When it’s so cold outside that the chimpanzees don’t want to venture out, we bring winter inside to them. Or the fun part of winter, at least.
Where are the chimpanzees?
By the time we’ve finished the morning cleaning, the chimpanzees have had their lunch, and we’re ready to start thinking about the day’s blog post, the chimps have usually settled down for afternoon naps, making photographing them a challenge. (Chimps like to sleep up high, and therefore out of sight of the camera lens.) This problem is compounded in the winter, when the chimps are feeling sleepier and snugglier than usual. There are some afternoons when we walk around the sanctuary aimlessly for hours trying to find some chimps to photograph for the blog post. Interestingly, they don’t seem concerned at all with our troubles.
Today is one such day, so I thought I’d do something a little different: a brief video tour of part of the sanctuary grounds. (You’ll notice we’ve gotten some snow.) You will spot a chimp or two, but I think you’ll start to understand our struggles. If you didn’t know better, you might not know there are chimps here at all.
Lunch With the Chimps
The chimpanzees eat three meals a day, and at most mealtimes they’re asked to shift out of a certain area so we can close off that area to clean. (There’s nothing quite like food to motivate!) Lunch is an exception to this rule. Since we don’t do any cleaning at lunch, the chimps have free run of the entire sanctuary during the meal. The server chooses an area to serve, and the chimps come to that area to get their food, but they can then take their food wherever they choose.
Today volunteer caregiver Becca started serving lunch in the greenhouse, but the chimps quickly let her know it was too cold, so she came inside back inside the building to serve in the front rooms. Most of the chimps tend to stay put throughout the meal, but Missy – always on the move – likes to show up at the beginning of each “course”, grab her serving, and take it off to enjoy in the playroom.
Today’s lunch consisted of tomatoes, bell peppers, celery, and green onions.
New Friends
The Cle Elum Seven chimpanzees don’t have a lot of guy friends. JB is the only male staff member and the majority of our chimp house volunteers are women. Since men are such a novelty around here, they’re usually given an enthusiastic welcome by the chimps.
Volunteer Zane has recently progressed in his training from Level I to Level II, which means that instead of working solely in the kitchen and away from the chimpanzees, he is now cleaning enclosures, offering the chimps a previously unprecedented level of (visual) access to him. They couldn’t be happier. Annie and Jody both gave him extended googly-eyed greetings this morning, and Burrito spent awhile sitting in the front rooms this afternoon craning his neck to try to get a good view of Zane processing produce in the kitchen. Here’s to new friends!
Let Me Entertain You
I’m not sure how, but we discovered early on that Negra loves to watch people dance. The sillier and foot stompier the better. Today she bobbed her head along to volunteer caregiver Becca’s dancing.
The way to a chimpanzee’s heart…
If we asked the chimpanzees what their caregivers’ #1 priority should be, “giving us food” would be the unanimous response. We serve other purposes too – we keep their enclosures clean, we serve as play partners – but nothing’s more important than food.
Because humans are always separated from the chimps by caging, we have two main strategies for getting food to the chimps. Most meals are served directly to the group by a trained caregiver. The chimps all gather in one place and the caregiver hands food to each chimp. This allows us to make sure that everyone’s getting enough food.
The other type of meal is a forage: we close off a part of the chimps’ enclosure and scatter their meal around, and then let them back into that area so they can collect their own food. The advantage of forages is that they encourage “species-specific behavior” – basically, they let the chimps act like chimps. Free-living chimpanzees spend much of their day searching for food. The other advantage of forages is that the chimps lose their minds with excitement. As they watch us scatter their food, they break out in deafening food squeaks, pant hoots, and anticipatory screams.
Today volunteer caregiver Sandra and I set up a lunch forage in the greenhouse, and then watched the excitement unfold.
Annie:
Missy:
Burrito:
On the bright side…
Winter isn’t the chimpanzees’ favorite season. They don’t like to be cold or wet, so as much as they’d love to be having adventures outside, they end up spending most of their time indoors. Winter isn’t all bad, though. There’s something to be said for snuggling up with soft blankets on a cold day.
Negra:
Annie:
Jamie:
