Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Anna

Intriguing browse

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This weekend the chimpanzees tried Lemmon’s Willow browse for the first time and they LOVE it! It has this amazing sticky sweet smell that reminds me vividly of hanging out in the shade along the local Yakima River during those warm summer afternoons.
Apparently, if you ask many of the chimpanzees, the leaves (and even some bark) make pretty great eating and wadging materials. Jamie found a dual purpose for the branches today, as I kept catching her using them as long supple tools. Luckily, she kept her mayhem relatively tame and didn’t try to spear any unsuspecting caregivers.

Here’s Jody working on a branch last night:

And Missy expertly snacking on the leaves:

Pilo!

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Piloerection, noun (pi·lo·erec·tion): “bristling of hairs due to the involuntary contraction of small muscles at the base of hair follicles that occurs as a reflexive response of the sympathetic nervous system especially to cold, shock, or fright”
-Merriam Webster

For humans, we are familiar with piloerection as goosebumps or when the hair on the back of our neck stands up. Since chimpanzees have longer, thicker hair that covers their entire bodies, we can really notice when their arousal levels change.

Here is Jamie working up to a display. In addition to grabbing her barrel so she can bang her fists on it and push it around, her hair starts to stand on end to make herself look bigger (and more intimidating):

Here is a pilo Annie showing the loose neighbor’s cow just how scary she can be:

And an upset Negra getting reassurance from Jamie (who is also pilo):

Here is Foxie looking a little “fluffy”:

And Missy who is clearly a bit chilly:

Burrito spends a great deal of his time with his hair standing up:

This morning Jody rushed up to Missy with extremely pilo hair. This set off an urgent game of chase around Young’s Hill:

Sweet September

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This weekend we host our last two summer visits for our supporters for the year. These small visits feature an educational talk from one of our staff members and a chance to view the chimpanzees as they forage for their lunch on Young’s Hill. Today’s lunch forage featured highly prized whole sweet corn (husk and all!).

Burrito spent most of his time picking up primate chow, but managed to get some corn too:

Foxie enjoyed some corn and a good view from one of the towers:

Jamie:

Negra:

Missy:

Jody made several trips outdoors to get her lunch:

There’s no better time to eat corn on the cob than in September -or at least Annie thinks so. She “won” the forage today by collecting the most corn and scaling the Escher structure for that final piece!

A BIG thanks to our supporters and some leisurely afternoon activities

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In case you haven’t heard, yesterday’s Giving Day for Apes was nothing short of a success! Check out the above video for a thank you from the Queen herself.

In other news, today after lunch, wadging paper primate chow bags seemed like top priority for Annie, Jody and Foxie. Jody and Annie had to take theirs to go so they could go spy on a big yellow construction vehicle that was backing up to the chimp house. Every day we get to see so much progress on our new building. It’s truly an exhilarating experience to be a part of!

Here’s Foxie and her wadge:

Jody:

And Annie:

My favorite photo is this profile of her. You can really see just how full her bottom lip is!

Facial Expressions

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Just like humans, chimpanzees use a wide variety of facial expressions to display their emotions. Since we often think of chimps as so similar to humans, you can see how easy it might be for newcomers to chimpanzee behavior to misinterpret some of the photos they might see out there of chimps seemingly grinning happily for the photographer. Here’s a little tour of some chimpanzee facial expressions we see on a daily basis and the meanings behind them.

A typical relaxed face, as demonstrated by Negra:

Jody has the best relaxed face, drooped lip expressions:

Here’s Burrito’s sneer face. In this case he seems to be uncomfortable with the long grass poking him in the face or the prickly vegetation underfoot:

Negra’s pout face. She often pouts when she is uneasy in a situation or she is trying to assert her dominance and take something from another chimpanzee. One way or another, she usually receives a lot of reassurance from her friends when she is pouting and whimpering:

Here are two happy chimpanzees (Missy and Annie) displaying giant play faces. Notice how their top lips cover their top teeth and their bottom teeth are exposed. This is how you smile like a chimpanzee!

Now compare those happy smiles to these full open grin fear grimaces that Annie and Jamie are showing here. I can almost hear them screaming at each other (maybe over a food disagreement?).:

Needless to say, they aren’t happy in this photo. We’ve probably all seen photos of young chimps dressed up in costumes and posing on the cover of greeting cards or in commercials with similar fearful expressions as Annie and Jamie. To learn more about how you can advocate on the behalf of these chimpanzees, follow this link and thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge with others.