Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Anna

Anything for Love

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J.B. mentioned a couple weeks ago that Burrito’s life often revolves around watching the female chimpanzees’ swellings. When they are in full swell, he will follow them around pretty much all day, simply staring at their pink behinds. Sometimes he has to go out of his way a little bit to keep a watchful eye. Today, Annie was the object of his steady gaze.

Burrito can easily climb and is quite strong, but he is not seen as often on the taller outdoor structures, swinging and playing like Missy and Annie. When we see Burrito in an unusual place, it’s a pretty good indicator that someone is at full swell and he has designated himself to be their full time companion.

Annie (left) took Burrito (right) to the top of one of the play structures this morning and he looked maybe just slightly out of his element.
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Burrito (left) Annie (right)
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While Missy may choose to slack line the fire hose that parallel the shakey bridges, Burrito will use that same hose for a safety hand railing. For a good example of Missy and Annie’s amazing agility, check out Diana’s blog from last Saturday. This morning, Burrito kept a firm grip on the fire hose to keep his balance while he crossed the bridge behind Annie.
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Facets of Foxie

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One of the great things about getting to know a chimpanzee is you learn how multidimensional their personalities are. When you first start being around chimps (or reading a blog about chimps), you learn what their favorite things are. Take Foxie for instance, she loves her Troll and Dora the Explorer dolls and she has a sweet tooth (fruit smoothie is always a hit).

Then as you dig a little deeper, you learn a little bit more…

Foxie is widely known for her mischievous fun personality. She does flips and spins with her caregivers and chimp friends. She tests human newcomers by spitting a stream of water at them, and she also plays with old caregiver friends by spitting a stream of water at them. She can get Jamie (who is usually the most serious of the bunch) to roll around on the floor, laughing and wrestling. Foxie is daring and brave, adventuring to all corners of Young’s Hill by herself (or with a doll in tow) and often being the leader in the hunt to find intruding snakes. She is also the peacekeeper of the group, sometimes trying to diffuse a situation with dramatic over the top play behavior. She is good friends with the boisterous Burrito, spending hours in the greenhouse grooming with him. Their friendship has limits though. When Burrito is running around the building, displaying and scaring the group (as male chimpanzees have a tendency to do), Foxie seems personally affronted when he tries to intimidate her. She turns the tables on him and may then chase him around, screaming at the top of her lungs.

Foxie is friendship, courage, and fun, rolled into a small chimpanzee package.
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Style Choices

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At the sanctuary, the chimpanzees have access to a daily changing assortment of toys, blankets, clothing and other items (all double checked by staff for safety). Clothing can be a popular item to add to sleeping nests, and we all know about Jamie’s cowboy boot obsession. Every now and then, a chimpanzee will take special interest in something specific that they may then choose to wear. I emphasized the “choose” part of that sentence, because we never force or demand the chimpanzees to wear clothing.

Today, Annie took notice of a stretchy ’80s style exercise headband. Instead of the more traditional forehead placement, she chose to wear it as a strikingly noticeable belt.

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Peas!

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As the chimpanzees’ summer garden transitions into bright red cherry tomatoes (Missy’s favorite), the snap pea plants are coming to an end of their production. This means it was time to pull out the vines for a Young’s Hill forage this morning! Most of the chimps munched on the peas outside in the warm sun before they bundled the greens in their arms and carried them back to the greenhouse for more snacking.

Jody:
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Annie:
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Annie and Missy:
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Annie:
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Missy:
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Hazing

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At Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, we have three levels of volunteers that work in the chimp house. As a level one volunteer, you get to work in the chimpanzees’ kitchen, washing produce, preparing enrichment and meals, etc. As a level two volunteer, you get participate in cleaning enclosures and performing safety checks (in addition to the level one duties). Level three training is all about learning to serve meals and interact with the chimpanzees safely (always from outside of the chimpanzees’ enclosure). For many, level three training is very exciting as you start to develop a more personal relationship with each of the chimpanzees. But let me tell you, getting to know the chimpanzees is not all sunshine and roses (or food grunts and play faces).

Chimpanzees can be relentless with their initiation rituals. They will make sure you know safety rules as well as obey the hierarchy of the group as soon as you serve your first banana. Jamie especially, will come down hard with her trial by fire. She often seems to make up rules as she goes along, just to make you suffer. The consequences for “disobeying” her (and trust me, everyone does at some point) are fierce. Getting a face full of smoothie or water spit at you (with the other chimpanzees threat barking their encouragement) is a kind punishment as far as Jamie’s concerned.

Volunteer Yuri demonstrates how to wear blueberry smoothie and look happy doing it. Today was his first morning serving breakfast as a Level three trainee and Jamie gave him something to remember her by.
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Speaking of having things spit at you…and this is not a proud moment for me… but I will tell you that I once had a protein drink spit at me (at a different sanctuary) with such force that it went up my nose and I tasted it in the back of my throat. Gross, right?

It’s hard to believe that this sweet looking chimpanzee was throwing unspeakable things at us just this morning, but that’s part of the fun and intrigue of working with beings that wear their emotions on their sleeve.
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You never know just what the day will bring you (and it will often be disgusting). One thing remains the same at the end of each day: you still love your chimpanzee friends.
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