Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Chad de Bree

Do You Want To Play A Game?

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Chimpanzee communication is a fascinating field of study. I only consider myself lucky I somehow ended up studying chimpanzee gestures. Though I study chimpanzee non-vocal communication. The vocal and auditory side of communication is still highly interesting. The food grunt in particular amazes me, mostly because I too make similar noises when I come across my favorite foods. So let’s play a game! Can you guess whose food grunts are in this video? The answers are at the end of video. No peeking!

In other news, the chimpanzees were also treated to some freshly harvested cattails from Diana today. With one of their favorites bounties harvested, Anthony and I decided to make a lunch forage on Young’s Hill.

Negra raced to the closest and largest of the cattails and made her way back to the Greenhouse.

Jody also grabbed her first cattail of the afternoon, with some sides of carrots and sweet potatoes and a Burrito right behind her.

Annie was also one of the first to snag a cattail and raced every which way collecting some of the other food before making her way back to the Greenhouse to escape some sudden wind.

Dreaming of Cooler Times

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With another hot, summer day, there was very little activity to be had to try to escape the heat. Early in the morning, the Group of Seven were given access to Young’s Hill, with Burrito leading the charge.

Negra however, decided to stay in the shady Greenhouse to escape the morning sun with a yellow-haired Troll Doll. None of the other chimpanzees stayed out for long, with Jody being the first to retreat back to the Greenhouse.

In one of the few instances where the clouds decided to provide some much needed relief, Jamie politely asked me to join her on a walk around Young’s Hill. Ok. She may have demanded it since it was one of the few instances she felt decent to go out. Missy (not pictured because she zoomed right passed us), Foxie, and Burrito also decided to join us.

After our walk, Foxie decided to follow Negra, Jody, and Annie’s lead by resting in the cool front rooms. Notice her Orange Blossom doll also snuggled in for an afternoon nap.

The Californian Three also had similar ideas. For the most part, they also decided to stay inside. Willy B did venture out into the Courtyard, but not for too long. Mave decided to just stay inside.

Willy B also found a new use for an old enrichment item. Both groups of chimpanzees share a large, stuffed dog that makes it’s way to both sides of the building after being washed.

Willy B decided this stuffed dog was his new bed.

It was only a few short months ago, Katelyn reported on how paired swallows started to nest. Now that summer is here, their babies have hatched and they have been helping keeping the sanctuary safe by being on guard. Even keeping us caregivers on our toes at times.

Pre-Lunch Naps

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After cleaning the enclosures today, I set off on my journey to find the chimpanzees and ask to take photos of those who were willing. On a normal day, they would be scattered about between their different areas. However, today was a little different.

With the weather bouncing back and forth between light rain and sunshine, it has brought the perfect conditions for napping. Throughout the entire day, it wasn’t too difficult to find any of the chimpanzees. A majority of them were found on the top platform in the Greenhouse, the perfect napping spot.

Annie gave me a quick glance over when I walked up, before rolling over to continue her nap.
Jody grabbed some blankets to ensure maximum comfort for her lounging around.
Even Jamie took most of the day off to lounge around. Even the Boss needs at least one day off from monitoring those pesky humans.

Though it seemed there was nothing that could ever convince any of them to get out of their perfectly cozy spots, lunch arrived and they all sprang up. On today’s menu was carrots, onions, and tomatoes.

Jody savored every bite of her carrot.
Burrito had some minor difficulties juggling his food.
But once he got it, he was in Noms-ville.

Most of the chimpanzees are now tucked away for the night in their nests. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow will bring. Will it be another lazy day, or one filled with adventure.

Bonus photo of Annie enjoying her slices of dinner orange.

Hi, I’m Mave!

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Mave has been in such a fantastic mood lately. She has been grooming a lot with Honey B and Willy B. She has been very playful, playing chase with caregivers, full contact wrestling with her roommates, spinning around on the floor, even climbing the caging so she can to meet the caregivers at eye-level to show off her amazing play face and presenting her belly. I didn’t have the camera on me at the time, and Katelyn and I weren’t able to pull our phones out quick enough to catch it yesterday. So here’s a photo from a couple weeks ago during one of our play sessions. You would just have to image her with that face, but high on the caging to meet eye-to-eye before jumping down and engaging in another game of chase.

One other sign Mave is getting into a playful mood is with her fashion choice. When she is playful, she usually plays with a sock or puts it on as Kelsi mentioned in Mave’s birthday blog. Recently, she has been loving these fruit themed socks we have in our enrichment inventory.

Mave with a strawberry sock.
Mave with the grape sock.

And today, she decided the banana sock was today’s choice after a rousing game of chase.

Once her sock was on, the game of chase continued.

There are only two other fruit sock variations left I have not been able to catch a photo of her with: grapefruit and pineapple. I have seen her wear or at least interact with them, just haven’t been able to capture them on camera.

Speaking of two different variations, have you seen the Mave shirt available on the Queen’s Brunch Online Auction? There is a brown version and a blue version. I am super thrilled with how these designs came out and can’t wait to get mine.

Be sure to register for the Queen’s Brunch to ensure you receive updates on items added to the auction.

Mave and Honey B grooming in their pink car fort.

..And They’re Off!

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It’s been becoming increasingly difficult for me to get any good photos of Burrito. Usually, he sat still long enough for me to grab one or two good photos of him. But lately, he can’t sit still. He has been demanding games of chase and tug-o-war. He has even developed a new move during our games of chase recently: the somersault. (Hopefully someday I will be able to catch that on video or a photo so you can all see.) This is how the sequence of events usually unfold when I try to get photos of Burrito:

I try to sneak up on him, but my efforts usually fail. He notices right away.

 

He will then usually grab a nearby blanket…

 

And start waving it around like a racing flag signaling it’s “Go Time!”

 

And then throw it and the game of chase begins.

 

The blanket just happened to land on his back when he threw it in the air today. I assume it looked like I was chasing a green ghost around for a little bit.

A little bit later, lunch was served and Negra was really pleased with her Brussels sprouts. She even collected those that were tossed aside by the others.

She was joined by Foxie and moved on to her red onions. She might have moved on to her red onions after seeing how much Foxie was enjoying hers.

Speaking of Negra and lunch, we hope to see you participate in The Queen’s Brunch on June 13th. Be sure to register to receive updates on the event and online auction. There are some many great items being added to the list, including this magnificent watercolor and ink painting of the Queen herself by Jennifer Kruger! Be sure to look at some of the other amazing auction items, and stay tuned for even more amazing things to come.

Old Tools, New Ideas

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Chimpanzees are known for their ability to evaluate situations and find some pretty novel ways to handle the task at hand. Everyday, the chimpanzees are provided with numerous items throughout the day as enrichment. One of these items is a long, plastic tube. Jamie generally uses it to reach items just beyond her reach, or to groom the human caregivers. Burrito uses it to play tug-o-war. And every body uses it as a straw when we provide them with buckets of diluted Gatorade. At the end of each dinner service, we also provide the chimpanzees with nighttime food puzzles. The purpose of these puzzles is to exercise their cognitive functions, help promote natural behaviors, and to try to alleviate boredom. And every so often, they surprise us when two-and-two are put together.

Last night’s evening food puzzle were small PVC tubes. The purpose of this puzzle is to promote one of chimpanzees’ natural behaviors: fishing. In the wild, chimpanzees have been found to fish for termites, grubs, and honey. They will find a stick and modify it to suite the situation. They will adjust the length, girth, and the leaves depending on what they are fishing for, and where it is hidden. Here, caregivers put a smear of peanut butter, smashed fruit (bananas, avocados, etc) applesauce, or honey in PVC tubes for the chimpanzees to fish out. The chimpanzee’s are also provided a tool in the form of a chopstick. Some just use their fingers, while others use the chopstick they are provided. Last night, we were pretty amazed that Honey B decided she had an even better tool: the long plastic tube. It was so efficient, she waited patiently for Willy B and Mave (who were using chopsticks and fingers) to be done with theirs, collected them up, and got the peanut butter missed by both of them.

As mentioned before, the chimpanzees use these tubes as straws as well. Usually for buckets of diluted Gatorade or sometimes for their breakfast smoothie. Annie is one who is more likely to use a straw for her smoothie. That is, until caregiver Anthony witnessed her using the tube to siphon smoothie from Jamie’s cup as Jamie was drinking from it!

These chimpanzee people never cease to amaze and surprise us with their actions!

Lastly, an update on Jody. Jody was recovering so well and wanted nothing more to be back with her group, we decided she was well enough to be brought back into the group. She flew into the playroom and was greeted with a sincere hug by Annie.

 

Case of the Mondays Remedy

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Mondays have that stigma of always being a bad day. For humans, it usually signals the end of the weekend and the beginning of the work week. For the chimpanzees, though, it’s another day. Though some bad things can happen on Monday, there is always a silver lining to bad days.

Honey B and Mave seemed completely oblivious to what the stigma of Monday is. They played and laughed nearly all day.

While with the Group of Seven, when the chimpanzees went on their morning patrol, Foxie marched out onto Young’s Hill on a mission.

With Dora there with her every step of the way, she climbed the Twister.

But stopping at where the firehose ladder ends wasn’t enough for Foxie this day.

She wanted to be on the top platform. And the top platform was where she went.

Some of you may remember the last time Foxie climbed all the way to the top of the Twister, she was accompanied by Jody. Unfortunately, Jody was not with Foxie today.

Today, Jody went through a medical procedure. Last week, her foot became swollen and after careful monitoring we decided that diagnostics were in order. Jody readily cooperated with x-rays using the foot box, which thankfully revealed no bone involvement, but further evaluation was required so the decision was made to put Jody under anesthesia for a full exam. Our veterinarian, Dr. Erin Zamzow, also arranged for Dr. Tyler Sugerman, an emergency surgical veterinarian, to come to the sanctuary and perform an ultrasound on Jody to ensure she was in overall good health.

J.B. (left), Dr. Tyler Sugerman (back), Chad (right), and Dr. Zamzow position Jody to prepare to take x-rays.
Dr. Sugerman performs an ultrasound on Jody.

We are happy to say that preliminary testing showed Jody to be in great health and the swelling on her foot was due to a large hematoma, which after being drained and cleaned by Dr. Erin, should not be a concern. She is currently recovering in the front rooms on a big pile of blankets and waiting to be reunited with her family.

And yes. Foxie’s first priority when she received access back to the rooms adjacent to Jody was to pay her a visit.