The mornings at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest are always full of hungry chimpanzees expecting breakfast and caregivers getting down and dirty with cleaning activity. Today I thought I’d pull back the curtain for some behind the scenes photo blogging of a step-by-step guide to the a.m. routine at the sanctuary. You may notice a lot of pictures with the chimpanzees behind caging, and unfortunately that is the reality of any captive primate (even one in a nice sanctuary). Please check out Diana’s blog Why are the Chimps in Cages? from several months ago if you have questions about what you might see.
First thing in the morning comes breakfast preparation. Breakfast is made up of a fruit smoothie (with protein powder added), peanuts (mostly to motivate Negra out of bed), 2 kinds of fresh fruit, chewable vitamins, and two small bags of primate chow for each chimpanzee.
The first area we generally try to clean in the morning is the Greenhouse. Since humans never go into any of the enclosures with the chimpanzees, caregivers ask the chimps to shift into a different area and staff members operate remote controlled doors to securely lock the chimpanzees out of an area that we wish to clean.
In this photo, volunteer Lizz serves a banana slice to Missy as a morning snack in the Playroom. Shortly before this photo was taken, I operated the doors to close off the Greenhouse for cleaning.
As part of CSNW’s safety protocol, staff and cleaning volunteers are trained to double check that the Lead Caregiver (the staff member who is operating doors for the day) has closed and locked the proper doors and the chimps are in the right areas so we can safely enter an enclosure without their presence. Here Lizz is double checking the lever and lock controls for one of the doors used to close off the Greenhouse.
Once an area is deemed safe to enter by the Lead Caregiver and at least one other fully trained individual, the cleaning begins!
After an area is cleaned, we replace the dirty blankets and enrichment with new items. Here volunteer Kaylen puts out a fresh blanket and a stuffed primate.
We remove all cleaning supplies and personal belongings from the area before we lock up the human access doors and let the chimpanzees shift into the clean area (again a staff member operates the doors using a remote controlled lever and lock).
After the greenhouse is cleaned, it’s time for the rest of breakfast! We take the opportunity of the breakfast excitement to close off the Playroom area for the next round of cleaning.
During breakfast, the Lead Caregiver will also make sure that Young’s Hill is secure so the chimpanzees can have access to it. Here Jody peers out the newly open door to the Hill (notice she is still finishing up her bag of primate chow from breakfast).
When deemed a “safe for humans to enter” area, caregivers will attack the Playroom by sweeping, spraying, scrubbing and squeegeeing their way to a fresh sparkling clean enclosure!
During cleaning, the chimpanzees alternate between napping and supervising.
In this photo, Jamie watches us clean from her nest in the Front Rooms (her current purple boot obsession laying next to her).
This morning, Missy checked out our work from a window in the Greenhouse.
After the chimpanzees shift back into the Playroom, it’s time for the last round of enclosure cleaning (the Front Rooms). And last,but certainly not least, comes lunch!
