Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
This morning, I caught Honey B in the Mezzanine nesting. She managed to use every enrichment item she had access to in her process, which cracked me up. My personal favorite part of this video (featured above) is when she grabs the green sweatband and stretches it for no reason, before she places it beside her. Honey B is a funny gal, that’s for sure.
And…
Today is Honey Cow’s 16th Birthday! The cattle will all be receiving some special treats today for Honey’s day!
Today is Animal Sanctuary Appreciation Day – a day to highlight the dedication and hard work from staff and volunteers at animal sanctuaries all across the world. What we do every day is not easy, but it is worth it. Thanks for being here and supporting us!
I’d like to highlight all of the special humans at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. There are familiar faces and some new ones that you haven’t met yet! I personally think what is so great about our staff is that we have all come from different walks of life, have different backgrounds, are from various parts of the country, have different areas of expertise, have unique former experiences, but we all have come together in a small town in central Washington all because of our shared love of chimpanzees.
Our staff:
J.B.
Diana
Dr. Erin Zamzow (DVM)
Katelyn
Anna
Kelsi
Chad
Grace
Jenna
Sabrina
Amanda (who will be introducing herself on the blog soon!)
Ellen (who will be introducing herself on the blog soon!)
We also are so fortunate to have an amazing group of dedicated volunteers. We have volunteers who help us in the kitchen and with laundry, volunteers who help us clean, and volunteers who help serve meals and interact with the chimps. We are so thankful for each and every one of them. We recognize we wouldn’t be able to do what we do without them.
Just a few of our awesome volunteers and interns! Unfortunately, I don’t have pictures of everyone!
We do it for our residents!
Jamie
Negra
Burrito
Annie
Missy
Foxie
Cy
Dora
Willy B
Rayne
Gordo
Terry
Mave
Lucky
Honey B
Despite the sudden cooler temperatures (it was a crisp 33 degrees arriving to the sanctuary this morning), the sun was out and shining today. The sun felt so good and warm, that I thought it’d be a perfect day for a forage on Young’s Hill. Jamie, Missy, Burrito, Annie, and Foxie agreed with me and were happy to do a lunch forage out on the Hill. Negra requested her meal to be inside for a lunch party of one, presumably so she can be where it is warmer.
One of the highlights of the morning, as you will see pictured below, is Jamie drinking from her tiny teacup. We made up a Gatorade pool, which is one of Jamie’s favorite things, in their Playroom. The entire group usually sits down and drinks up. Jamie loves using a cup to drink from, but today it was especially funny to see her use the tiniest cup possible to drink from.
On the other side of the building, Cy’s group is also soaking up the sun in their Greenhouses, their chute, and the Bray.
Rayne:
Cy:
Annie:
Burrito:
Jamie:
Missy:
Rayne:
Drawing on a package we received from a donor 🙂
The chimps love gum! We hand out sugar-free gum that is good for their teeth (not Hubba Bubba, that was just the blog title), to the chimps as a special treat or to reinforce a positive behavior. Lately, we have been passing out gum to Cy’s group when all 9 of them shift enclosures. Sometimes, we have stragglers, like Honey B, who doesn’t always shift to where we would like her to go. Which is okay! We are flexible with the cleaning schedule. However, the days she and the rest of the group shifts on their own, we try to reinforce it by handing out gum, a treat loved by all! Some swallow the gum fairly quickly, and some keep it for over an hour, chomping away (like Lucky).
Photos of the chimps enjoying gum from the past!
Honey B:
Terry:
Cy:
Willy B:
Dora:
Missy from 2011:
Burrito from 2011:
Photos from today!
Cy in a Greenhouse:
Burrito with a giant play face with volunteer caregiver, Krissy:
Jamie’s saved book page:
Originally, I didn’t know I wanted to work with chimpanzees. From a young age, I was drawn specifically to orangutans. I have a vivid memory of being probably 8 years old, my mom and I were at the mall and we were in a candy shop that, in addition to candy, also sold random stuffed animals and Beanie Babies. There was a large size orangutan Beanie Baby (think the size of a 6 month old infant) that I BEGGED my mom for. It was $39.99, which was outrageous for a stuffed animal of any kind. Luckily for me, my mom gave in and bought it for me. This stuffed animal was just the beginning of my fascination with apes. I went on to do book reports in high school about orangutans where I would rave about how amazing they are.
Fast forward about fifteen years, I stumbled across the primate behavior program at Central Washington University while I was researching graduate programs and it immediately caught my attention. When I applied and even began the graduate program at CWU, I assumed that this was the beginning of the road to working with orangutans.
That is until I went to Fauna Foundation for a summer internship.
My internship at Fauna Foundation was the first time I had been around chimpanzees. I don’t think I had ever even seen a chimp in-person, as the Phoenix Zoo (where I grew up) only had orangutans and other smaller primates. I remember on the very first day of the internship, myself and the four other interns, were led around property by Dr. Mary Lee Jensvold. When we approached the chimp house, Tatu and Loulis greeted us from the outdoor aerial tunnels. Tatu began using American Sign Language to sign to her long-time friend, Dr. Jensvold. Dr. Jensvold signed to Tatu that we interns are new friends. I will never forget this interaction.
There was another memory from that summer that will always stick with me. We were doing a behavioral observation study where we were recording the chimpanzees’ activities throughout a day. We were creating a baseline for them, so their “normal” activity level would be recorded. Therefore, for about fifteen minutes at a time, I would observe a chimp’s activities and record them on an iPad. This one day in particular, I was observing Rachel. She was out relaxing on one of the islands when I walked up. After a few minutes of me observing her, she gathered her two stuffed gorillas and headed over to sit in front of me (her on the island behind the fencing, me on the sidewalk). Rachel sat there and stared at me for awhile. I tried not to stare back too much, as to not make her uncomfortable. It was clear to me she just liked being in the presence of someone. It’s a moment that is hard to describe, now that I’m behind a keyboard. Truly, it’s like everything clicked when I was sitting there with Rachel: how human-like chimpanzees are, how chimpanzees shouldn’t be in captivity, how they are just. like. us.
Ever since that summer, I knew I wanted to work with chimpanzees for the rest of my career.
Working with chimpanzees can be dramatic, stressful, exhausting, but it also is the best thing I have ever done.
When did you fall in love with chimpanzees? Comment below!
Burrito:
Negra:
This morning at breakfast, Foxie was pounding on the caging, attempting to get volunteer caregiver Dusty’s attention and I had the idea to record sounds for the blog today. Many blogs have been done before this one under the same premise, however, I hope you enjoy it nonetheless!
I switched it up and made it a game! Try to guess who is making that sound and the answer is revealed in the next clip!
This video has everything… holding hands, reading a magazine, playfully spitting, play faces, and drinking Gatorade. The chimps sure do love a Gatorade pool!
Lately, Honey B has been doing this playful spitting (seen in the video). We don’t know what she is thinking when she does it, but I am inclined to assume she’s being silly since she is simultaneously breathy panting. Nonetheless, she is so lucky that her group members are patient with her and are understanding of her unique sense of humor!
