I got some pretty good photos of Jamie this afternoon. We can never know what she’s thinking, but, for fun, does anyone want to take a guess? What do you think was going through her mind when these photos were taken?
Peace
As J.B. mentioned yesterday in his post, we often remind ourselves that the chimps are experiencing even the simplest aspects of life for the first time at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest.
It doesn’t make up for all the years she lost, but after almost five years at the sanctuary, Negra has experienced the peace of a good nap in a safe place with a blanket over her head for approximately 1,730 days. Every time I see her enjoying this peace, it makes me as happy as the first day she arrived and she “wore” her blanket.
Negra on her own in the cabin
There are very few jobs that provide as much fulfillment as working for Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. It’s not a stress-free occupation, and there are some heavy issues that we deal with every day, but watching the chimpanzees settle into themselves and their lives at the sanctuary is the most rewarding work I’ve ever done. For me, a lot of that reward and the motivation to get through the stress comes from Negra.
It’s too simple to just say that I love her. I am devoted to her. Each new step she takes fills my heart even more. I mentioned this in my reflections for our 3rd Anniversary blog post, which is fun to read and hard to believe that was almost two years ago! I hope that Negra will be with us for many more years, but you never know what the future will bring. Each moment with her, and with all of the chimpanzees, is precious.
This morning was no exception. Volunteer Connie put out some lettuce on Young’s Hill and served the rest of breakfast in the greenhouse. Once Negra discovered the lettuce (one of her favorite foods) outside, she sat herself down in her cabin and enjoyed the warmth and comfort of the cabin that we named for her while all of the other chimpanzees were in the greenhouse. I didn’t want to get too close with the camera because Negra is at times weary of people taking photos when she’s on the hill, but I did take a few photos from a distance. I hope the photos make you as happy as seeing her out there made me.
full mouths, happy bellies
We’ve been taken every opportunity with the not-bad weather to spread food over Young’s Hill so the chimpanzees can forage for their meals. They LOVE forages, and it’s nice to see them doing a little bit of what they would do if they lived in the wild. Of course, free-living chimpanzees rely on the bounty of nature to provide their meals. At the sanctuary, the Cle Elum Seven rely on the humans to provide their food. Their food squeaks and full mouths are an indication that we’re doing an okay job.
This morning we spread out a breakfast forage of strawberries, grapefruit, and chow biscuits.
Here’s Jamie collecting strawberries:
Burrito eating some grapefruit while on the move to find more:
Annie and Jamie checking the shakey bridge for food:
Missy found the stash in the cabin:
Annie put an impossible number of chow biscuits in her mouth, then attempted to also eat strawberries:
Relationship Status: It’s Complicated
Jamie and Burrito have a complicated relationship. Burrito is the man of the group, but Jamie is the boss. She often treats him like an annoying little brother. Sometimes she takes his food.
Early on, I’d say for the first year the Cle Elum Seven were at the sanctuary, Jamie would use Burrito during fights – I like to describe this and Jamie using Burrito as a henchman – Burrito would be all worked up and displaying, intimidating everyone, and Jamie would follow him as though she was saying to the rest of the group, “better watch out, he’s under my control.” But Burrito has wised up since then and tends to stay out of the fray more these days.
Though Jamie and Burrito do groom each other, they don’t really play together, and I wouldn’t describe them as friends (“frenemies” might be an appropriate term to use). This seems very personal to bring up, but we do get asked about it a lot, so here goes – I did see Burrito and Jamie in an intimate encounter once. Only once. And it was a long time ago. In fact, it is one of the only times we’ve seen that type of encounter between the chimps. It could be that Burrito just doesn’t see the ladies that way, or it could be that, like many captive chimpanzees, he is not sure what to do.
This fall, much to our surprise, these two frenemies would sometimes patrol the perimeter of Young’s Hill together (as seen at the end of this video). Maybe their relationship is evolving.
Today the sun was streaming into the windows upstairs and all seven chimps were on the catwalk. Burrito and Jamie sat next to each other:
Negra in her cabin!
I took some photos last night and had a whole blog post about night bags ruminating in my head, but then, today, this happened…
Negra finally spent some time in Negra’s Cabin!
The thinking behind the cabin that you helped us build through our 4th anniversary fundraising, was that the chimps, particularly fair-weather-loving Negra, needed a spot on the hill where they would be protected from the wind and rain, which we had both of today.
Here’s the full story of Negra’s big venture to her cabin –
Now that the snow is gone and we’ve had some warmer days, Negra has been spending a bit of her time on the hill, especially when we spread food around for the chimps to find. Below is a photo from last night of Negra heading back towards the greenhouse after gathering some sweet potato:
Generally, Negra’s been going out long enough to gather food, then coming back inside, but today was a little different.
The weather has been weird today. One minute sunny and warm, the next windy and overcast, and the next sleeting. There was a window of good weather around the chimps’ lunchtime, so we decided to set up a forage on the hill. We’re defrosting the freezer today, so J.B. took a hammer to some frozen watermelon that had been in the freezer for who knows how long and we included that in the lunch forage.
Jody went for the frozen watermelon in the cabin, and took her stash away as Negra approached:
Once in the cabin, Negra actually just sat for a while. I think and hope that she was realizing how great it is in there!
Jody got all of the watermelon from the cabin, but there was still some other food that Negra found:
Hopefully this is the first day of many that Negra will enjoy the warmth and protection of her cabin.
Browsing
As you probably know, the Cle Elum Seven love food. Most of their diet at the sanctuary consists of fresh fruits and vegetables, plus nuts and seeds and primate chow, but they also enjoy chewing and wadging on browse (I just looked this up – Merriam-Webster defines browse as, “tender shoots, twigs, and leaves of trees and shrubs used by animals for food.”)
I know we’ve defined wadging on the blog a few times before. Here’s one post that mentions it. Maybe some of you avid blog followers can find the other posts that talk about wadges and wadging – the Merriam-Webster definition, shockingly, doesn’t cover chimp wadging. Basically it’s when chimps gather up food, browse, or even paper or cardboard, put it between their lower lip and bottom teeth and suck the juices out. Sometimes they add a bit of water to the mix. If they are wadging a food like primate chow, they will eventually ingest it, but often they just spit out the wadge when they’ve finished getting the good stuff out.
J.B. recently bought some loose alfalfa and some condensed cubes of alfalfa, and the chimps have been enjoying both. Providing the chimps with browse is great because it’s not only potentially nutritious, but it also creates a time consuming activity.
Below are a series of photos of Missy in a window sill perch going down to get some more alfalfa and bringing it back up to her spot:
and here are a couple of photos of Jody from today chewing on some alfalfa cubes:
