Elizabeth

The Power to Captivate

November 6, 2014 by Elizabeth

I’ve been working closely with chimpanzees for over a decade now, and sometimes I forget how unusual my job is. Just like anything you do day in and day out, being a chimpanzee caregiver starts to feel routine after awhile. Not boring – never boring! – but routine. It’s such a strange and amazing little world we caregivers live in, but because we live in it, it seems downright normal. We find ourselves in some truly surreal situations here at the sanctuary – stuffing a troll doll’s head with peanut butter for an enrichment project or wearing a single ill-fitting cowboy boot and taking a perimeter walk around Young’s Hill with the alpha chimpanzee – but even these things stop seeming weird the longer you do them.

But I’ve learned that no matter how many days, months, or years I spend caring for chimps, they never lose their power to captivate. Sometimes it’s seeing them do something amazing or funny or endearing that takes me back a decade or so to when I was first falling in love with chimps. And sometimes it’s just having a moment to study their incredible faces. I find myself mesmerized by each hair, wrinkle, freckle, and scar.

Annie:

Jody:

Burrito:

Foxie:

A Day of Meals

November 2, 2014 by Elizabeth

One of the things that brings the Cle Elum Seven chimpanzees the most joy is food. In order to keep the chimps as healthy and happy as possible for as long as possible, we focus on nutrition and variety (and taste, of course!). Here’s what the chimps ate today.

Breakfast:

Breakfast is usually the most exciting meal of the day, eliciting lots of food grunts. This morning the chimps had a fruit smoothie made of persimmons, bananas, and protein powder. We also served apples, oranges, and kiwi berries. In the green bowl are some banana slices. Burrito gets his heart pills in banana (those are the two slices in the small white bowl on top), and of course, you can’t give something to one chimp without also offering it to the others, so the rest of the chimps get a couple of banana slices too. We always include a small bowl of peanuts with breakfast – Negra often won’t leave her nest in the morning until she spots the peanuts on the breakfast tray. In the small pink bowl are the chimps’ gummy vitamins, fiber pills, and probiotics. And the silver bowl on the right holds protein biscuits we call chow.

Lunch:

Lunch is usually a pretty simple affair consisting of fresh veggies and more chow. Today the chimps had corn on the cob, bell peppers, Brussels sprouts, and beets.

Dinner:

For dinner, the chimps had celery, carrots, and spaghetti squash. Everyone had a couple of banana slices so Burrito could get his second dose of heart meds, and of course, a night bag for dessert (these are small paper bags with a handful of nuts, seeds, and dried fruit, and they are Negra’s favorite part of the day).

The vast majority of the chimps’ food is donated by local stores, volunteers, and supporters. We’re so grateful to be able to offer the chimpanzees the bounty of delicious food that they deserve.

Jamie the Fighter

October 30, 2014 by Elizabeth

I spend more time with the Cle Elum Seven chimpanzees than I do with most people in my life. I know them as the curious, playful, independent, opinionated individuals that sanctuary has allowed them to become.

I did not know Annie, Burrito, Foxie, Jamie, Jody, Missy, and Negra in their former lives as lab subjects, when they were mere shadows of their current selves. I often wonder how the vibrant personalities I know so well survived decades of trauma, boredom, fear, and loss.

There’s little doubt that life in a research lab is nearly unbearable for any chimpanzee (or, one could argue, for any living, feeling creature). It’s not surprising that many of them give up. But many others make it out the other side, and are able to rediscover their sense of joy and wonder, and their fighting spirit.

Here at the sanctuary, Jamie epitomizes “fighting spirit.” Despite being one of the youngest chimps in the group, she has appointed herself leader, and she runs the show. She demands the utmost respect from both her chimp and human family, and she gets it. If she wants something, she doesn’t wait and hope – she makes it happen. She is brilliant, difficult, fierce, and exacting, and we could not love or admire her more.

Due to incomplete lab records, we don’t know Jamie’s date of birth, so we celebrate her each year on Halloween (in loving tribute to her endearingly wicked nature). Our Jamie-ween party is always completely over the top (as it should be). This year’s party promises to be no different. Be sure to check back tomorrow for photos and/or video from Jamie’s birthday party, and in the meantime, here are some of my favorite photos of Jamie from birthdays past:

An afternoon on the hill

October 23, 2014 by Elizabeth

Today after lunch I stepped outside to see what the chimpanzees were up to. I found Annie all alone on Young’s Hill, having a quiet moment.

Considering Annie is the lowest chimp in the hierarchy, she’s looking awfully confident these days.

A while later, boss Jamie (right) came outside and Annie offered her a submissive greeting.

Eventually Missy came out, and she and Jamie started up the hill for a perimeter walk. But just when they were getting started, a brief scuffle broke out in the greenhouse and Jamie ran inside to sort things out.