Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Today we’ve reached part 4 (Rayne!) of my blog series about identifying the Lucky 6. Be sure to check out Identifying Cy, Gordo and Dora if you haven’t already. Rayne is most recognizable because of the dry skin on her forehead. She also has large ears that stick out a bit, long fingers and a straight back posture.
After you watch the above video, what features might you use to identify Rayne?
As caregivers, we collect photos and videos on our phones constantly throughout the week. However, not everything makes it to the blog. Often when we get to our designated blog day, the chimps do something that inspires an idea or specific theme so we end up saving the content for later, or if we are nice, we share it with a co-worker if they are in need. The only thing about saving it for later is that it can get lost on our camera roll. Luckily for all of you, I have found some of the best unseen clips from the vault (aka my phone) and made a video to share! It would be a tragedy if these videos did not get shared with all of you!
Photos from the vault!
Terry grooming Honey B. It was such a tender and sweet moment between the two of them:
Rayne intensely grooming Mave:
Rayne striking a pose on the firehose:
A bonus photo!
This morning as we all arrive to the sanctuary it was very chill, but the morning fog looked so beautiful:
Jamie seemed to enjoy the fog and crisp air because she was so excited to go for a walk this morning. She came sprinting out of the raceway!
Today’s blog title is based off of one of my favorite tenet’s of sanctuary.
We take them for where they are in life and love them for who they are.
We take them as they are.
Each chimp that we have the opportunity to care for, love, and get to know here at CSNW is unique. Their personalities are different and vary from the more human oriented chimps like Jamie to the more chimps-chimp oriented like Annie, to the super playful like Burrito, to the reserved but sweet and gentle (and sometimes spicy / gravity defying) Lucky. Their differences make them who they are and we love them because of these differences- not in spite of these differences.
A few days ago, Caregiver Sabrina posted a blog about lessons that we have learned from the chimps. Along with everything listed there, something I will always carry with me is how sanctuary provides the space they deserve to be cared for and loved unconditionally. Some days are hard, and some parts of chimp dynamics are hard to understand from a human perspective, but no matter what’s happened- we will always be here for them. And the same goes for the cattle, of course.
For example- last week I was standing with Jamie asking if she wanted to groom, but she was focused on something happening in the kitchen. Annie came over, sat, and looked up at me- so I offered her the grooming tool. She took it and groomed me for longer than she ever has before. Later that afternoon, I found Gordo sitting in the Oakwood Greenhouse. He did a little knuckle tap and headed over to sit on the log that he frequents, that was also conveniently right in a nice, warm ray of sunshine. I took a seat outside- and we just sat. I kept expecting him to walk away or gesture that he wanted me to leave, but he stayed facing me, just being quiet. After a while I walked in to check on things in the foyer and when I went back out he had gone into the playroom. The moment was over, but it will stay with me.
These might be the only two moments where I spend one-on-one time with both of them this month, or maybe not. But either way, they’re family.
These moments with Annie and Gordo aren’t more special than moments with the other chimps, that goes without saying. But if Jody’s loss taught me anything, it’s to appreciate every moment they give us.
And, man- unconditional love? That’s a pretty great thing… Isn’t it.
Gordo:
Fear is something we usually try to avoid instilling in the animals we care for. In fact, one of the original frameworks for thinking about animal welfare, known as the Five Freedoms, included as one of its central tenets the “freedom from fear and distress.”
But a little fear can also be a good thing.
As a caregiver, I love watching the chimps take their first anxious, tentative steps onto grass. I love watching them seek reassurance as they venture far into a new enclosure and away from everything they consider safe and comfortable. And I love seeing the expression of relief and excitement when they finally accomplish the thing they were so afraid of.
Certainly it would be better if they weren’t afraid of these particular things in the first place. But we all have some fears, and if we didn’t face them now and again we wouldn’t really be living. So long as we have choice, social support, and the ability to retreat to a place of safety and comfort when things feel overwhelming, it almost feels like a little fear should be a requirement.
Perhaps I just need a different word—something that refers specifically to a condition of one’s own choosing that is equal parts fear and exhilaration, but particularly one that involves overcoming some sort of obstacle, either physical or emotional. Words like thrill and frisson don’t seem to really capture it. I’m sure it exists…maybe someone reading this can help me.
In any case, witnessing this emotion in the chimps at CSNW is for me the peak of compassion satisfaction. It’s almost like a high. And it’s one of the rare times that I wished I worked at a bigger sanctuary, so I could see it over and over again.
As I close up the chimp house, I often wonder if the chimps reflect on their day. I hope that Cy is laying in bed right now, picturing that view of the valley and feeling whispers of the way he was feeling when he first made it to the top of the Bray.
This little announcement is a long-time coming. I have thought about it many times, and have started to write a sponsor-a-day blog post in my head on several occasions, but somehow just never got it out.
You can skip to the end for actual chimpanzee content!
For those who have been following the blog for a while, you might remember a very important non-primate sanctuary resident – office cat LouLou.
Not surprisingly, after a long and good 23 years of life, she passed away early this Spring.
The office is simply not the same without her. She is buried not far away in the little catio that J.B. built for the cats (we used to have three total) outside of the caregiver house at the sanctuary. I planted a small and haphazard garden over her grave this summer that produced a few tomatoes and lovely sunflowers in her memory.
Shortly before LouLou passed away, J.B. and I took in a foster dog named Nala from a local rescue called Josie’s Misfit Ranch.
To absolutely no one’s surprise, we adopted Nala shortly after she came to live with us. Now, the caregiver house where J.B. and I reside is full of dog energy (don’t let these calm photos delude you into thinking calm is the norm). If you are interested, the dogs have their own Instagram page here.
There is still some cat energy at the sanctuary, however. Barn Kitty (BK), though he comes and goes as he pleases, still frequents the barn and its surroundings.
As you well know, we have many talented artists in our midst who have donated art for various auctions and fundraisers. When LouLou passed away, I reached out to one of them, Sue Cartwright, about doing a portrait of LouLou and one of a previous office cat, Peanut. Sue did an amazing job! Now all three of our cats our represented to purrfection. In the below photo, that’s a painting of Cuba in the middle by a Seattle artist named Vicki Nelson.
So, this is what is called burying the lead. I’m glad you are still with me!
Sue Cartwright has also painted a stunning and large portrait of Cy for our upcoming Comfort & Joy online auction! Are you ready??!!
For an idea of size, the painting is leaning up against a tall dog crate:
There are more original art pieces and some other fun items that will be part of Comfort & Joy. It that doesn’t cause you to immediately register for the online auction, well, I just don’t know what will.
Today the Saturday crew of caregivers here at CSNW were pondering all the things we’ve learned from chimpanzees throughout our careers. So here are the first few things we came up with, this is not at all a complete list as this will be an ongoing project but I hope you enjoy the photographic journey of life lessons taught to us by the chimps we’ve cared for.
1. The chimps are always right.
2. Enjoy the small things, never pass up an opportunity to play!
3. Life is short, so don’t take yourself too seriously
4. Stay vigilant – almost anything can become a weapon
5. Always, ALWAYS keep the chimps occupied. If you don’t have activities to keep them occupied then they might find their own projects to work on, like lock picking and bridge destruction.
6. Stay Humble.
Originally, I didn’t know I wanted to work with chimpanzees. From a young age, I was drawn specifically to orangutans. I have a vivid memory of being probably 8 years old, my mom and I were at the mall and we were in a candy shop that, in addition to candy, also sold random stuffed animals and Beanie Babies. There was a large size orangutan Beanie Baby (think the size of a 6 month old infant) that I BEGGED my mom for. It was $39.99, which was outrageous for a stuffed animal of any kind. Luckily for me, my mom gave in and bought it for me. This stuffed animal was just the beginning of my fascination with apes. I went on to do book reports in high school about orangutans where I would rave about how amazing they are.
Fast forward about fifteen years, I stumbled across the primate behavior program at Central Washington University while I was researching graduate programs and it immediately caught my attention. When I applied and even began the graduate program at CWU, I assumed that this was the beginning of the road to working with orangutans.
That is until I went to Fauna Foundation for a summer internship.
My internship at Fauna Foundation was the first time I had been around chimpanzees. I don’t think I had ever even seen a chimp in-person, as the Phoenix Zoo (where I grew up) only had orangutans and other smaller primates. I remember on the very first day of the internship, myself and the four other interns, were led around property by Dr. Mary Lee Jensvold. When we approached the chimp house, Tatu and Loulis greeted us from the outdoor aerial tunnels. Tatu began using American Sign Language to sign to her long-time friend, Dr. Jensvold. Dr. Jensvold signed to Tatu that we interns are new friends. I will never forget this interaction.
There was another memory from that summer that will always stick with me. We were doing a behavioral observation study where we were recording the chimpanzees’ activities throughout a day. We were creating a baseline for them, so their “normal” activity level would be recorded. Therefore, for about fifteen minutes at a time, I would observe a chimp’s activities and record them on an iPad. This one day in particular, I was observing Rachel. She was out relaxing on one of the islands when I walked up. After a few minutes of me observing her, she gathered her two stuffed gorillas and headed over to sit in front of me (her on the island behind the fencing, me on the sidewalk). Rachel sat there and stared at me for awhile. I tried not to stare back too much, as to not make her uncomfortable. It was clear to me she just liked being in the presence of someone. It’s a moment that is hard to describe, now that I’m behind a keyboard. Truly, it’s like everything clicked when I was sitting there with Rachel: how human-like chimpanzees are, how chimpanzees shouldn’t be in captivity, how they are just. like. us.
Ever since that summer, I knew I wanted to work with chimpanzees for the rest of my career.
Working with chimpanzees can be dramatic, stressful, exhausting, but it also is the best thing I have ever done.
When did you fall in love with chimpanzees? Comment below!
Burrito:
Negra:
