Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Amanda Hathaway

Primatology: a feminist science

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March is Women’s History Month so we would like to celebrate by showing our appreciation for all the women in our lives, both human and non-human, periodically throughout the month. Today, I thought it might be appropriate to introduce primatology as a “feminist science” as it has been frequently dubbed throughout the years. The proportion of women studying primatology is roughly half, which at first doesn’t scream girl power, however, compared to other fields like mathematics and physics and even other biological sciences like marine mammology, 50% women is actually an impressive statistic. (If you’re curious to read more, follow this link for an article on the subject published by Linda Marie Fedigan in 1994.) That is not to say, however, that primatology is a perfectly equal-opportunity field; there are still many challenges to equality yet to be assuaged just as in any professional arena. For a more recent and in-depth look at primatology’s glass ceiling you can follow this link.

Perhaps the trend began with Dr. Louis Leakey who hired three women, Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas to study wild chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans, respectively. These three women would become indisputably the most famous primatologists in the world, establish high profile conservation programs, and influence an entire generation of primatologists in their wake. It’s not too often that multiple women achieve such high esteem in a single field in a single generation. I can attest from personal experience, and I’m certain that I am not alone here, that their existence and the light they shone on the magnificence of the great apes, elicited a passion in my heart and mind as a young girl that has been driving me ever since. My passion was and still is bolstered by another woman in primatology, my mom. When I was young, she was studying anthropology in college and took a keen interest in primatology. She interned for both the Jane Goodall Institute and the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund and I tagged along with bright eyes and bushy tail. My appreciation goes out to all the women in the field who have come before me and whom I’m lucky to call my peers.

From left to right: Dian Fossey, Jane Goodall, and Birute Galdikas circa sometime in the late sixties

Look out for more Women’s History Month blog posts this month!

 

Be mine, Meredith

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Last, but not least of our Bovine Buddies, is the lovely Meredith who, shockingly, only has two sponsors, Monica and Jackie, who actually sponsor all four of our cattle comrades! Thank you for being such stellar supporters, Monica and Jackie! If you would like to boost Meredith’s numbers and become her Bovine Buddy, you can do so here.

Watch the video below created by our co-director, Diana, to fall in love with Meredith!

Meredith is the biological daughter of Honey, the adopted daughter of Betsy, and the adopted sister to Nutmeg. One big happy family! She was born in 2015 during the filming of a reality TV show called Utopia, which aired for only a brief time. Honey and Betsy were purchased for the show from a dairy farm and both were pregnant. After giving birth, Honey had trouble nursing Meredith due to a case of mastitis, which is very painful and is a common complication for dairy cows. Luckily for Meredith, however, Betsy, being pregnant with Nutmeg, prematurely produced milk and eagerly allowed Meredith to nurse. Soon after, Nutmeg was born – impossibly tiny compared to his great size today – and the family unity was complete!

Click here to watch a video of baby Meredith being reunited with her mom(s)!

When the show got cancelled, the four cattle were taken in by Farm Sanctuary in Northern California and when the sanctuary had to close in 2018, they moved to CSNW where they will live out the rest of their lives in cow heaven.

Little Meredith at Farm Sanctuary

I’ve only had about six months to get to know Meredith so far, but she’s been a joy to work with. I quickly learned that she loves to receive scratches and will streeeetch her nose straight up while you scratch under her chin and jaw. She also seems to kindof enjoy gentle eye rubs. I’m told she will forage for willow leaves and wild rose in the summer and I know first hand she loves alfalfa and her daily grain!

Meredith has developed arthritis in her front hoof joints, making it painful to walk, but she’s been a real trooper as the care staff have done their best to diagnose and treat it. She has endured a full season of pokes and prods, transportation to WSU for treatment, limited access to her habitat during recovery, and even chiropractic appointments! She lets us know when she’s irritated, but considering everything she puts up with, she has been very patient. Can you imagine Honey cow in her place?? We would have to wear armor, I think.

Meredith getting scanned at WSU

 

Meredith and her mom, Honey, share a tender moment while Meredith is separated for recovery

Beautiful wintery Meredith

 

If you’ve fallen in love with Meredith like we all have, please consider becoming her Bovine Buddy!

Mirror Mania

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Chimpanzee intelligence is well-known and a specific aspect of their intelligence that I find particularly fascinating is their awareness of self as separate from others, or ‘theory of mind’. A classic experiment used to test for theory of mind in animals is the mirror test whereby a mark is placed on the face or some other body part of an animals and then they are presented with a mirror. If the animal notices the mark and reaches towards their own face instead of the one in the mirror, this indicates that they are aware that the image in the mirror is themself and not another animal. This works on a number of species we all recognize to be intelligent like elephants, dolphins, and the great apes while, interestingly, other nonhuman primates like monkeys, will fail this test. Human children typically begin to pass the mirror test around the age of two.

I’ve always enjoyed watching chimpanzees look at themselves in the mirror. Some are more interested than others in their own reflections, usually picking at marks or scabs on their face and head, opening their mouths to inspect their teeth and tongue, and sometimes making faces at themselves. Are they amused? Are they curious? What’s happening in those minds?!

To celebrate this endearing behavior, I’ve decided to put together a compilation of photos and videos of the chimps at CSNW looking at their own beautiful faces. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday, Rayne!

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Socks, box, books, mangoes. These are some of Rayne’s favorite things and today we made sure she had them for her 34th birthday! She and her group also got a forage lunch with corn, leeks, cherry tomatoes, and small paper cups of smoothie. We would like to extend our appreciation to Paulette Wrisley for sponsoring Rayne’s birthday. Thank you, Paulette!

As I’ve gotten to know Rayne in my short time here, I’ve grown to really admire her personality. She keeps a cool head most of the time and seems to value maintaining the traditional order of things among her group; being selective about which conflicts she chooses to intervene in. Sometimes she lays down the law, other times she calmly flips through her bonobo book, unbothered, while chaos ensues loudly around her. She’s also been seen to keep the peace in a placating gesture to Willy B when he’s growing anxious or an invitation to Honey B join her when Mave and Dora left her alone. She’s really a sweet soul. I’ve also been lucky enough to share in Rayne’s more silly, quirky nature. Sometimes she’ll find a sock to don and walk around in for no apparent reason. Her preference for a good box to sit in during mealtime is just delightful. And occasionally I can get her to join me in some goofy playtime, stomping feet and bobbing heads.

It was a pleasure to celebrate Rayne today and I hope you all enjoy our video of the celebration!

Honey B Update

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Honey Bizzle, Beans, Chick-a-bean, BB, or simply, B. Honey B is a chimp of many names called fondly by those who care for her. Now I pose another: Honey Balboa. She’s a scrappy little thing, that’s for sure and her recent wound to the eye only serves to further solidify her likeness to the famous fictional fighter, Rocky Balboa.

A quick update on her recovery: we still have her separated from the rest of the group to ensure she can rest and heal undisturbed. Well, relatively undisturbed; she can’t help but to join in and vocalize when she hears conflict arising without her. Some of the other chimps are pretty curious about her and will peer at her from the window they share as if to check in on her progress. Since she’s on her own we’ve filled her space with enrichment items that are usually not approved for some of the other chimps such as stuffed toys and her rolling scooter. We all make sure to check on her frequently and have noticed a dramatic improvement from yesterday. While she’s still a little tired, she’s eating well, taking her medications, and moving around just fine. Her suture site also looks clean and normal. We’re optimistic that she’ll be back with her group very soon.

Cozy corner complete with typically restricted enrichment items just for Honey B

Mave peers in to check up on Honey B

Honey B, alert and eating a snack with Mave looking on from the window

Rayne sat in the window for a few minutes to check on Honey B as well

Gordo taking his turn to examine Honey B

Honey B grooming the back of her caregiver’s hand while Gordo observes

Traffic Report

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We’re experiencing extreme winter weather and temperatures (it’s 5 degrees F as I write) out here in Cle Elum, which makes for interesting challenges to our operations. For instance, our driveway is steep and the produce delivery truck can’t make it up when it’s snowy, so the produce order gets dropped off at the bottom instead of conveniently by the front door. The driveway proved to be a challenge for some staff vehicles this morning too, so a few of us had to park at the bottom and walk up. But that’s not where the challenges end, oh no! Some of the hydraulic doors that are exposed to the cold move at a snail’s pace and the chimps are more less inclined to use the cold greenhouse spaces and therefore more cooped up and restless and prone to conflict. So, we were running a bit behind today, but we adapt and sally forth! We do our best to make sure their spaces are toasty warm and cozy with blankets and that they’re occupied with engaging enrichment items and activities. And while there was some conflict in this group today, there was also quite a lot of play, going on!

Unbeknownst to the Department of Transportation, they provided some interesting enrichment to the chimps today when they closed off I-90, causing traffic to redirect onto 1-10, which Cy’s group can see from their playroom windows. When the chimps noticed the increased traffic on their highway, they all gathered at the windows making alarm calls. This must have been a matter of deep concern because they were even distracted from lunch service!!

 

Three chimps watch the traffic at the bottom of the window while Dora gets a better view from above

 

Three chimps watch the traffic from an upstairs window while a fourth gets a personal viewing space downstairs

 

Temperature update: it is now 4 degrees F.

Try this on for size

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Jamie received a fresh pair of Doc Marten boots a few days ago and has been asking her caregivers to model them for her. Today was my first day back from my weekend and item #1 on Jamie’s agenda this morning was to very clearly request that I don this piece of footwear for her enjoyment. Well, what choice do I have? Jamie is the boss, after all.

 

Jamie takes her boot to the one spot she where it will fit through the caging as Burrito looks on

 

Watch out for footwear projectiles – sorry it’s so blurry :/

 

Once I put it on, Jamie came down and displayed with the blue barrel

 

Mission accomplished