Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Diana

Marmots and Dolls

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As I was putting the video together today, I went down a bit of a rabbit hole, or, more precisely, a marmot hole.

Did you know that marmots, which are rodents (technically large ground squirrels), are also called rock chucks and whistle pigs?

The territory of yellow-bellied marmots in Washington overlap with hoary marmots, with the yellow-bellied variety making their homes in the lower elevations of the state. They live an average of 15 years and generally hibernate for eight months, reproducing within weeks after emerging from hibernation and giving birth to a litter of 3-8 after a short 30-day gestation period. Their social structure is varied and complex, prompting some researchers to use social attribute models, frequently used when studying primates, to examine their social structures. I haven’t read every word of this, but if you are interested, take a look at this paper. Now I think someone should be studying the marmots we have on the property!

You’re welcome for that marmot lesson. If you are still with me…

After my marmot deep-dive, I was looking at photos of infant chimpanzees clinging to their moms, when somehow I came across this really interesting story about adult male chimpanzees “kidnapping” an injured first-born infant from her young mom (don’t worry, everything turns out okay).

This is why you are here, right?

Our fellow animals who we share this big blue marble with are so fascinating. I never get tired of watching the chimpanzees at the sanctuary, whether they are expressing an instinctual behavior like carrying (their version of) a baby on their back, or they are just chewing a leek.

Thanks for taking a deep-dive into Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest through this blog.

There’s more! If you didn’t receive the e-news last week, or if you need a reminder, here’s a couple of things to have on your radar:

First:
We are hosting a virtual visit this Wednesday for Love a Chimpanzee Day! You can learn more and sign up for as little as $5 on this donation page: https://giving.chimpsnw.org/page/LoveChimps25

Second:
You can help a NAPSA sanctuary of your choice win a really cool mirrored enrichment item from Wildlife Toybox! Make a donation to the North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance and nominate one of the following sanctuaries by writing their name in the message box on the donation form: Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, Primates Incorporated, Black Beauty Ranch, Fauna Foundation, Project Chimps, Chimp Haven, Save the Chimps, or Center for Great Apes. If you donate $1,000 or more, you’ll be featured as a sponsor of NAPSA’s upcoming Workshop! The first named sanctuary to hit $2,500 will win a Looky Lou feeder.

Walking in the Rain

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We all had an adventure on this walk the other day!

It was fun to join the chimpanzees getting caught in the rain.

It reminded me of the very first heavy rain that the Cle Elum Seven experienced. Thanks to this blog, you can learn more about that experience here: Rainstorm Bravery

The photo of Missy in the doorway, watching the rain is still one of my favorites:

Missy in doorway during rainstorm

Balance

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You can’t work with chimpanzees and not make comparisons to humans. Being around our closest living genetic cousins makes you ponder what we brought to the future with us from our common ancestors and where our species each went boldly, perhaps haphazardly, in different directions. These are questions that academics spend their entire careers attempting to answer, mainly out of the (let’s face it) selfish yet universal desire to understand life’s biggest and most enigmatic questions of “who are we”? and “why are we the way we are?”

I went to a yoga class on Saturday (shout out to Wild Rose Yoga in Cle Elum). The instructor encouraged us to think about the spring equinox and its related elements.

The Earth remains at a jaunty 23.5 (give a degree or two) tilt as she orbits around her life-force of the sun. On the two days of the equinox, one in spring and one in fall, as the Earth is making her annual slow circular stroll, the sun crosses the celestial equator, shining directly overhead at the Earth’s equator and spreading light to both the north and south pole at the same time. Even those of us in upper and lower latitudes experience a 24-hour cycle with equal parts daylight and night. The next day, this alignment changes ever so slightly, lengthening or shortening the day depending on which hemisphere is closest to the sun.

Today while I was cleaning, I was thinking about the equinox, balance, and our modern-day human tendency to strive for an idealized existence that is in perfect equanimity. I don’t think I’ve seen evidence that the chimpanzees strive for the same thing. They fight, they lose a finger, they groom, they sleep, they wake up, they eat, they try to get our attention to play, like Burrito is doing right now.

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insert commercial break here: While I was writing this, I could hear Burrito blowing raspberries in the playroom, so I went to say hello. He immediately engaged me in a game of chase which led to Burrito traveling around his outdoor habitat with me attempting to navigate the mud in my indoor shoes in order to orbit around him as he ran.

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I had physical therapy a few years ago. I took a couple of things away from that experience. Some helpful exercises to do and a new-to-me explanation of  proper running technique. The PT shared with me that running (for bipedal humans, anyway), when done in a form that is least harmful to your body, is actually a series of controlled falls. It’s allowing your feet to catch yourself, over and over again, as you fall forward.

Maybe it’s because chimpanzees are not bipedal that they are more in true balance.

Maybe they instinctively know that perpetual balance is not possible, and life would be pretty boring if it was. Or maybe they just exist, one step at a time, whether those steps are steady or not.

Let’s follow in their footsteps and not expect or frustratingly strive to reach a permanent state of balance. We can notice and appreciate those rare moments, like the equinox, when it happens. Then we can let them go and get back to just keeping ourselves and each other from falling, or at least picking each other up when we inevitably do meet the ground in an unplanned and less than gentle way.