Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

J.B.

Gordo’s Exam

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As Ellen explained back in April, our staff, in conjunction with our Health and Behavior Working Group, determined that Gordo should receive his first physical exam at CSNW this year. Dr. Erin went to work assembling a team of medical professionals and our Positive Reinforcement Team, consisting of Jenna, Sabrina, and Ellen, with help from the entire staff, spent the last few months working with Gordo so that he would allow us to isolate him and accept an anesthetic injection by hand. I’m happy to say that all their hard work paid off, as yesterday Gordo willingly presented his arm for Ellen and Dr. Erin.

After Gordo was anesthetized, we took a few quick chest x-rays as a preliminary cardiac screening before weighing him and then moving him into the clinic for the rest of his procedure.

In addition to Dr. Erin, the medical team consisted of anesthetist Mekenzie Kmack, dentist Cheri Bloom, sonographer Korey Krause, echocardiograph technician Amy Owens, vet assistant Krissy, and chimp house volunteer Nancy Suttles, who jumped at the chance to put her experience as a retired RN to use helping to monitor Gordo during his recovery.

Here, Dr. Bloom begins her dental exam while Korey performs an abdominal ultrasound:

Dr. Erin and Dr. Bloom prepare to take dental x-rays:

Dr. Bloom and Dr. Erin perform a dental cleaning:

We are thrilled to finally own a top-of-the-line portable ultrasound machine, which means that local technicians like Korey and Amy can utilize our equipment and the images can then be sent to specialists for interpretation and analysis. Our medical teams typically work on different tasks simultaneously to maximize the amount of information we can obtain while keeping the duration of anesthesia as short as possible.

Amy performs the echocardiogram:

Mekenzie manages Gordo’s anesthesia while keeping a close eye on his vitals:

While some additional x-rays are taken in the clinic, we are able to take many of them during the brief period after the chimps are returned to their enclosure but before they wake up:

The chimps are given oxygen and propped up with blankets to help ensure they have a safe recovery:

Nancy records vitals until Gordo is awake and alert:

Eventually, the rest of the group is allowed to come check on Gordo from a distance:

When he is ready, they are allowed to come into the neighboring enclosure, where they can check in on him and offer him reassurance:

Gordo happily put his back to the cage so he could be groomed by his family:

Dora even snuck him a little kiss:

After a good night’s rest, Gordo was allowed to return to his group. They were all happy to see him, but none more so than Willy B! Who knew?

We are so grateful to Dr. Erin and her amazing team for their work to keep Gordo happy and healthy! Here’s a word from Dr. Erin herself:

I’m pleased to report that based on Gordo’s exam and preliminary results from the imaging and labwork, Gordo looks to be in pretty good shape!  

The ultrasound, chest and abdominal radiographs will be sent out for review by a board certified radiologist.  The echocardiogram results will be sent  to our veterinary cardiologist and a report compiled and submitted to the Great Ape Heart Project.  The GAHP not only sends us a detailed report and recommendations for treatment and follow up, they have a huge database on cardiac health and disease of great apes so every report submitted adds to that body of knowledge.  

I still have labwork results to review and compare to past reports but nothing alarming is standing out so far.  

The one health issue that did need to be addressed during this exam was an infected molar. Gordo appears to have sustained some facial trauma as a juvenile that caused some misalignment in the dentition on his right side. While his teeth were still healthy during his pre-travel exam at the Wildlife Waystation back in 2021, yesterday’s exam revealed an obvious tooth infection with x ray confirmation of root involvement. While I can’t ask him to rinse with salt water, the staff is doing their best to keep him on soft foods and he will have to go without nuts and seeds for a few days.   

Gordo is a shy chimp and it’s going to take some time for me to win his trust back but I hope on some level he understands how very much he is loved. And hopefully he will feel better very soon with that infected tooth out! So grateful for the dedicated and creative staff that will find a way to get those post extraction meds in. I see a lot of pudding and peanut butter filled dixie cups in his near future!

A Hill of Beans

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And just like that, Honey B (aka Beans, to some of us) became an outdoor chimp. This particular clip actually took place over a week ago and she has been out on her hill several times since! For now she is staying close to home (as is Mave) but I bet they’ll be exploring more soon. Your turn, Dora!

Here are a few photos of today’s lunch forage on the Bray.

Rayne:

Cy:

Cy discovering a whole apple:

Pant-hooting with delight!

Terry:

Cy finding an orange on the second tower:

Cy and Terry:

Terry:

Lucky:

Lucky, Rayne, and Cy:

The Sunrise Committee

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Early mornings in Cy’s group can be pretty rowdy. Some of the boys (usually Willy B, but occasionally Gordo, Terry, or Cy) will begin displaying at some ungodly hour—5 or 6am if we’re lucky, or 2am if they know we have to work in the chimp house the next day—and the whole group will take turns screaming, pant hooting, or even chasing each other around. The chimps don’t usually bed down for the night, per se, but instead engage in first sleep, second sleep, and so on, sometimes moving to a new nest each time. But as the sun begins to rise over the Bray, things start to change.

One by one, they make their way to Greenhouse 2 (the Oakwood Greenhouse), compelled by the sun. As the greenhouse heats up and becomes bathed in a warm glow, the chimps groom, nap, and engage in their favorite activities together. This is the one time each day when the group reliably comes together as a whole (with one typical exception, of course!). I think of them as the Sunrise Committee, and when the Committee convenes, I know I can drink my coffee in peace.

If you know Honey B, you know she’s not one for committees. So this is usually her personal time, when she gets to enjoy the freedom of being alone. Sometimes she’ll pull one of the committee members for a game of chase or mall walking, but it’s rare to see her in the middle of the grooming session.

 

A Day on the Bray: Lucky Climbs a Tower!

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Mave has been showing off her newfound confidence on the Bray, though at this point she prefers to stay somewhat close to home. Lucky, on the other hand, has been pushing herself to explore the very top of the enclosure. The other day she climbed one of the towers under construction at the top of the Bray for the first time (I think!) and took a moment to enjoy the view with her brother Cy and pal Gordo.

Rayne with one of her favorite books:

Cy, as I found him while closing up the chimp house one evening:

Here’s a photo of the sanctuary taken several weeks back from the driveway on the southern edge of our property which the Bonneville Power Administration built to access their transmission towers for us to walk our dogs along. In the background you can see one of the many cuts along Old Highway 10 where university students and geology buffs go to examine the various strata of ancient riverbeds, as well as the infamous Taylor Bridge, forever linked to the 2012 wildfire which bears its name.

And one from yesterday, after a wind gust blew a plastic bag up this impossibly steep hill while Jake and I were working on cattle fencing. I figured I’d stop a take a photo to hide how tired I was from the climb and buy myself a little time before trying to make my way back down. I was reminded of one of those quirky British competitions where people chase after a wheel of cheese down a steep slope (I’m not kidding) except at the bottom of this hill is simply an old barbed wire fence. This view of the slope might give you a sense of why we couldn’t extend the chimp enclosures any further to the east than we did – bear in mind, the chimp enclosure is itself a pretty steep hill. I really thought about it, though.

 

Moments With Cy’s Group

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Let me tell you, those toy keys are the most exciting thing to happen in a while. Some of the chimps in Cy’s group are prone to chewing up and ingesting enrichment so we’ve been introducing new items very slowly and cautiously over the last couple years. These are made by Nylabone and we’re optimistic that they will hold up and won’t pose any danger. It’s rare for nearly everyone in the group to have an interest in the same piece of enrichment—since they’ve been introduced, the keys have only been put down a minute or two at a time before they are snatched up again!

As I was sitting down in the foyer to upload some video, Chad noticed Rayne on the security monitor flipping through her magazine on the greenhouse catwalk. It’s amazing how much we would miss without those cameras.

 

Grazing Days

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What food could possibly be so exciting that a chimpanzee would willingly pass up fresh fruit, peanuts, chow, and smoothie? Why, it’s grass, of course!

Yes, for a few weeks each year the chimpanzees at CSNW become grazers, chomping down on grass at a rate more in line with the cows they share their sanctuary home with. What’s so great about grass? You got me. Wild chimpanzees do naturally consume significant amounts of browse—fibrous foods such as shoots, stems, and leaves—but the chimps at CSNW don’t eat any other browse with the same gusto as they do spring grass. This time of year, the grass is at its sweetest and most tender, as the cows will most certainly attest. But is it really better than smoothie?

Speaking of grazing (and with it being Earth Day and all), I thought I’d mention one of the projects we’ve been working on: Converting our pasture fencing to wildlife-friendly fencing. The original sanctuary property and the four parcels we purchased in recent years were part of a large homestead ranch that was in operation for a least a century. During that time, most of the pastures were fenced using barbed wire or a combination of barbed wire and woven field fence. Unfortunately, we’ve seen firsthand the toll this kind of fencing can take on wildlife. First, there’s the very real risk that wildlife, such as deer or elk, will get injured by or caught up in a fence. And second, there’s the problem of fawns being separated from their mothers as their moms cross over pasture fencing too high for them to jump. After doing a lot of research, we decided to transition to 3-wire high-tensile electric fencing, which can effectively contain our cows while allowing wildlife such as deer, elk, bobcats, and marmots to cross over or under safely. And for pastures no longer in use, the fences can be removed and the areas can be slowly re-wilded. As we work on finalizing our master site plan, we will also do so with an eye toward preserving wildlife migration corridors throughout the 113-acre property. After all, it’s not much of a sanctuary if it’s not also a home for the animals that were here first.

And last but not least, allow me to share some photos of Negra from today’s lunch forage: