Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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Diana

Groomin’ on a Sunday Afternoon

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Okay, it’s not really Sunday, but I couldn’t help myself with the title.

We’ve talked about how important grooming is within chimpanzee society before (see this blog post from 2010 and this one from last year and you might as well check out this one about conflict and reassurance).

My favorite grooming to watch between chimps is when it’s a lazy afternoon and everything is calm and quiet. One chimpanzee will approach another chimp who is lying down or just sitting and chilling and start casually grooming them. The chimps often do their lazy grooming on the top of the climbing structure in the greenhouse. Often there are multiple partners grooming separately and sometimes they’ll move to a new partner or create a group of three or more chimps all grooming each other.

Below are some pics of Foxie grooming Burrito.

Foxie separates the hair on Burrito’s back with her fingers:

Foxie grooming Burrito with her hand

 

Foxie using her prehensile lips to groom Burrito (see this video with some other prehensile lip action):

Foxie grooms Burrito with her lips

Foxie grooms Burrito with lip 2

 

Foxie becoming distracted from her grooming by the troll doll in her hand:

Foxie hold troll doll up close

Pure Joy

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I’ve been referring to the weather we’re having in Cle Elum as bi-polar. One minute it’s sunny and the next minute there’s a blizzard. Yesterday we caught an unexpected break – the forecast called for snow flurries, but it was a pretty mild day. As you saw from the video yesterday, Missy took full advantage of the spring-like weather and was, well… spring-like.

In addition to all of that video, J.B. also managed to get some photos of Missy and Annie playing on the hill. I probably don’t need to say this, but it is still such an amazing thrill for us at the sanctuary to watch the chimps on the hill. Each time they go out, they seem even more relaxed. Playing is now a regular occurrence, but it’s still all so new and exciting. Watching Missy with a play face wrestle with Annie makes me indescribably happy.

Missy looks like she’s going to do a pro-wrestling move on Annie:

Annie and Missy play on the hill 1

 

Annie returns with a play bite to Missy’s brow ridge:

Annie bit Missy's brow ridge play young's hill 2

 

Annie tries to give Missy the slip:

Annie Missy play young's hill 3

 

Missy grabs Annie’s fingertips:

annie missy play houng's hill 4

 

Later, Missy was sitting by herself behind a post on the hill:

Missy sit behind pole young's hill

 

Here’s a close-up of the photo above. That’s a happy chimp face:

close up missy behind post young's hill

What is natural?

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If you’ve been following our blog for a while, you know that we strive to post photos and videos of the chimps’ daily lives – everyday. We made a decision even before the Cle Elum Seven chimpanzees arrived that we wanted people to get to know who they were and what Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest is all about. We share every area of the sanctuary, even if there’s paint peeling in the shot (it’s so hard to get paint to stick when you clean as often as we do!). We want to let people in, and we want them to fall in love with Missy, Jamie, Negra, Burrito, Jody, Annie and Foxie as we have.

Working in a sanctuary and doing all of this sharing leads to some interesting questions about what “natural behavior” is for chimpanzees. It’s not the easiest question. Captivity itself is not “natural” for chimpanzees. We firmly believe that chimpanzees don’t belong in captivity. We’d love to see the day when sanctuaries like ours are obsolete because there are no more chimpanzees in laboratories, entertainment or in private homes – no more chimpanzees that need rescuing. In the meantime, we care for seven chimpanzees who have come from very unnatural and impoverished lives. They all have unique personalities shaped by their genetic makeup combined with their unusual and tragic past experiences.

The daily lives of the Cle Elum Seven are pretty different than what they would experience in their native habitat in Africa. All of the staff members have studied primatology, and we understand this. We use our knowledge of chimpanzee behavior to provide the chimps with what they need: a social group, room to roam, nesting material, enrichment to keep their minds occupied, choices, vertical space, the opportunity to exercise, a diet full of variety but focused on fresh fruits and vegetables, food forages to mimic what chimpanzees spend most of their time in the wild doing – looking for food, a routine so they know what to expect, and celebrations plus anything else we can think of to make each day unique.

I do worry sometimes that people might come across a photo like the one below that I took earlier today and not understand all of what I wrote above. I worry that, taken out of context, what we share might give people the wrong idea about chimpanzees and what Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest is all about. I’d love your thoughts on this issue.

Below is a very unnatural chimpanzee scene, unless it’s from a chimpanzee sanctuary in the NW of the United States in February, in which case it’s pretty normal.

Jamie licking peanut butter off of a pair of clown glasses while Jody and Foxie enjoy snow from a kiddie pool:

Jody, Jamie and Foxie around a pool full of snow

Napping

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Negra is the queen of many things, including getting cozy. Here she is snuggled up on one of the benches high up in a front room.

 
Negra under blanket in front room

 

She actually got around quite a bit today – mostly moving from one napping place to another. In this photo Negra is in front of a window on the catwalk of the playroom – one of her favorite spots. I got up on a ladder to take the photo:

 
Negra under orange blanket

 

Jamie used the afternoon to siesta in the greenhouse. I climbed a ladder to get the photo below too. In their natural habitats, chimpanzees almost always sleep in the trees high off the ground. Most chimpanzees in captivity also prefer to be up high when they sleep.

I love the bits of lighter skin on Jamie’s eyelids in this photo:

 
close up of Jamie with eyes closed

Flowers, Strawberries and Piñatas, Oh My

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Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, so you must be thinking about flowers, strawberries and… piñatas, right?

If these aren’t the things that come to your mind, you’d better check out our special Valentine’s Gift Store. You can give your human loved ones the unique gift of having these gifts given to the chimps in their honor (plus personalized fence posts, beads for Burrito or a Chimpanzee Pal subscription). It’s the gift that gives twice! Just do it soon so we have time to give your Valentine a handwritten card about the donation in their honor.

As inspiration, here’s some photos of the chimps with flowers, strawberries and piñatas.

Jackie giving flowers to Jody

Missy with lilac flowers

Jody with rose

 

Burrito eating strawberries

jody with pinata and strawberry

Annie with guitar pinata

Negra with boot pinata

 

 

Something to Lighten Your Day

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This post is for Tamela and Julie, supporters who are separately going through very similar tough times right now. We want them to know that everyone at the sanctuary is thinking about them. I decided to put this video together in the hopes that it will lighten and brighten their day today, even if just a bit.

A little background on the video and the doll you’ll see: Sometime around 2003, J.B. received a package in the mail from Sarah that contained a custom-made doll. The doll’s face was an image taken from a photo of J.B. himself. The “J” in J.B. stands for John, so the doll became known as Baby John. Personally, I thought the doll was funny, but also more than a little creepy.

This past summer I decided it was time to get Baby John out of our house. I thought a sure-fire way to have him permanently destroyed was to give the doll to the chimps (I’m not sure what I would have done if I had a different job!)

Jackie and Debbie were the first caregivers to present Baby John. Below is the video that was taken that first day.

 

Change the Channel for Chimps

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As most of you probably know by now, the company CareerBuilder will be airing a commercial during the Super Bowl that uses live chimpanzees. It’s nothing new, really – CareerBuilder started using chimpanzees for commercials several years ago. Unlike more progressively-minded companies (like Dodge and Pfizer), CareerBuilder has never responded to members of the public, celebrities and experts who have sent them information about why non-human great apes should not be used in entertainment.

The protests over the use of chimpanzees in the CareerBuilder commercial have garnered more attention this year than ever before. Steve Ross of the Lincoln Park Zoo has been quoted and interviewed numerous times in print and on television and the Jane Goodall Institute released a petition yesterday.

There is also a petition on care.org started by Dawn Forsythe who runs the blog Chimp Trainer’s Daughter and the Facebook page Year of the Chimpanzee.

We at the sanctuary are concentrating on also supporting the suggestion started by fellow sanctuary director Jen Feuerstein at Save the Chimps. She is asking people to Change the Channel for Chimps and began a Facebook event for people to do just that – change the channel when the CareerBuilder ad comes on during the Super Bowl. CareerBuilder spent $3.5 million on that 30 second commercial, and perhaps the best thing we can do is refuse to watch it.

So, be sure to share the message to Change the Channel for Chimps through Facebook, Twitter (you can RT our tweets), and your email lists.

Let’s do what we can to make this the last commercial with chimpanzees that CareerBuilder makes.

Jamie, Burrito and probably Jody were all used in entertainment before being sold into research. Sarah, CSNW’s ED, went undercover at a chimp training compound several years ago. It’s both a personal issue for us at the sanctuary and an important part of our mission to educate others about the abuse that happens to chimpanzees. We as humans who care have to speak up for them.

If you haven’t already, please also join our advocacy branch Primate Patrol.

 

Primate Patrol logo