Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
As promised, here is the video of yesterday’s party.
The anticipation of the feast is always the best part. When chimpanzees are happy, they share their happiness with everyone around them. They hug and kiss each other and join together in choruses of pant-hoots. And they share pants and grunts of excitement with their caregivers.
It’s a celebration not just of food, but of the family they have become. And we are grateful to be considered part of their family in moments like these.
Each year, when the first cold spell hits, the chimps remind us that there is, in fact, a small upside to winter. Early morning frost lingers in the shadows on Young’s Hill, which the chimps rush to lick from every surface before it vanishes.
Tire swings hide thin layers of ice on the inside.
The chimps gather all of the icy treats they can find and head off to their favorite spots to enjoy them. Some return to the greenhouse.
Others carry their spoils to the tops the climbing structures.
These late fall mornings might be cold, but at least they bring snacks.
It’s been seven months since we started our Positive Reinforcement Training program. In that time, both the chimps and the staff have learned a lot.
We, the staff, have learned that training is a difficult skill to develop. As we try to teach new behaviors to the chimps, we are often just as confused and frustrated as they are, if not more so. It takes a lot of patience, creativity, and most importantly, experience, to become a good trainer.
The chimps have learned dozens of behaviors that will make their lives healthier and happier, and they’re starting to discover that cooperating with physical exams and other medical procedures doesn’t have to be scary – it can even be fun.
For his part, Burrito still thinks this whole thing is too good to be true – getting praised and rewarded with food, just for showing us his teeth? He would have done that for free…
But Burrito is not the only one making progress – stay tuned for updates on Annie, Foxie, Jamie, Jody, Missy, and Negra in the coming months.
Chimpanzees are endowed with unmatched grace and athleticism,
a combination of raw power and finesse,
with a dancer’s agility and a gymnast’s delicate balance,
their talents so great they border on god-like,
making even the most daring feats of acrobatics seem so effortless,
they can do them with their eyes closed.
Most of the time.
We’ve always considered Young’s Hill a work in progress. This was partly out of necessity, because it started as an empty horse pasture and it would have taken a lot of time and money to build everything at once. But it was also in part by design, because life in captivity can be boring, and adding even a few plants or a simple climbing structure to the hill each year keeps things interesting for the chimps.
The structure we built last weekend is a big hit.
Annie:
Foxie:
Jody has been sampling the new bamboo plants, but it seems they are best enjoyed while relaxing in the greenhouse, so each day she breaks off a new cane and hauls it downhill. Yet another reason why we need to keep planting more…
It doesn’t matter to us how the chimps choose to spend their days. What matters is that they have a choice.
Negra:
Missy:
Annie (below) and Foxie:
Missy:
Foxie and her long-haired troll:
Negra:
Burrito:
Jamie:
If you ever climbed trees as a kid, you might remember that going up is the easy part…
…getting back down is an entirely different challenge.
Foxie seemed unprepared for the latter when she climbed to the roof of Carlene’s Tower with her Dora doll to check out the view. It took her a few minutes to formulate a plan and work up the courage to get herself and Dora back down safely.
I found myself holding my breath as she made a few different attempts to lower herself to the platform below.
But she is a chimpanzee after all, so both she and Dora returned from their sightseeing excursion without incident.
