Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Archives for March 2025

Dora’s Check-Up

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Dora made her first appearance in the veterinary clinic last week for a routine physical exam. Like Rayne, she willingly took the anesthetic injection (this time from Sabrina and Dr. Erin, with a prior assist from the entire positive reinforcement training team). While we have to wait for specialists to review some of the data the team collected, Dora appears to be in perfectly good health.

Many thanks to our great crew of volunteer professionals, from the vet techs, sonographers, and veterinary student extern helping with the procedure to the cardiologists and internists reviewing the results—and of course to our very own Dr. Erin!

Someone recently asked on social media what types of procedures the chimps undergo when they are in the clinic. While the answer depends on many factors, including their age, sex, clinical history, stability under anesthesia, and the amount of time since their last exam, we generally try to do the following:

  • Update Vaccinations (e.g., rabies, tetanus)
  • TB test
  • Glucose Reading
  • Fecal Exam
  • Urinalysis
  • Blood tests
  • EKG
  • Dental Exam and Cleaning
  • Dental X-Rays as needed
  • Echocardiogram
  • Cervical, Chest, and Abdominal X-Rays
  • Joint X-Rays as needed
  • Full Body Exam

Our goal is to perform these exams as infrequently as possible so it’s important to gather all the information we can while they’re in the clinic.

And that requires a great team.

Hopefully Dora will continue to stay healthy and out of trouble so she won’t have to come back to the clinic for a while.

Balance

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You can’t work with chimpanzees and not make comparisons to humans. Being around our closest living genetic cousins makes you ponder what we brought to the future with us from our common ancestors and where our species each went boldly, perhaps haphazardly, in different directions. These are questions that academics spend their entire careers attempting to answer, mainly out of the (let’s face it) selfish yet universal desire to understand life’s biggest and most enigmatic questions of “who are we”? and “why are we the way we are?”

I went to a yoga class on Saturday (shout out to Wild Rose Yoga in Cle Elum). The instructor encouraged us to think about the spring equinox and its related elements.

The Earth remains at a jaunty 23.5 (give a degree or two) tilt as she orbits around her life-force of the sun. On the two days of the equinox, one in spring and one in fall, as the Earth is making her annual slow circular stroll, the sun crosses the celestial equator, shining directly overhead at the Earth’s equator and spreading light to both the north and south pole at the same time. Even those of us in upper and lower latitudes experience a 24-hour cycle with equal parts daylight and night. The next day, this alignment changes ever so slightly, lengthening or shortening the day depending on which hemisphere is closest to the sun.

Today while I was cleaning, I was thinking about the equinox, balance, and our modern-day human tendency to strive for an idealized existence that is in perfect equanimity. I don’t think I’ve seen evidence that the chimpanzees strive for the same thing. They fight, they lose a finger, they groom, they sleep, they wake up, they eat, they try to get our attention to play, like Burrito is doing right now.

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insert commercial break here: While I was writing this, I could hear Burrito blowing raspberries in the playroom, so I went to say hello. He immediately engaged me in a game of chase which led to Burrito traveling around his outdoor habitat with me attempting to navigate the mud in my indoor shoes in order to orbit around him as he ran.

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I had physical therapy a few years ago. I took a couple of things away from that experience. Some helpful exercises to do and a new-to-me explanation of  proper running technique. The PT shared with me that running (for bipedal humans, anyway), when done in a form that is least harmful to your body, is actually a series of controlled falls. It’s allowing your feet to catch yourself, over and over again, as you fall forward.

Maybe it’s because chimpanzees are not bipedal that they are more in true balance.

Maybe they instinctively know that perpetual balance is not possible, and life would be pretty boring if it was. Or maybe they just exist, one step at a time, whether those steps are steady or not.

Let’s follow in their footsteps and not expect or frustratingly strive to reach a permanent state of balance. We can notice and appreciate those rare moments, like the equinox, when it happens. Then we can let them go and get back to just keeping ourselves and each other from falling, or at least picking each other up when we inevitably do meet the ground in an unplanned and less than gentle way.

Quality Time with Gordo

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In today’s blog video, spend some quality time with Gordo as he provides the best kind of distraction for a caregiver in the form of light taps to get our attention, bunny hops, a sweet kiss through the glass, and other Gordo antics. He is such a joy to know and love!

Rainy day fun!

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Today, the second day of spring, started out promising!  As Ellen and I were giving the cattle an early morning snack, the sun was starting to peek out from behind the clouds.  The sun’s rays felt nice and warm!  I was excited, anticipating a warm, sunny spring afternoon.  Chimps lounging in the greenhouses, and venturing outside.  When I gave Burrito access to his 2 acre outdoor habitat, Young’s Hill, he took off running!  Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to join him but I promised I would do a perimeter run with him this afternoon.  Because, you know, it was going to be a sunny spring afternoon, right??

Well, I don’t know if it’s like this everywhere, but, spring in the Pacific Northwest is unpredictable.  Cue the rainfall.

So, what do the chimps do when it rains?

Some chimps like to curl up in a big, warm blanket nest (Negra).

Others like to spend time with a challenging enrichment item (Jamie).

Some prefer to watch their favorite movies and videos (Willy B).

Other chimps peruse the latest gossip magazines (Cy).

But, what do Burrito and Foxie do?

You’ll have to watch the video to find out!

p.s.  Don’t worry, Kelsi couldn’t deny Mr. Bubs a run around the hill in the misty drizzle this afternoon!  You’re a good sport, Kelsi!

Honey B’s Tips & Tricks

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When it comes to a mess, Honey B knows a thing or two. Many of you might know that Honey B doesn’t mind a messy room and would in fact live in her own mess for a while if she had a say in it, and sometimes she does, which is why she is also an expert at cleaning a mess! Last week, one of the enrichment days was soap buckets. This is where we put in the tiniest amount of soap and make a lightly soapy bucket and put out scrub brushes for the chimps. Sometimes the chimps enjoy the enrichment and other times, the chimps wonder why we didn’t fill the buckets with a tasty juice. Honey B took the opportunity to use her soap buckets, whether it was because she just thought it was fun or because she thought we missed a few spots, we can’t know. What we do know is that Honey B was thoroughly enjoying herself, so much so, we later provided her a towel so that she could dry her front room and she was very enthusiastic to be able to continue her cleaning process. Honey B really is one cool chimp.

Click here to watch Honey B’s Tips & Tricks!

Rayne’s Exam: The Prequel

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You all saw in J.B’s blog recently that Rayne had a physical exam last week and he shared with you what goes into making such a thing possible with a chimpanzee but there is another aspect of the exam that I’m going to share today. And that is getting one individual separated from their group so they can safely be sedated for their vet visit. You can follow me step by step during this process in today’s blog video!

A Miss-lead morning

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There comes a day in every caregiver’s career where you see a certain look in a chimpanzee’s eye.  The look of total determination from concentrate. If you see this look, you immediately know… your day just got a lot more complicated and you have a stubborn shifter on your hands. Missy is an infamously headstrong shifter and often chooses to stay in an enclosure rather than letting us close it off so we can safely enter it for morning cleaning. Over the years she has relaxed some and mostly chooses to shift with her group, but every now and then, the old obstinate Missy show’s her freckly face and we have to come up with a plan B for cleaning. Today was one of those days and she stayed in the Playroom at breakfast. Of course, she was perfectly happy to shift a bit later in our routine for a head of romaine lettuce so it all worked out in the end.

We all have a Missy in our life who adds just a little bit of challenge and keeps things interesting. A tip of the hat on this Tuesday to Missy and those with a similar strong will.