Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Chad de Bree

Post Party Poopers

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Yesterday, the chimps had one heck of a party! It was such a great party, I spent then entire afternoon trying to find chimps to take photos of but they were virtually nowhere to be found. Everyone was in a calm relaxing mood this afternoon.

That is great for them, bad for the person trying to get photos for the blog. Here is what I was able to get.

Foxie relaxing in the Greenhouse

Honey B eating what’s left of her lunch onion

Lucky sitting on the food chute using firehose as support

Firehose also makes a great pillow apparently

Field Notes: A Laughing Matter

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Welcome to the first installment of “Field Notes,” a blog where we share some of the more recent research articles.

In today’s edition, we will go over a sound that can be heard throughout the Chimp House on those perfect days: laughter!

Two laughing sisters, Rayne and Honey B.

Recently, researchers from Warwick University and Portsmouth University, both based in the United Kingdom, analyzed recordings of chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans living in zoos in the Germany and Malaysia. Researchers also analyzed the laughing patterns of human children as a comparison to the apes’ laughter.

Honey B having a grand ol’ time playing with a roll of tickets.

The recordings were taken when the apes laughed during periods of play with a caregiver whom they know fairly well and tickled by their familiar human.

Burrito laughing as he is being tickled by caregiver Kelsi.

The research found all apes, including humans, have a rhythmic pattern to their laughter with humans being the only found (so far) to alter their laugh based on the context of the situation invoking the laugh. Researchers found the speed of the laughter, which is the part I found interesting, changed from species-to-species. Not only did the speed of the laughter change based on species, but it also fell nicely in line with the theory of when scientists predict each species branched out on the evolutionary tree. The theory is orangutans were the first to be stabilized as their own species, followed by gorillas, followed by chimpanzees and bonobos, and finally humans. Orangutans were found to have the slowest laughing rate, followed by gorillas, followed by chimpanzees and bonobos, followed by humans.

Willy B laughing while playing with Rayne.

Here in the Chimp House, laughter is the greatest sound a caregiver can hear, and I’ve heard my share. For me, the two laughs that stick out are Honey B’s and, you guessed it, Burrito’s laugh.

Playing with the Laugh Monster himself!

It’s still hard for me to believe there was a period when Burrito did not laugh! Back in 2021, Diana wrote about Burrito’s laugh, or lack thereof, when he first arrived at the sanctuary in 2008. To me, Burrito has such a distinct laugh that can be picked out anywhere in the sanctuary. My favorite is when you get him really going and his laugh comes from his belly. That is usually my goal when I play with him; to get him to that specific laugh that cannot be contained no matter how hard he tries.

Honey B’s laugh stands out to me because she only has one volume: LOUD!

Mave tickling Honey B’s feet.

As someone who studies language, both chimp and human, it was neat seeing the patterns of laughing kind of fit nicely in the evolutionary process of apes. If you had the ape evolutionary branch in front of you, you can sort of guesstimate where on the branch human speech started to develop.

With that, I will leave you with this very precious video of Burrito laughing while playing with our dearly missed Jody.

And a last minute photo of Rayne!

The Baby Bartender

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Sometimes we just don’t know how the chimps are going to react to new modifications introduced into their home. If you have been following for a while, you may remember a device that was installed onto the outside of the caging. This was supposed to be used to allowed the chimps to put an extremity such as a hand or foot inside of it so the humans can take an x-ray without the use of anesthesia or any other drug. If you read that blog from six years ago(!), then you may remember initially that box was used for another purpose; a storage area known as the doll/Troll/storage cubby.

There have been modifications that have occurred since then.The most recent and ongoing is the installation more firehose lines and handlebars to help assist Negra get around with her limited mobility. Just like last time, Foxie was the one who found a different use for the new modifications around her areas.

May I introduce: The Baby Bar!

Yesterday when I was working in the kitchen, I had passed by the door that leads into the chimp area and caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of my eye. It was Foxie as she is in the above photo! What I had not noticed initially was she was carrying around a few dolls!

It was just a fun thing to see her use her imagination like this with something new. I watched as she would replace one doll for another as they were lined up. This may not have been what was going through her mind, and I can almost guarantee it wasn’t, but I was saying the Foxie was playing Baby Bartender. Waiting for caregivers pass by so she could pick the right doll for them, like a bartender. “Oh! You had a rough day at work? Orange Blossom will cure what ails ya!” “Broken heart? Here! Try a red-haired Troll!”

Foxie: The Baby Bartender! Ready to take your order!

Field Notes: Welcome

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Happy Tuesday, everybody! I just wanted welcome everybody to a new series we will be offering: Field Notes. As the research coordinator here, I try to stay on top of knowing all the different scientific articles released every month in various publications and try to figure if any of the new research can be utilized by us to help our mission to provide lifelong care for rescued chimpanzees.

The goal of this series is kind of twofold. First, we hope that you’ll be able to learn about chimpanzees and the new and exciting behavioral research going on both in the wild and captivity. Second, we hope this will give you just a little insight on how some decisions are made here.

I don’t want to set any expectations for this series, so as of now there is no set schedule on the frequency of this. It could be weekly. It could be bi-weekly. Heck. It could even be monthly. So instead of waiting for it week-to-week, let’s just say it’s a nice little surprise when they make the blog. Plus, the articles are released at the beginning of every month and not every release has chimpanzee related articles.

I’m excited about this series and hope you all are as well! I hope this series serves a purpose for you. I hope you are able to learn something new and gain a better understanding of these amazing people.

Now, here are some photos from Sunday I was able to snap while Cy and crew were enjoying a lunch forage on the Bray:

Cy

Rayne

George

Cool as a cucumber!
Sorry for the blown-out photo. During this forage, I put out some jackpots, usually some whole fruits and veggies. The one I put on the escher escaped everyone, even Rayne’s eagle eyes. Luckily enough, George realized I was trying to communicate something to the passersby. Though it looks like it here, George actually didn’t notice it. I asked him to come down and tried to walk him to a spot where he would see it. I pointed up, he turned around, looked up, and immediately looked back at me with a silent excited scream. Seen below.

George eating his prize apple as he looks upon The Bray!

Mental Health Awareness Month

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As May ends and June starts to usher in summer, I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight Mental Awareness Month. This is by no means the most in depth history about the recognized month. In fact, I will be honest that most of the information I got is from Wikipedia.

Mental Health Awareness Month was established in 1949 to raise awareness around individual’s suffering from conditions such as depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and suicide. Every year there is a theme to help boost awareness. This year’s theme is “More Good Days, Together.” Mental Health America, the organization who established the awareness then known as National Association for Mental Health, chose this year’s theme to encourage everybody to reflect on what a “good” day means to them and their communities. The way I interpret that is we know what a good day looks like for us individually, but what does a good day look like to everybody else and how can we help others achieve their good day.

Jamie looking up toward the sky back in 2022 after getting access to the newly expanded Young’s Hill. One thing Jamie adores is her time outside. After living in a windowless basement at the Buckshire Corporation to be used as a test subject, the chimpanzees, especially Jamie, cherish being able to look up to the sky and feel the breeze flow through their hair.

This year’s theme really made me think: what does a good day look like to everyone else here. I know what a good day here looks like to me. To me a good day is everybody shifts without hesitation, they eat all of their meals, there were no fights, the cattle took their own meds and I didn’t have to fight someone off of someone else’s, and Bruce allowed me to love him. There are some other small minor things, but those are the big ones. Now admittedly, I really don’t know what a good day to the other caregivers looks like. 😬 I think I just assumed theirs looked identical to mine. But in the spirit of theme, it’s really making me think about that.

Also, playing with the chimps is a HUGE plus in the ingredients for a good to for me. Like going around Young’s Hill with Burrito.

Mental health is such an important topic in the caregiver world. Burnout is one cause of the low attrition rate in this career field, and burnout hits fast and hard. Most of what I say next is just based on my own observations and personal experience. If I had to guess why the burnout rate is high is just due to the multitude of things we are responsible for. I know for me, this job is always on the top of my mind. Whether I’m on site, at home, on vacation, it doesn’t matter. Every worry, whether it be a fight, some social tension, upcoming procedure, etc., all those things follow me everywhere I go. No matter what I’m doing or where I am, I have chimps on the brain.

George went on the Bray to finish eating his breakfast. When Since the moment we as staff were told we would be rescuing George, everything that came with that has been at the forefront. The rescue, the legal proceedings, and probably the biggest topic, the integration. Though the integration has subsided a little because he has adapted incredibly well.

Though George’s situation has “cooled down” from what it was for me, now Negra occupies most of my thoughts. So as you can see, this job is a one thing right after another kind of job.

This job is one that keeps you on your toes… 24/7! For me, even though this is pretty much a 24/7 type of job, I get great gratification seeing the chimps playful and happy. That, regardless of how long it lasts, is what gets me out of bed in the morning. There are the hard times, but going through the storm to feel levitated like that is 1000% worth it.

Cy and George eating the primate chow on the Bray during breakfast. The relationship between Cy and George is one that gives me hope. For them obviously, but also just the kindness that the current state of the world covers up.
Terry also took his chow out onto the Bray for breakfast. It actually ended up in a fun little run between him and Burrito on the Young’s Hill side.

For years, Mental Health America has tried to rip down the curtain of stigma that surrounds mental health for some reason. I tend to be as open and honest with mine in case it can be of any help to anybody else going through it. And it thrills me that stigma seems to be waning for now, which is why I think they chose the theme that they did for this year: to help others in need.

Burrito and Foxie being silly with one another on Young’s Hill back in January. Foxie used to rely pretty heavily on Jody for support. Since Jody’s passing, Foxie has had a whirlwind of a time trying to refind her place. Luckily, Burrito has recently taken a big step in providing more physical and emotional support to Foxie.

Be sure to check Mental Health America’s resource page of a lot of different resources out there to help you or someone you know in a crisis. The world is a better place with you in it because you help better the world.

Mave and Dora hugging after Dora got scared of something. Mave has been a huge support system to Dora and vice versa.
Burrito hugging Foxie in the early days of the sanctuary.

I’ll Gladly Pay You Next Tuesday For A Pass Today

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The funny thing about life is that things can change at the drop of a hat. Today I had planned to write a blog about just some of the things caregivers see throughout the day and the thought process on how certain decisions are made. That will have to wait for another day because time really got away from me today because of some very distracting chimpanzees who want to play and groom. So hopefully these photos will do for now.

Terry and Gordo:

Gordo (right) inspects Terry (left) after a brief conflict in their group. Grooming, particularly after a fight, is important to reaffirm friendships and trust, especially between two conflicting parties. Though Terry and Gordo weren’t conflicting parties during this one, Gordo is still showing Terry that he can trust him.

Rayne:

Like Gordo, Rayne loves things to sit in/on. Boxes. Benches. Discarded chowbags. Just as long as it’s not the actual floor unless she absolutely has to. Yesterday, when I was moseying about on that side of the building, Rayne wanted to groom with me. Usually at this point she’ll look around to find the closest box or item to sit on. I was a tad bit surprised when she grabbed the heavy duty giant ball. I was even more surprised when she decided to take the most challenging, yet direct, route to get where I was sitting. Trees. Bamboo bushes. Logs. She pushed right on through!

Annie:

This is how I found Annie in the morning. Enjoying a peaceful Spring morning at the top of her Greenhouse.

Mave:

Mave. What can I say about the lovely Mavis? Actually, I can say this. As I was typing that, we heard whimpering coming from her side of the building. When I walked back there, she wanted a lot of reassurance. I asked her what she saw. She started to walk toward the chute but stopped short of going in. When I pointed to the Chute and asked her if it was out there, she began alarm calling. Caregiver Amanda and I went out and started to look around. And lo and behold, gopher snake! So, thank you, Mave, for making us aware there was an intruder inside the fence!

Lucky:

Lucky is wondering where her dinner is. Truly. This is about 2 minutes before their dinner was rolled out.

Photogenic Chimpanzees

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When I arrived at the sanctuary this morning, I was determined to get as many photos as I could before our weekly staff meeting/training began. One, because a lot of you just love seeing photos of the chimps and their daily adventures. Two, because I wanted to prove to myself that I could get as many photos of as many chimps as I could. Granted, as some of you are aware, trying to get photos of some of them is almost impossible because either they come running up and get too close to the caging to get a photo, or they are in those few spots around the sanctuary where it is impossible to get a photo. Looking at you George, Cy, Dora, and Mave.

So please enjoy the product of this self challenge!

Burrito at breakfast:

I had to get these photos using all the sneakiness I could before he came down

Rayne during lunch today:

Gordo doing a little self-grooming:

Willy B also self-grooming:

It’s imperative to watch the neighbors when you’re done grooming

Foxie and Moana go for a walk around Young’s Hill:

Sweet Lucky:

Missy at breakfast:

Terry waiting for a caregiver grooming partner after lunch:

Just noting that I did indeed get photos of Jamie and Annie, but they were a one shot scenario where the photo didn’t come out. Honey B was busy doing Honey B things on the Bray and in the Chute. She was just to fast/busy for me to get a photo. And Negra said no in her own Negra way by burying her face in her nest when the camera was raised. I obey all of the Queen’s demands.

For me, I would consider getting photos of half the chimps today was a success. Maybe in the near future I will try again.