Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Diana

Sometimes its the simple things

by

Honey B is a smart, funny, curious chimpanzee. One of things we have discovered that she loves most is rolling around in paper – it is something so simple that never fails to make her happy. Willy B couldn’t resist her playfulness today (see video above).

As an update to Mave, Willy B, and Honey B’s lack of outdoor habitat adventures, I tried a few different things today to try to encourage them to venture into their outdoor courtyard. 1) I placed some nuts and seeds along the wooden walkway, some within reach of a chimpanzee sitting at the end of the chute. 2) I had the door open to the courtyard when they went into the chute, rather than opening it up once they were in the chute, and 3) I did my best to act super casual (this may not be my forte) and moved away from the chute and even around the corner.

I’m sorry to say that no one ventured out, even with these measures, but when I was out of his sight, Willy B did work up the courage to reach out and very quickly grab a few nuts, which must have felt like a big victory to him.

Even little steps are steps.

Routines

by

I know you are not here to get yet-another take on the current state of the strange and unprecedented (most over-used word for 2020?) times we are living in or to add to your own personal stress.

Just like so many other people, this pandemic can be rather all-consuming for me too.

Every day, I do recognize that I’m so lucky to have a job. And not just a job, but a job where most of those I interact with (the non-humans) are not consumed by daily death tolls or endless graphs showing morbid peaks.

This week, however, the chimpanzee sanctuary has faced additional stresses. Foxie has been lethargic and hasn’t been eating as much as she normally does and Jamie had a recurrence of an old abscess (I won’t go into details right now, but you can read a bit about it here). All the while we are still closely monitoring Jody’s healing foot. Needless to say, we’ve been constantly in contact with Dr. Erin and consumed with taking temperatures and comparing notes about every possible symptom we see.

Before moving on, I will reassure you that all three of them are doing fine today!

Jody’s foot is looking good and I can hear her ripping up blankets for her nest right now. Foxie is still tired but was quite active today and seems to be catching on that we will sneak her any food she wants – Kelsi just gave her a banana well after dining hours were over. Jamie’s abscess is draining and she is feeling well enough to keep me late to join her on walks around the hill.

Here’s a photo I just took on our walk before sitting down to write this:

I have taken dozens and dozens of photos that look exactly like the one above and I could have taken hundreds over the years. Jamie is keen on rituals that she herself invents.

They say that maintaining rituals and routines helps to cope with uncertainty and stress. I’m personally not great at following that sage wisdom for myself and have found myself unraveling some this week. My own poor coping skills aside, we do have a lot of routines and rituals here at the sanctuary that I enjoy.

Anthony’s post How To Speak CSNW explained a few of them, like “going on a walk” (as above) and the serving of “night bags” to the chimpanzees at the end of the day.

Night bags are a routine that all of the chimpanzees appreciate, and I managed to get a few photos of the chimps enjoying their night bags tonight while I was spot-cleaning the playroom.

Here’s a close up of Missy’s hand where you can see the current night bag mix spilled out on the windowsill so she can pick through it and eat her favorite bits first.

This one shows Jody in the background in “phase one” of eating her night bag:

And here’s Jody’s “phase 2” – sprawled out on her stomach with the night bag between her arms:

Burrito got his bag and ripped it open to pick through with his lips:

Foxie enjoyed hers lying down on the upper deck of the platform:

Jody left her bag and Burrito quickly went to check out what he could scavenge:

Then it was Foxie and Jamie’s turn to see if any of those shells contained an overlooked seed:

With the nightly ritual of the night bags over, and me finished with the spot-cleaning, most of the chimpanzees retired to the playroom to make their nests for the night. But Jamie’s routine does not include going to bed right after dinner…

We’ll see how late she stays up, with me in tow, feeling thankful that she is allowing me to join in her disruptive routine.

Chimpanzees are terrible at social distancing

by

Even if we were able to explain to the chimpanzees that we thought it would be best for them to keep their distance from one another, I guarantee they would not be compliant. Chimpanzees are in each other’s personal space constantly.

When they are grooming, it can be difficult to see where one chimp begins and the other ends, like Burrito grooming Foxie’s back today:

Even chimpanzees who are more human-focused frequently want physical contact with their caregivers. We’re strict about safety and never want to put ourselves in the position of being harmed by a chimpanzee. With the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re even more strict as we protect them as much as we can from potentially picking up any viruses from us.

Jamie can still find ways to groom us, or more accurately, groom “her” boots.

As for isolation, chimpanzees don’t take to it very well.

When Burrito was in his long recovery a few months ago, he actually did remarkably well. It helped that he still had contact with his chimpanzee and human companions through the fencing every day and he was able to watch the group to keep tabs on what they were up to. I think he discovered some benefits to being alone, such as midnight bagel deliveries and not having to deal with other chimps during mealtimes. Still, he was more than ready to go back with his group.

Jody has been isolated from her group for the last few days while she recovers from her foot procedure. She too can interact with the other chimpanzees and the humans through the caging, but she’s less comfortable than Burrito with this temporary separation.

I’m sure many of you can relate right now as you isolate alone or with your family.

One of Jody’s favored activities is nesting, so we are providing lots and lots of blankets for her. She, in turn, is ripping up those blankets to create even better nests.

Today Kelsi put a big pile of blanket strips that Jody created in a laundry basket and we put it in front of Jody’s room so she could pick them out herself.

We’re trying to keep her busy, and maybe she’s learning that it’s okay being a spectator instead of in the mix with the other chimpanzees once in a while too:

I heard someone describe this period the world is going through right now as everyone isolated alone, together. We’re glad to be a part of your together.

Just Right

by

If you are new to the blog, here are two things to know about the boss female chimpanzee Jamie: she loves boots, and she is constantly ordering the humans around.

You can see the force of her personality in these photos:

She’s also very particular about the things that she wants, and sometimes it takes the humans a while to understand what she’s asking for in a given moment.

Usually, when Jamie wants us to put on boots and walk around the outside of the outdoor habitat “with” her, she wants us to change into her favorite pair of boots du jour. We turn to the drying boots from the previous days enrichment or to her own personal boot and book closet to find the pair that she’s been most interested in lately.

Over the past twelve years, caregivers have worn various boot brands and styles. Right now, however, many of us are wearing XtraTuf boots. Kelsi, Anna, and Katelyn have a pair, as do I now. Chad and J.B. were the latest caregivers to upgrade to XtraTufs. Anthony still hasn’t succumbed to conformity. We have not received any funds from XtraTuf for this endorsement, but maybe they should send Anthony a pair so he will find out what he’s missing 😉

We female caregivers have the “Salmon Sisters” style that can be worn fully up or folded down to different lengths, revealing the unique fabric on the inside.

As with most fashion, there tends to be more variety for women’s styles, and Chad and J.B.’s boots are of the kind that don’t fold down to reveal fun patterns – they just wear them up.

A few days ago, Jamie got my attention and was gesturing for something. I assumed she wanted to go on a walk, so I pulled out all of the boots that I knew were favorites of hers, but she just continued to gesture empathically. After several minutes, I finally figured out that she wanted me to change into my cleaning boots, which I did, and we proceeded on our walk.

Today it was a similar routine, but both Kelsi and I were already wearing our cleaning boots, so we couldn’t immediately figure out what Jamie wanted.

Later in the afternoon Kelsi had a moment of insight and tried unrolling her boots to their full length.

That was it!

Jamie was off in a flash, with Kelsi happily catching up to her.

I wish I knew more about what goes on in Jamie’s head, but it’s always rewarding to figure out what she wants, even if it doesn’t make a lot of sense to us.

 

Jamie and J.B. share a moment

by

As we explained recently, we’re taking extra precautions and wearing masks (that we reuse) whenever we are in the chimp house.

The chimp-proof windows that separate the playroom and the greenhouse are a great safe place to interact with the chimpanzees.

The video above was taken during a break in cleaning and shows a very sweet side of Jamie, who is known as the quite serious and often demanding alpha female.

I just love the way she was interacting with J.B.

Happy Thoughts

by

Years ago, a couple of volunteers (Roszika and Andy) started something they called Happy Club.

A small group of us would meet at a local ice cream/coffee shop and bring a list of five things that had made us happy since we last met. We would read our lists out loud to the group. In the sharing of our happy moments, we increased happiness exponentially within the group (I’ve done the math to prove that statement).

The in-person meetings petered out when people moved away or got busy doing other things (I do hope they were resurrected once in a while), and Happy Club was moved to a virtual platform that still exists. People don’t post to it too frequently, but every once in a while I’ll see in my Facebook feed that someone has posted their list of five things that made them happy that week. It always makes me pause and puts things into a different perspective.

Today was a gorgeous, warm, sunny day. It’s not going to last – there’s even snow in the forecast for Monday – but today was like summer. It would have been a huge missed opportunity to not set out a lunch forage on the hill, but luckily I didn’t miss the opportunity.

Here’s a list of things that made me happy today.

Number 1: The sun. No explanation needed.

Number 2: The staff at CSNW. Amazing, I tell you.

Number 3: CSNW supporters. I received texts and emails of support and a couple of notifications of donations throughout the day. I love people who share my love of the chimpanzees!

I realize I mentioned #2&3 in my video from the other day. Those two probably would make my list every week!

Number 4: Burrito

Burrito started his day wrestling and tickling Missy, then Jody, then Negra. Nothing knocks him down. He remains full of playfulness, charm, and energy. I don’t know how he does it.

Number 5: Negra

Unlike Burrito, she is not often full of playfulness and energy (though when she is, it is a pure joy to witness).

This is how Negra started her day:

Doesn’t she look so cozy? She also looks like she could spend the rest of the day in bed.

But, she didn’t. She tore herself out of bed for breakfast, and she was out on the hill for the forage with everyone else, though her style is to take it easy while the other chimpanzees quickly go from place to place looking for food.

Seeing Negra outside in the sun should be able to make anyone’s happy list.

Pretty soon, the hill will be full of green grass and Negra will be outside partaking of one of her top ten happy things. I am so looking forward to that! It’s okay if we go through one more snow storm first to get there.

Video update on the state of things…

by

…and how you can help!

Here’s a link to that list of suggested businesses from our auction committee mentioned in the video: https://bit.ly/390Ui8x

And here’s a link to the 2020 Goals document: https://chimpsnw.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/2020-Individual-Donor-Needs-ChimpsNW.pdf

And here’s a photo of Honey B getting ready for bed, really just wondering what YOU’RE doing: