Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Ellen Brady-McGaughey

New Puzzles, New Challenges

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Today’s blog is all about enrichment! We are so grateful to the many supporters who helped make it possible for us to purchase new enrichment and craft new food puzzles thanks their generous support during our Comfort and Joy online auction. Some of the donated supplies are still waiting to be turned in to their final form, so stay tuned for a future blog to share more. Today’s video and blog will highlight the newly made giant holey lids courtesy of Tricia M. and new troughs thanks to Kathleen C.!

I love watching the chimps meet a new challenge, and find their own ways to accomplish the task at hand. Some puzzles require a demo by the humans, but most of the time we let the chimps try on their own first. As you’ll see in the video, Honey B has come up with a very different approach to the new troughs. Honey B’s method comes as no surprise, and she accesses the treats in record time!

Below is Lucky showing off her mostly clean trough! We put sugar free strawberry pudding in the bottom, and tossed some pomegranate arils on top which stuck to the pudding, requiring that she use the bamboo stick in her hand (or a different tool) to get the pudding and pomegranate. These troughs are the perfect depth, as the chimps cannot simply use their fingers to reach the bottom, which encourages the use of a tool and engages them with the puzzle for more time. Lucky was the first to master her method, which Willy B and Terry also utilized. Sometimes we put seeds, cereal, or other non-sticky food items in the troughs, which they can access by tipping the trough towards themselves (or using the Honey B method!).

Below is a newly made giant holey lid, ready for it’s first use by the chimpanzees! I cut several holes into the large (brand new) trash can lid, and bolted a frisbee to the middle of the lid. The frisbee can easily be rotated to cover the different holes, thus allowing one chimpanzee to control access to the other holes in the lid. Peanut butter has been smeared on the back of the lid, around each of the holes. I created this with the intention of using it as a social enrichment device with Cy’s group as they continue to undergo their reintroduction. If you’d like to learn more about social enrichment, see here! The below photo is what the puzzle looks like from the chimps’ point of view.

This photo show the back of the puzzle with smeared peanut butter, and is what the humans see after hanging up the puzzle for the chimpanzees.

Willy B was the first to try out the new puzzle today. He quickly figured out how to access the peanut butter, and moved the frisbee slightly. When a conflict started in the group which required Willy B’s attention, Rayne was quick to seize her opportunity and worked on the puzzle for quite a while. I’m looking forward to seeing more of the chimps get to experience this new food puzzle, and hope to see them move the frisbee more intentionally in the future! Thank you again to Tricia M. and Kathleen C. for your generous gifts to the chimpanzees!

A Very Merry Forage

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Today the chimps enjoyed some delicious dried fruits and veggies, thanks to Carol H. who won them in our Comfort and Joy Auction! Thank you, Carol, for bringing joy to the chimpanzees today in the form of a delicious morning forage! We also were able to purchase some dried fruit powders (cherry, tangerine, dragon fruit, and strawberry! So exciting!), which we used to make juice for the chimpanzees. Today, Foxie and friends tried the cherry fruit powder turned into juice, and Foxie was especially excited for this special treat.

I also wanted to share a big thank you to Kathleen C. for her winning bid in the Comfort and Joy Auction for carabiner clips! These are a gift for the humans of the sanctuary, as well as the chimps, and we are so excited to have them. We use carabiner clips every day to hang enrichment puzzles for the chimpanzees and having to search high and low for that last needed clip is never fun. We now have plenty of carabiner clips for our current enrichment needs, and we are so very grateful!

Rayne Gets a Gift

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Today, Rayne’s group got to enjoy the Spring Rayne scarf from our Comfort and Joy online auction! I painted the original artwork for a different auction and was inspired by the one and only Rayne chimpanzee, as well as her outdoor habitat The Bray in all its spring glory. It is neat to see the painting re-imagined as a scarf, and especially one for the chimps to enjoy! While she may look serious in the pictures, I’ll have you all know she was playing with the scarf before I could get my phone out, then it was all business for the photographer! She was wrapping it around her hands and feet playfully, and I’m sure enjoying the soft texture of the fabric. Thank you so much to Grace C. for donating this scarf for the chimpanzees!

As a bonus, enjoy a photo of silly Cy!

Don’t forget that today is Giving Tuesday, an internationally recognized day of generosity. Your support will not only honor Jody, but also the direct care of chimpanzees at the sanctuary. And your gift can be doubled today, thanks to a generous donor! Click here for more.

Happy Birthday, Willy B!

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Today is Willy B’s 34th birthday! We are so fortunate to be able to know, love, and care for this special chimpanzee. He certainly always keeps us on our toes, whether it be trying to understand the motivation behind some of his actions, or quite literally when he suddenly decides its time to play chase (never miss out on a game of chase with Willy B!)! There’s so much to love about Willy B from the silly faces he makes when he sees himself in a camera, the way he eats many crunchy foods (like fennel, with the side of his mouth munching on them like a rabbit), watching him crack open a coconut (see today’s video to enjoy this for yourself), his satisfied food grunts, his ever-growing bravery in conquering The Bray, witnessing all the small moments of friendship between him and the other chimps in his group, and so much more.

We celebrated Willy’s birthday with coconuts, pineapple juice cups, and banana chow cookies with a peanut butter frosting on top. In addition to the food festivities, we made sure Willy got to enjoy one of his favorite pastimes of watching videos of chimps. I think it is safe to say he had a great birthday! Happy birthday, Willy B!

Social Enrichment

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If you are new to the blog, or missed some of our recent posts, we are currently going through the process of reintroducing the group of 9. Here are a few posts to get you caught up (here and here!). As a part of this process, we have been providing the reintroduced group with a social enrichment puzzle each day. We learned about the concept of social enrichment from our colleague Dr. Andrew Halloran, who visited the sanctuary in October, and provided us with some initial ideas for social enrichment puzzles we could create.

What is social enrichment? Social enrichment can be many things. The answer to this question is easier defined by focusing on the goal of social enrichment, which is to create an opportunity for the chimpanzees to positively and regularly re-establish their dominance hierarchy. In the wild, chimpanzees would come upon limited, high-value foods (like a fig tree) as a group, and have to navigate the ins and outs of their social hierarchy in order to access the food. The most dominant individual would be expected to get the best spot with the most figs, while others must navigate the social scene and where they fall in it to know where and when they will be permitted to access the food. The limited nature of the food source may encourage submissive and affiliative behaviors from lower ranking individuals wanting access to the high value foods. In our case, we have created large puzzles where multiple chimps can work on them at once, but the puzzle can be manipulated in such a way that one chimp can prevent another from accessing the desired foods.

As Enrichment Coordinator, I have been working to dream up new designs to add to our social enrichment program in addition to the designs Dr. Halloran provided, and it has been a fun challenge! You really get to be creative, and I’ve had fun re-purposing some supplies we had laying around the sanctuary to make new puzzles. Here are some of the new puzzles I made:

Above is a giant raisin board enrichment puzzle, which was made from a large cutting board and some smaller boards that rotate to allow access to the holes underneath them. The chimps have repeatedly outsmarted my design on this and simply lift the whole board up and suck the raisins out from the opposite side! I am troubleshooting that loophole still, as they do need to be able to lift the board some in order to get the raisins they push out through the back of the board with a chopstick.

Above is a treat board, which has holes drilled into it diagonally (that do not go all the way through the board), which we have filled with pudding. There are two firehose segments that can slide over the board to allow access to holes (and treats) that are currently covered up. The board is then attached to the caging by the eye screws on either end of it, so the chimps cannot take the firehose off of the board entirely.

The best part has been watching the social enrichment in use, and seeing the chimps first learn how to use a new puzzle (they needed a few demonstrations), and then successfully navigate the social dynamics at play to access the puzzle. In general, we have seen what we hoped and expected to see – Cy in control of the puzzles. Willy has at times gotten to the puzzle first because he came into the space first, but Cy has been dominating the puzzles once he arrives and Willy has either been accepting only getting a small amount of the puzzle (and treats from it), or has been moving away to wait for his turn once Cy is done. There have been a couple instances where Willy B seemed to get frustrated about his lack of access to the puzzle and started to display, which Cy has answered with displays of his own. In these instances where Willy B has displayed, the cycle has occurred several times until Cy and Willy eventually display and leave the area, and once Cy is gone, Willy quickly returns to work on the puzzle. Is he a genius, or just taking advantage of how the situation played out? We hope the use of social enrichment will continue to help Willy B find and understand his place within the social hierarchy of his group, both in the current grouping (which is Cy, Willy B, Rayne, and Lucky) and as we add more individuals. I know Honey B is more than ready to get her hands on some new puzzles!

Don’t forget to check out the Comfort and Joy auction! You could help me make more social enrichment for the chimps by bidding on the Giant Holey Lids (trash can lids that will one day become a new and exciting puzzle for the chimpanzees)!

6 Years with the Cattle!

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As Katelyn mentioned in yesterday’s blog, today is the 6th anniversary of the arrival of our lovely cattle! We celebrated our bovine friends with fresh cuttings of willow, a favorite browse item of the herd. We are also always trying to find new foods they may enjoy but these ladies are surprisingly picky! Today’s willow came with a side of pumpkin, to which Meredith, Honey, and Betsy said a polite, but firm, “no thank you.” Enjoy some photos of our favorite cows, and join us in celebrating 6 years with these silly, sweet, and sometimes spicy ladies. We are so lucky to know and love them!

Betsy enjoying some fresh willow branches.

A close up moment with Honey! She clearly enjoyed her hay pellets!

Honey eating willow branches.

Honey and her daughter, Meredith, enjoying willow branches together.

Meredith looking for the next willow branch to snack on. Look at those pretty curls that are coming in as she grows out her coat for winter!

We also celebrate and remember Nutmeg today, who sadly passed away this past spring after a sudden health crisis. He was a beloved member of the herd and Betsy’s son, and his gentle giant presence is missed daily.

Handsome Nutmeg

Nutmeg and Betsy

Paper Party Part 2 (Burrito’s Version)

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A generous donor recently sent us quite a few new, very durable toys for the chimpanzees from our Wildlife Toybox wish list! We are so grateful and have been excited to see the chimps get to use these new items. One of these items is a giant green cube, which I hoped the chimps would enjoy being able to move around to sit on wherever they would like. Burrito is known to sit on top of his blue barrel to get the best view of the neighbors next door (especially when any drama is happening), so I hoped these could be another option for him and others to enjoy. Grace and I decided to wrap up not only the new toy we were giving to Burrito’s group, but also all of the other large toys already in their space. Burrito seemed to really enjoy this! Check out today’s video to see Burrito unwrap all the toys new and old, and enjoy sitting atop his new giant green cube. He made a lovely paper nest once he was done unwrapping everything, and in true Burrito fashion he remained ready to play despite having such a cozy nest! Thank you to the generous donor that gifted us and the chimpanzees all of these wonderful new toys, and to all of our donors who continue to make a difference in the lives of the chimpanzees and cattle who call CSNW home!

We are sending big PANT HOOTS of thanks to everyone who has donated to CSNW in honor of Giving Day for Apes today! You are helping us get closer and closer to our fundraising goal. Every donation goes to the care of our amazing residents and two exciting projects here at the sanctuary. The first project is a memorial garden that will honor the residents whose memory we will always love and stories we will always honor. The second is a support building for our growing staff, that will include space for educational presentations to visitors!
We still have some funds to raise to meet our goal and we are asking for your support. Donate before 9pm PT / 11:59pm ET today (October 8th, 2024)- every donation counts! Plus, there is a $500 prize for the organization that receives the last donation of the night. 🙂 Click here or at the link below to follow along on our progress, donate, share, and help us win that prize!