Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Anna

Enrichment comes in many forms

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We provide the chimpanzees at the sanctuary with a wide variety of enrichment to enhance their daily lives. The great thing about enrichment is how flexible it is!

Some enrichment (and often the most popular kind) involves food…
A forage helps exercise the chimps’ bodies and minds:

Negra

Enrichment can also have nothing to do with food…
A daily rotation of toys and other objects give the chimps new things to play with and look at each day.

Burrito

Jamie

Enrichment can be large and permanent!

Jamie on top of “Negra’s Cabin.” Missy, Annie, and Jody below.

Enrichment can be tough and durable…

Jody shakes a peanut out of a a boomer ball.

Or naturally sourced…

Annie licks peanut butter off a pine cone.

Negra nests in fresh straw.

While some enrichment might require a bit of money and assembly time to create…

Missy uses a tool in the treat rock to find peanut butter

Jody and Missy explore the towers on Young’s Hill

Other types of enrichment can be quickly created from recycled materials!

Hanging food stuffed in paper towel rolls is a free enrichment puzzle!
Jamie looks for peanut butter smears on a magazine.

Making enrichment for chimpanzees relies on a little bit of imagination and creativity. If you know someone who works with primates and would like to share ideas with us, please feel free to direct them to our enrichment database!

Neighborhood watch

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Not a lot slips by the Cle Elum 7. Whether it’s a snake out on Young’s Hill, or a stranger pulling into the parking lot, the chimps are very in tune with even the slightest change to their surroundings. Luckily, there are a lot of vantage points for them to keep an eye on things.

Many of the outdoor structures are just right for spying on the goings on around the property.

Jamie on Twister:

Foxie (and doll) on one of the towers:
foxie and the landscape

Sometimes all the chimps need for a better view is to make themselves a little bit taller!
Jody:

Missy loves to check out changes to the garden through the barn doors:

Negra seems to really enjoy watching the train and other activities in the valley below the sanctuary. She is quick to alarm call to the other chimpanzees if something seems amiss.

This morning, JB wore some new bright orange safety gear while he worked around the property. This newly dressed caregiver must have been pretty interesting because at one point, we caught at least 4 chimps all watching him curiously.
Here are Jody and Annie keeping tabs on his location.

Boot related activities

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Jamie’s boot interests are not restricted to just holding them or having her caregivers wear them for her. She also likes objects that look like boots and the idea of boots. Every night before we close up the chimp house, Jamie requires that caregivers find her current favorite pair of boots and then drop them in a food chute so she can incorporate them into her night nest. Last night was a little bit different though. Instead of gesturing in the direction of her boot collection, she wandered over to the newly decorated Christmas tree (we will give the tree to the chimps on Christmas day) and gestured emphatically. She insisted I remove several of the resin cowboy boot ornaments and give them to her. This morning as we were cleaning, I found them woven into her blankets up in the playroom loft.

If you read yesterday’s blog, you will know that we gave the chimps a little preview of Christmas, including a few of their gifts. One gift we included was a Cowboy Boot book for Jamie. Today she spent a lot of time thoroughly examining its contents and carrying it from one nest to another for safe keeping.

A Christmas Preview

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This week has been filled with sunshine and no-snow, which is somewhat unusual for December in Central Washington. These lovely weather conditions, combined with the fact that the chimps have received a surplus stock of Christmas gifts, made us decide to do a Christmas preview for the chimpanzees out on Young’s Hill. The last couple of years we have given the chimps potted Christmas trees in December and then planted them on Young’s Hill when the ground thaws in the spring. There are currently 3 Christmas trees planted in their 2 acre outdoor enclosure. This afternoon we decorated them all for a holiday forage.

Bell peppers and apple slices make pretty festive ornaments!

Missy:

Burrito and Missy:

Jody:

Jamie:

Foxie:

She quickly found all her new gifts!

Annie:

Negra went out briefly onto the hill, but decided to eat her lunch in the toasty playroom.

Busy mornings

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The majority of the action at the sanctuary happens all before lunch! We use this time every day to clean each area thoroughly, asking the chimpanzees to shift from one section of the building to another. Once the chimpanzees have all vacated an area (usually convinced by the prospect of breakfast or snacks), the lead staff member of the day closes all the chimpanzee doors leading to an area using a remote controlled lever and lock system. We follow this by performing safety double checks to ensure that an area is chimp-free and doors are properly closed and locked. Only then can we enter an area for cleaning.

We started today by serving the chimpanzees some smoothie and peanuts so we could get the greenhouse area closed off for cleaning. Intern Kailie is training to be a level 3 caregiver (someone that serves meals and can interact safely with the chimpanzees). Staff member Elizabeth was training her this morning.

Once we knew we could safely enter the greenhouse, we unlocked the area and got to work!

We always switch out dirty blankets and enrichment for clean items.

And we do any necessary scrubbing!

Jamie usually acts as supervisor through one of the windows:

We put out 70 fresh blankets a day, so that means we do laundry all day long! Here’s intern Samantha keeping our washer going:

After the greenhouse cleaning comes the rest of breakfast. Today it was apples, pineapple, primate chow, and vitamins:

The lead staff member does a series of safety checks before the chimpanzees can get access to Young’s Hill in the morning. Here is Burrito entering the raceway to the outdoor enclosure first thing this morning:

Then on to cleaning the playroom! We always appreciate happy interns like Amanda!

After the playroom is scrubbed, rinsed, squeegeed, and locked, the lead staff member lets the chimpanzees have access back to their fresh clean area. This morning the chimps enjoyed a forage of nuts. Missy found the pineapple top we also put out.

Then comes more safety checks to enter the front rooms. Here Kailie checks to make sure a door lever is closed and locked:

It was about this time that Jamie decided she was ready for her first walk around Young’s Hill. She had me put on these ankle boots today:

Then we set out for a walk accompanied by Missy:

Meanwhile, our hardworking interns finished cleaning the front rooms. Locking and double checking all the doors is the last step in the process:

We are so lucky to have such amazing volunteers and interns! We couldn’t do it without them or our amazing supporters! Yesterday was Giving Tuesday and we exceeded both our goals for the day! There is just so much love and support that surrounds these seven chimpanzees!