature of the animals in their care, and grossly exaggerate (to put it mildly) their claims of giving funds towards the conservation of endangered species.

It’s frustrating.

All legitimate sanctuaries [important side note: Check this page on our website for tips and links on how you can tell a legitimate sanctuary from a pseudo-sanctuary], want the best for those in their care and they want people to support their efforts to make this happen. It can feel risky to open up and share the difficult times or just the reality of captivity, like the fact that the chimps are inside and “behind bars“). But, if all we ever shared were the chimpanzees in their outdoor habitats and never talked about the hard days, it would give everyone the wrong picture and create an ideal that no sanctuary could live up to.

To be quite honest, though, Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest is pretty great :). The animals here experience a good life. Not a perfect life, not a life devoid of all suffering, but a good one.

Here are some photos of flowers blooming all around them, to disprove my point about it not being all about sunflowers:

This is a sunflower that came up spontaneously, we think from a discarded or digested sunflower seed from the chimpanzees. They are becoming their own gardeners!

I’m not sure where these came from. I just noticed a small field of them on Young’s Hill. They look like chamomile to me.

Here’s an update on that tall sunflower that I wrote about a couple of weeks ago. With the chute and door behind for scale, you can see how tall it is!

This was a few days ago:

and this is how it looked this morning:

And here is 50+ year old Negra, more than 15 years into her sanctuary life, thoroughly enjoying part of today’s lunch forage:

For the Love of Chow

September 2, 2023 by Sabrina

During mealtime here at CSNW there isn’t much that Burrito looks forward to more than receiving his chow bags, he is careful to make sure not a speck of chow dust is left behind. Today I was able to document this love affair, enjoy!

A Boy and His Chow: A Series