Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary for primates.

J.B.

Lending a Hand

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It’s amazing how much Honey B, Willy B, and Mave have changed since they arrived on Sunday. No matter how much it benefits a chimpanzee to be relocated to a sanctuary like CSNW, it is still a stressful and bewildering experience. A certain amount of anxiety or even fear is understandable until they become familiar with the new environment, a new routine, and new caregivers. But we’re happy to see these three adapting quickly. This morning, as I was donning quarantine gear just outside the door, I could hear playful foot slaps on the floor. When I opened the door, Honey B was jumping up and down with a huge play face and Mave and Willy B were engaged in a pretty exuberant game of chase (who knew Mave could move so fast?). I have no doubt they miss their former caregivers, who love them very much, but for the first time it seemed like they were starting to feel at home here at CSNW. Little do they know there will be a lot more to become familiar with once their quarantine period is complete…

On the other side of the building, the one-and-only Missy was celebrating her 44th birthday! It was a day filled with running around the hill, playing with her best friend Annie, and tomatoes for every meal. A busy day and poor internet connection conspired to prevent me from putting together a second video, but we should be able to share that with you in the days to come.

Grooming Party

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Grooming sessions like these often serve as a counterweight to growing tensions within the group.

One measure of how well the Cle Elum Seven are getting along is how well they shift between enclosures. For example, at times Negra might think it wiser to stay in the playroom and forego a portion of breakfast than to allow herself to be stuck in the greenhouse with a raging Burrito. Or Jody may decide that she doesn’t have the energy to deal with Jamie’s dinnertime harassment and refuse to enter the playroom for a forage. In both cases, it’s not where they’re moving to that’s the problem – it’s who their moving with.

Lately, shifting has been a little more difficult than usual. While the chimps aren’t the slightest bit concerned about rearranging our cleaning schedule (nor should they be), they do have an interest in maintaining a stable and cohesive group. So it’s not surprising to see them participating in large grooming parties like this.

We’ll see if it’s enough to get us into the greenhouse for morning cleaning tomorrow…

All Work and Lots of Play

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As Anna mentioned yesterday, the humans are hard at work getting ready for our new arrivals. The quarantine area is almost done, with just a few items remaining on our punch list. The big project we’re working on now is the installation of an overhead chute that will connect the indoor quarantine enclosures to an extension of Young’s Hill. This will accomplish two things: First, it will give the new chimps a way to get some fresh air while they’re still under strict quarantine, which prohibits sharing access to the existing enclosures for health reasons; and second, it will provide the new chimps with a way to access Young’s Hill after quarantine but before they are fully integrated into the existing group. This second point is important, because successful introductions are never guaranteed and even successful intros can stretch on for many months.

The reason for elevating the chute is to maintain access for people and equipment around the building, something that gets trickier as sanctuaries grow and get more complex. Plus, chimps just seem to love overhead chutes.

The team behind the project is led by Gary McInnis of Sage Mechanical (pictured above with a section of the new chute outside his workshop). We were first introduced to Gary through our good friend Ozzie at Spencer Fluid Power, who generously donated a hydraulic unit to power the chimp doors we inherited from the former Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute. Gary visited the sanctuary with Ozzie last fall to help advise us and before long he had offered to donate all of the labor and materials required to hook up the doors. He then asked about the caging we were building and offered to do that job for 25% less than the lowest bid we receive. All told, Sage Mechanical has donated $35,000 worth of materials and labor this year to help us create a home for Honey B, Willy B, and Mave. It’s rare for us to get to work with a group as generous and committed to the sanctuary as Gary and his team.

While the humans are working hard to get everything ready, the chimps are free to do as they please. For Missy and Annie, that often means playing. For Negra, it usually means a good nap. But once and a while she will get a little playful, as you can see in the video above.

The spy and the acrobat

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Mornings on Young’s Hill are a flurry of activity.

The chimps leave the greenhouse after breakfast and race from structure to structure, motivated in part, I imagine, by the desire to see what changes may have occurred overnight while they slept.

The structures offer the best vantage points to spot everything from nearby wildlife to vehicles coming up the driveway.

This morning, Jody had only one thing on her mind: she immediately made a beeline to the Twister to search for the cows.

She found them resting beneath the shade of the Ponderosa pines, just beyond the fence. It looked to me like she thought back up was on its way, but she was going to have to perform her reconnaissance alone.

As the cows rose from their naps, Jody spied on them through the fire hose web.

Soon her cover was blown and she found herself facing down 6,000 pounds of curious bovines, so she retreated to the company of her chimpanzee family.

Meanwhile, Missy played the “ground is lava” game, oblivious to the drama at the top of the hill.

She followed Jamie around without setting foot on the ground…

…aided by her incredible balance, a pair of opposable big toes, and let’s just call it a low center of gravity.

While Jamie trudged through the tall grass, Missy leapt and swung above it all.

Chimps meet cows

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We finally got the summer pasture opened up yesterday and it was the first chance for a real face-to-face meeting between the chimps and the cows. Check out the video above and enjoy a few bonus photos of our beautiful cows enjoying their new digs:

Betsy:

Meredith:

Honey:

Nutmeg: