Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Ellen Brady-McGaughey

Catching Up

by

Hello everyone! I hope you all enjoyed the Be Mine series. I loved getting to share more with you all about each individual in our care, but was also eager for the series to end as I have been saving up some special moments from around the sanctuary to share with you all!

If you read Grace’s blog yesterday, then you know that Honey B is back home with her group after a separation due to an injury she sustained near her eye. We are all so thrilled for her to be back! One of the biggest difficulties when chimps are separated from their group is keeping them entertained. Honey B, being herself, made this relatively easy (besides moments when we needed to distract her from picking at her healing injury) as she is constant entertainment! If you are new to the blog, be sure to check out some of our earlier posts for her high jinks (here and here). She is such a fun person who keeps us on our toes, and constantly impressed by her ingenuity and humor!

Here are some photos from around the sanctuary the past couple of weeks:

Annie looking regal sitting in the morning sunshine in the playroom

Negra enjoying a mouthful (and more!) of snow

Rayne relaxing in a nest of blankets

Be Mine, Dora

by

How could you not ALREADY be in love with Dora?!? Okay, I guess I’ll forgive you if you need some convincing, but buckle in and prepare yourself to fall hard for the wonderful, sometimes spicy, silly lady that is Dora.

Dora

Dora was born at the Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP) on June 6th, 1989. Her records say that her mother was Stella and her father was Les. She has many half siblings including Gordo (they have the same father, Les), who came with her from Wildlife Waystation and lives with her in her current group. She also has a half sister, Amber, who now lives at Chimp Haven, and several other half siblings at other sanctuaries including Pumpkin at Save the Chimps. I had the opportunity to work with Amber at my previous job, and can see several similarities between her and Dora. Amber and Dora are both very friendly with others in their groups, and can be quite quirky and silly. They strongly resemble each other in my opinion as well!

Pumpkin, photos from Save the Chimps

Amber, photo from Chimp Haven

Dora, in the same pose as Amber above

Dora arrived at CSNW in 2021 after Wildlife Waystation had closed in 2019, requiring that new homes be found for their many residents. Dora came to the sanctuary with Cy, Terry, Gordo, Rayne, and Lucky (the Lucky Six) and her group was then integrated with Willy B’s group (Willy B, Honey B, and Mave). If you’re new to the blog, Dora is now best friends with Mave, and one is rarely seen without the other. They comfort each other in times of stress and support each other (for the most part) during times of conflict. Even the best of friends do occasionally have their differences though, and Mora (Mave+Dora) is no exception. Just last week, Dora seemed to have decided that the cherry tomatoes for Mave were cherry tomatoes for Dora. It became very offensive to Dora when Mave took the cherry tomatoes, and Dora screamed and hit at Mave, which turned into a brief dispute in the group. While each of them were very upset, they were also quick to reconcile and back to being the best of friends.

Mora, as seen through the hand box

Grooming time with Mora

Mave and Dora playing

Mave holding Dora’s toes, and Mave and Dora hands

Mave hugging Dora

One of my favorite activities to do with Dora is to train with her using positive reinforcement training. She loves training and gets very excited to participate. She knows a lot of different behaviors, but also gets so eager to train that she sometimes wants to play with the human training with her, which is a rarity for me with Dora. Recently when I was training with her, she put both of her feet up, sticking all her toes through the caging, and made a play face. I tapped her toes with the back of my wrist, much like I often do with Burrito, and she continued with her playful antics and seemed to love it. We trained a little bit more, she got more delicious snacks, and we just had a great time together. It was the highlight of my week!

Dora has also graced me with a few grooming sessions so far. When she is interested in spending time together, I will drop just about everything to make that happen. One of my favorite moments with her was early on in my time working here, shortly after I was cleared to interact with the chimps on my own. Dora came up to the caging as I was cleaning across the hall, gave me a brief look, then sat down. I noticed her looking at me and stepped over to greet her, and she presented her head to me as if she wanted me to scratch it. I waited a moment, and then she turned so that I could safely touch her arm with my knuckle, and I gently rubbed her arm with my knuckle while she sat with me. After about a minute, the moment was over and she was off to her next activity.

When it comes time for meals, Dora is most excited if there is corn on the menu. She enjoys a lot of other foods and her chow, but there is just something extra delicious about corn. She is picky with her smoothies, so you should always feel accomplished if you make a smoothie that Dora gulps down!

Dora eating corn

Dora with her smoothie cup

Dora is a very special chimpanzee, and I feel so fortunate to get the opportunity to know and love her. She is silly, especially with her chimp friends, and can make a game out of anything. The girl knows how to have fun! She knows what she wants, and will stand up for herself when needed but is not usually one to start drama. She is a loyal friend, there to provide support when needed and quick to offer a hug or reassurance that everything is okay. She is the kind of friend everyone needs.

Thank you to Dora’s current pals Vicki, Monica, Lisa, Victoria & Emelia, Barbara, Precious, Janet, and Leslie for supporting and loving the wonderful chimpanzee person that is Dora. If you’d like to be pals with Dora, visit our website today!

Be Mine, Willy B

by

Willy B is a very unique person. He is aloof a lot of the time with the humans around him, but sometimes surprises us with the gift of a game of chase! Most of the time he is busy keeping track of Cy and spending time grooming with him. This makes sense, as Cy is a wonderful leader of his group and protector of Willy B when disputes occur in the group, in addition to Honey B and Mave. Willy B can be a bit awkward, both with chimps and humans, which often manifests itself as avoiding eye contact or seemingly not understanding the expected repercussions of his actions within his group. For example, Willy B may display, which can be perceived as a threat by others in his group who respond by becoming upset and chasing Willy B. He often seems almost surprised when this happens, and can become fearful and rely on others to defend him from the individuals he upset with his display. He is very fortunate to have strong friendships that help him navigate living in a larger group. Willy B has grown in many other ways since he arrived at the sanctuary too, including conquering The Bray and enjoying many small but joyful moments of sanctuary within his larger group of chimpanzees.

Cy inside the box with Willy B to the right, after playing together.

Cy and Willy B grooming

Willy B was born November 30, 1990 at the Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP). Our records say his father’s name was Stu, and only provide a number for his mother: #526. Willy B moved to Wildlife Waystation along with over 30 other chimpanzees when LEMSIP closed in 1996, where he stayed until his journey to CSNW in 2019. Willy B arrived with Mave and Honey B on August 18, 2019 after Wildlife Waystation announced it was closing. They have since been integrated with the Lucky Six to form a group of nine.

L to R: Honey B grooming Mave grooming Willy B

Willy B is a big fan of many different foods, and serving him any type of crunchy vegetable (especially fennel) always makes my day as he holds it to the side of his mouth and crunch, crunch, crunches it like a rabbit! It is a very small thing but always makes me laugh, and I love watching him enjoy his meals because he so thoroughly enjoys them. He especially enjoys coconuts and is improving his techniques to get them open.

Willy B with a coconut

Willy B, while he often appears serious, definitely has a goofy side too. He loves to appreciate his reflection if you let him look at himself on your phone, and makes some silly faces while doing so. He also loves to watch chimp videos, and has his own curated YouTube channel with all his favorite videos! Interestingly enough, he seems to prefer watching his videos on a phone versus the big screen. He has a very specific spot he likes to watch his videos in during our first round of cleaning for the day, right by where we keep the tools for cleaning, so he can easily get your attention to set up his stories with some persistent raspberries. He will often build himself a nest to sit or lay in while he watches his videos, and sometimes gets so excited by them that he can’t contain his excitement and lets out a pant hoot! I have shown him some videos of chimps that I used to work with, and he seems to have a favorite as of now…Ivy. I had thought Carlee would be his favorite, as I have a lot of videos of her as a rowdy baby playing with the other juveniles in her group and she is always up to silly antics, but he didn’t show very much interest in her. As soon as I showed him a video of Ivy looking at herself, he leaned towards the glass window where my phone was to get a better look, and watched intently throughout the rest of the video.

Willy B’s face while looking at himself in my phone camera

Beautiful Ivy of Chimp Haven

I am loving continuing to get to know Willy B every day, and have been so happily surprised by several play sessions with him in just the past week! You have to pay close attention to realize he is interested, as often it starts with him tapping his wrist against the caging to get your attention which can be very subtle, and then requires some persistence on your part to get the game going. Volunteer Krissy and I had the best play session with him last week, stomping around with him while playing chase and then just stomping our feet while he stomped his. We all just enjoyed the moment of being silly, being ourselves, and sharing the moment together.

A huge thank you to Willy B’s pals: Vicki, Monica, Kathleen, Sharlene, Candy and Karla for their support of this wonderful chimpanzee!

If you think Willy B is as fun as I do, make him your Valentine by becoming his Pal today! We appreciate it!

 

Remembering and Cherishing Friends

by

If you missed Grace’s blog yesterday, you should go read it. It was a beautiful tribute to Jody and how her memory lives on here, through everyone who knew and loved her and continues to share her story. It was also about processing the grief of losing a dear friend. While I never had the honor of meeting Jody, I was fortunate enough to work with and build a friendship with her son, Levi, as well as many other chimpanzees prior to starting my journey here.

Levi

Close up of Levi

Unfortunately, I too have experienced the loss of chimpanzee friends that I have known and loved that have passed away over the years. Some of my friends were very old, having lived long lives since being taken from the wild as infants, but still carrying with them the knowledge their wild families no doubt imparted to them even at such a young age. Lessons like how to climb a tree. Other of my friends did not seem nearly old enough for their time to be up, but yet it was. Despite our best efforts and all the love in the world, time was up. While each of these losses caused immeasurable pain and heartache, I keep coming back, knowing my heart would again break when another friend passes away. Because the heartache and pain and loss is what comes from such a great love. There is nothing more wonderful than seeing chimpanzees thrive in sanctuary. We get to make their lives the best that they can be, and continually strive to improve them. We get to be their friends, their caregivers, to see them get excited to see us when we come back from our weekend or just back to work the next day. We are there with them and for them on the best of days, and on the worst.

One thing I have learned from the losses I have experienced is to always make time to spend with your friends while you can. You don’t want to have regrets for not making time to play a quick game of chase with someone, or being too busy to stop to say hello on your way to your next task. Sanctuary life is busy and there are always more tasks to be done, but make time for your friends too. Because the time is always up too quickly.

Pictured is Juan, a wonderful friend to all he met. Read more about him here.

I am extremely grateful to be a part of this community and to get to share stories with you all every day. I worry sometimes that my old friends will be forgotten one day, that there won’t be anyone left to share stories of them or remember how quirky their greetings were or that they had the best laugh. But we have each other, to share stories and memories and in doing so share the joy and love of our friends, as well as our grief that they are no longer with us. Through each of us, their memory lives on.

Meredith’s Healing Update

by

As J.B. covered in a previous blog, Meredith started slowing down this past summer which we discovered was due to osteoarthritis. She had a procedure at WSU to correct this in her right front foot, and she has been recovering and healing from this procedure. We were happy to welcome her back home to continue her recovery after her stay at WSU in December and early January, and I wanted to provide you all with an update on her progress since returning home.

Honey checks on her daughter, Meredith

She continues to show promising signs of healing, and seems to be feeling very ready to break out of her recovery stall to rejoin her herd! She has been enjoying extra attention from her caregivers during our cattle time, complete with lots of pets and scratches. Dr. Erin has also been coming for extra check ins on Meredith and helping to care for her and the herd. While I know she is ready to fully rejoin her family, I do think she enjoys having her own personal hay feeder to snack on at her leisure and not having to hurry to finish her grain before grain-obsessed Betsy is done with hers and looking around for more snacks! She will be due for her recheck appointment soon, so we will know more about exactly how her foot is healing. We hope for continued good news!

Enjoy some pictures of the rest of the herd as well. We are all enjoying the sunshine today!

Nutmeg showing off his best side (okay, all sides are his best side) and looking a little sassy

L to R: Nutmeg, Honey, Betsy, and Meredith in the back.

Betsy and Honey, looking ready to drop their next album!

How to Entertain a Chimpanzee

by

First up, here is your Honey B update! Despite our best attempts to keep her attention away from her healing eyelid and occupy her time with other activities, she did open up her incision slightly yesterday. Dr. Erin assessed her and for now, we are waiting to see how it continues to heal and consulting with other experts to be sure we have the best plan in place for her. We continue to provide her with extra enrichment, and today one of her enrichment devices doubled as enrichment for the humans who created it.

We have had a large cardboard tube in the Chimp House for the past several weeks without a use for it. Today it found its purpose! We drilled some holes in the tube, added chain through the tube, and clipped it to the caging of Honey B’s room. We added some of her favorite things to the inside of the tube (popcorn, shelled peanuts, raisins) and raspberries to some of the holes to peak her interest. We gave her a bamboo stick as a tool and sat back to see what she did with it.

The idea was that the small snacks would fall through the drilled holes when the tube rolled around the chain, and Honey B would use her bamboo stick to pull the snacks to her. Well…that’s not exactly what happened. To no one’s surprise, Honey B outsmarted our plan! She was able to tap and tip the tube in such a way that the majority of the snacks fell out of either end, so it did not take as long as I had thought it would to finish the puzzle. I would like to create a reusable version of this for everyone with PVC one day, and Honey B has helped me to identify some flaws in my plan! Thank you for the design assistance, BeeBee!

It was a very good day around the sanctuary today. It is warmer here today (not warm…but warmer!). Negra enjoyed a nap in her nest in the greenhouse which was quite cozy with the heater going. Her group enjoyed eating some of the remaining snow, which is now a perfect snow cone texture. Burrito loved looking at himself on my phone and was especially fascinated by his own tongue.

I feel so fortunate to be able to share in these moments with the chimps, and to get to share them with you all. I hope your Saturday has been just as good as ours!

 

Honey B Takes a Trip to the Clinic

by

Yesterday was a very busy day at the sanctuary. There was a fight in Honey B’s group in the afternoon where she sustained a multilayered laceration to her lower right eyelid. Thankfully there was no damage to the eye itself, but the injury did require some stitches. Everyone quickly jumped into action to get Honey B prepared for her sedation. Dr. Erin was already onsite and the process was started right away. Honey B did well under anesthesia and was returned to a cozy room with blanket nests lovingly prepared for her by Kelsi, and socks on her feet to make sure she didn’t get cold. She has spent most of today resting after her eventful day yesterday and will stay separated from her group for several days to allow us to better monitor her healing.

Below is a photo from the procedure, and some photos from after Honey B was returned to her room to recover.

Honey B during her procedure with Dr. Erin and J.B. in the background.

Honey B sleeping in one of her pre-made blanket nests after receiving her stitches.

Honey B recovering in her room, surrounded by her caregivers.