Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

animal rescue

Are You a Jamie or a Burrito (Chimpanzee)?

by

Kelsi and I were cleaning the playroom this morning when Jamie got Kelsi’s attention and requested a walk (we’ve learned to read Jamie’s behavior pretty well, and she’s insistent until we figure out what she wants). It’s not unusual for Jamie to want to pull someone from cleaning to do her bidding. That’s what sanctuary is all about, right?

When Kelsi came back from the patrol around Young’s Hill, she was grinning – I could tell even with her mask on. She said she got some great video of Missy and Burrito playing while patrolling.

She was not wrong! It was a joy putting this video together.

Later in the day, during a lunch forage, Missy and Foxie scaled Negra’s Cabin at the same time (Burrito down below).

Foxie made it to the very top and secured some beets before climbing back down to where she had left her doll.

Soon enough, they were both off doing their own things separately.

Here’s a bonus photo of Spring Queen Negra:

On the other side of the building, Willy B laid down on the boardwalk, just as he did yesterday, soaking in the sun and taking cat naps. Spring is good!

An Honest April Fool’s Day

by

It was so, so hard to retrain myself today. After all, it’s the first day of the fourth month of this year, making it → A P R I L  F O O L ‘ S  D A Y ←, the best day of the year for light-hearted shenanigans.

Unfortunately, it’s not easy to come up with feasible pranks around here. We can’t play dramatic jokes on the chimps because so much of their daily routine is done just the way they like it and mixing things up can cause a lot of confusion. We also take safety very seriously, so surprising each other with unexpected circumstances can be risky, too. On top of all that, we’re just too darn busy to go around the sanctuary playing practical jokes on each other and cleaning up the resulting messes.

That leaves one plausible alternative: trying to fool all of you.

I considered writing a fake blog post that would be somewhat absurd but almost believable. The champions of this art form are the writers at The Onion who have made satirical hoaxes into their own brand of journalism. They miss their target occasionally, but most of their stuff is on point. The Onion has been in the game for a long time, giving their staff time to cover all sorts of topics, from politics to science. If you want to read some of their animal-themed articles, I recommend:

“Jane Goodall Announces She’s All About Lizards Now”

“Scientists Successfully Teach Gorilla It Will Die Someday”

“Zookeepers Confirm Pandas Not Mating Because They’re Scared of Messing Up Friendship”

Over the past couple of days, I mulled over some Onion-esque headlines that I could share today in an attempt to prank our blog followers. The actual, verified news in 2021 has been weird enough, giving me some inspiration. For example, I could have posted that:

  • We traded the cattle for a herd of goats because… you know.. goats.
  • J.B. made Burrito’s “Hey Girl” portrait into an NFT and sold it for $18.1 million
  • Missy and Annie are leaving the sanctuary to go on that cross-country road trip they’ve always talked about
  • Honey B is dropping her first studio album, titled Soap Bucket, under the pseudonym “Money B”
  • The crew divided Young’s Hill into ten smaller enclosures so the chimps can follow social distancing guidelines

The worst idea of them all was one so diabolical that I almost feel guilty for even thinking it up. I genuinely considered telling you all that today’s blog post would be the final one… EVER.

It was nearly perfect, as far as pranks go. Crucially, it’s actually quite believable. Apart from routine caregiving, the expansion has been the main priority for us lately. This growth necessitates fundraising for the new greenhouses, coordinating with contractors, painting and furnishing the new playrooms, and getting the records in order for the six chimpanzees we hope to welcome this summer. We are truly looking for ways to streamline our day-to-day operations to compensate for all the new tasks we’ve added to our schedules, and there’s now a precedent for spending less time on the blog. (In case you missed it, we recently had to post abbreviated blog entries for a few weeks while we participated in virtual training sessions.) My plan was to drop this sad news on all of you and then correct it before we resumed blogging tomorrow. Gotcha!

After discussing my idea with Diana and J.B., I was convinced that this joke could easily go too far. So many people use our social media as their primary window into the lives of the chimpanzees and cattle, whom they love from afar. Despite the tempting lure of April Fool’s glory, I just couldn’t break any of your hearts like that.

In light of all this, you’ll be surprised to know that the rest of this blog post is completely serious. There isn’t a single joke in here. Nothin’ but facts. Unaltered truth, fact-checked by yours truly. Exceptionally honest, through and through.

Besides April Fool’s Day, today was noteworthy for one main reason.

The contractors have finished their work in the new playrooms and these spaces are almost ready for chimps. There are now functioning hydraulic doors from the existing enclosures into each playroom. Notably, the crew had to modify some of the caging in the Mezzanine, resulting in a new “cubby”. Honey B, Mave and Willy B have been taking turns using the odd little space as breakfast nook and nesting cave, among other things. Poor Willy initially seemed nervous to touch the floor in this tiny little space, despite the fact that it’s the same material as the floors in his other indoor enclosures. He brought a plastic stool to sit on instead, limiting himself to a couple feet of head-room.

With the welding complete and doors working, J.B. was able to touch up the paint and Chad has begun hanging firehose “vines” for the chimps to climb on. Mave and Honey B supervised from the downstairs window and the new cubby, respectively. We plan to clean the new playrooms this weekend and then give some of the chimps access to them very, very soon. Stay tuned for updates!

Here are some additional photos of the new playrooms (including one of the vista from the upstairs windows).

Meanwhile, the contractors will begin securing the steel caging to the outdoor greenhouses. It may be difficult to visualize these new areas just yet, but you can trust us when we say that they’re going to be amazing multi-use habitats for Honey B, Mave and Willy B and six new chimpanzees. We already have a foundation and frame in place for these structures, so we’re confident that these spacious greenhouse enclosures will be ready before the summer!

P.S. I’m offering special internet bonus points to anyone who can find the marmot hidden somewhere in this post.

Say It Ain’t Snow

by

Today’s weather was wild.

The morning began just as yesterday ended: with golden sunshine and unseasonably high temperatures. The cattle, despite their provisioned hay, were basking in the sun and nibbling on the fresh grass that is just starting to take over the pasture.

Betsy

The only indicator of trouble was a distant wall of clouds sweeping down the valley from the northwest. By noon, however, the skies over the sanctuary grew misty and the breeze picked up. Now, as I sit here hammering out this blog post in the foyer of the Chimp House, snowflakes swirl past the windows and gusts of wind howl overhead. Like a boxer lifting themselves back to their feet after a brutal knockdown, this winter let us know that it isn’t ready to quit just yet.

Looking up the valley towards the Central Cascades

Fortunately, we caregivers had checked the forecast and expected the sunny morning to give way to a blustery afternoon. As soon as we opened up the building, served the morning medications and confirmed that the outdoor areas were secure, we scattered the chimpanzees’ breakfast on Young’s Hill as an outdoor forage, taking advantage of the day’s most agreeable weather. The colorful spread included tangerines, pears, and some pineapple tops (the larger chunks of which went into their daily smoothie).

Missy
Jamie
Jody
Annie
Missy
Foxie

Since only one group of chimps can safely access the Hill at any given moment, Annie, Burrito, Foxie, Jamie, Jody, Missy and Negra went out first. When everyone had gathered up the scattered food, Jamie did her usual patrol of the enclosure’s perimeter and Burrito went inside to goof around with the other chimps and us caregivers.

Burrito

Meanwhile Honey B, Mave and Willy B enjoyed the same breakfast indoors and got the opportunity to use the Courtyard later, just before lunch. Per usual, only Willy B chose to venture out into the open space; the females chose to hang out in the chute and watch the caregivers do chores inside. Honey B was even kind enough to sit still while I took a portrait of her. In exchange, I showed her some chimp photos that I still had on my memory card, including the ones of her. If Honey B was impressed, she hid it well. Honey B

Apart from the volatile weather, today was busy but uneventful. Sometimes it seems like the chimps prefer their days to move that way, with a full itinerary but without anything too unexpected. The right balance of variety and routine is crucial.

Jamie walking the perimeter

Why We Puzzle

by

Raise your hand if you like to do puzzles.

There are lots of different kinds – jigsaw puzzles, word puzzles, logic puzzles, math puzzles, etc, etc. Remember the Rubik’s Cube fad? Or perhaps you are mechanically-minded and like to figure out how things come apart and go back together. Maybe you’re more of a physical person and you like to do actual obstacle courses. Video games are really electronic puzzles, and we know how popular those are.

There was an increase in humans doing puzzles this last year during the pandemic and lockdowns. I’ve read a few articles about why we humans like to puzzle, and the explanations generally include things like: puzzles provide us with a sense of control, and when we solve a puzzle our biology rewards us with a chemical hit of dopamine. There’s some intriguing research showing there’s more than just a dopamine surge going on in our brains when we we are working on puzzles.

We, as primates, are hardwired to solve problems. We often do it all day long, and even choose to do it in our leisure time.

Why am I talking about this?

At the sanctuary, we provide the chimpanzees with food puzzles. A few of them have been featured in recent videos, like Honey B and Willy B acing Anna’s inspired Slinky Madness puzzle and the video that J.B. shared last week of Honey B  fishing out a peanut from a boomer ball puzzle.

On both of those video posts on social media, there were a couple of comments that questioned whether the chimpanzees were being led to frustration with these puzzles. There was even the notion that the puzzles were cruel.

A long-time blog follower, Dan Oksiuta, responded wonderfully to one such comment by saying, “While the puzzles & caging may appear unnecessarily frustrating, it is reasonable to assume they experience the same emotions of accomplishment & satisfaction as humans completing a difficult task. Treats probably taste better, too.”

Thank you for that, Dan!

The food that we include in food puzzles is a really minuscule amount, and it’s outside of their regular meals, so they aren’t choosing to solve puzzles out of hunger. They have a similar drive as we do and receive similar intrinsic rewards for solving puzzles (plus the sweet reward of a peanut isn’t nothing).

For those who have been following the sanctuary for a while, you already know that Jamie is a chimpanzee who often prefers to use a tool to get food instead of having it handed to her. Jamie’s brain seems especially wired for problem solving.

Just like humans, not all chimpanzees are the same. I don’t think I’ve ever done Sudoku and really most of my puzzling and problem solving is more of a practical nature (i.e. “how can I fit just one more houseplant on this table”).

Burrito used to be pretty bad at solving food puzzles, giving up rather quickly. As the years have passed, though, he’s gotten quite accomplished at puzzle solving. Even in the early days, when his puzzle solving wasn’t what it is today, he was eager for the nightly enrichment.

Negra, who is not known to exert extra energy for much of anything, delights in all sorts of food puzzles; in fact it’s a rare evening when she’s not clapping for her caregivers to hurry up with the distribution of the night enrichment. She might prefer the easier enrichment, like peanut butter in between the pages of magazines, but she’ll engage with even the more challenging puzzles before bedding down for the night.

An aside, take a look at our Enrichment Database for examples of the food puzzles as well as the more generalized enrichment we provide.

Boredom is the ever-lurking nemesis for primates in captivity. It can lead to depression and all sorts of strange behaviors. Providing ways for primates to problem solve is one way to keep boredom at bay.

Actually, you could consider forages to be giant food puzzles. When we spread out food, sometimes hiding it, the chimpanzees have to locate and gather their food, and they are in somewhat of a competition with the others in their group. This is an important skill to have and develop when you are a species that must find ripening fruit in the jungle.

Images or videos of chimpanzees in captivity foraging for food, especially if they are outdoors, rarely if ever results in people commenting that it must be frustrating or questioning why we don’t just hand them food (we do that type of serving too). I think it comes back to our superficial, knee-jerk perceptions of animals in captivity. We want to see them in “natural environments”, not necessarily because that’s what they like the most or what’s the most enriching, but because that’s what makes us feel the best.

So, food puzzles hanging on caging just doesn’t sit right with some people. We hear you. We don’t think chimpanzees should be in captivity either, but they are. I wrote a little post called What is Natural a long time ago that addressed something similar.

The thing is, a chimpanzee working on a food puzzle indoors in captivity is a good thing, as long as they also have access to the outdoors, live in a social group, and have a wide variety of other ways to alleviate boredom and do the things they are hardwired to do. It’s as least as natural as a human solving a Sudoku puzzle on their couch.

Here are some photos from today of chimpanzees problem solving:

Foxie with a purpose:

Jody with her forage haul, heading back to the greenhouse:

Jody experiencing the sweet rewards of a successful forage:

Willy B is still the only one of his group of three who will venture into the open Courtyard. Mave and Honey B are more comfortable inside and in the Chute. We’ll be thinking of ways to help them look at the outdoors differently and are hopeful that their expanded space will help, but, in the meantime, we make sure the spaces they do spend their time in have lots of things for them to do.

The next two photos aren’t great, but they show that we put some lettuce on top of the Chute for Mave and Honey B while Willy B went into the Courtyard to get his lettuce.

The photo below is of Mave up high in the Chute pulling the lettuce through. She spends a lot of time with this food puzzle, which we’ve just recently introduced:

Honey B really likes to “groom” pebbles out of our boots. There’s no food reward, but she clearly gets a lot of satisfaction out of this task.

J.B. put lettuce at the top of the structure to entice Willy B to do some extra climbing in the Courtyard.

Sometimes it’s fun to watch other people work. Here’s Mave and Honey B watching J.B. painting murals on the other side of the window.

 

Meredith

by

Those of you who follow CSNW on Instagram may have noticed that we regularly feature images of the four rescued Jersey cattle who graze the pastures around the sanctuary. Since these herbivorous creatures are so different from their chimpanzee neighbors, focusing on the cattle can be a welcome change of pace for the sanctuary staff and social media followers alike.

In the recent “Bovine Break” post from a couple days ago, we shared a photograph of the four Jersey cattle resting together in their winter paddock. They have formed a tightly-knit herd and are rarely seen apart, which is justified given their history and family bonds. Still, they each have their own colorful personality and quirky tendencies, and the image highlighted one of these characteristic traits.

While Betsy, Honey and Nutmeg were all aligned so they could view the hills and forests to the north of the sanctuary, Meredith was turned completely around and facing the other direction, chewing her cud without any indication that she wanted to conform with the others. We always joke that she has idiosyncratic tendencies, but it was nice to capture it visually for all to see. Standing while the others lay down, laying down while the others stand, facing the opposite direction, lagging behind the group… such is Meredith’s nature.

I used her peculiarity to my advantage when I went out to photograph the cattle this afternoon. The other three acted inconvenienced and trotted away, but Merry quietly waddled alongside me at her own pace. She’s not always in an affectionate mood, but she occasionally paused to suspiciously sniff my muck boots and gently lick my hands. We stopped at the paddock gate where she stood and watched the others (who had nonchalantly strolled through together). Eventually, I left them to their own endeavors. Apart from the satisfaction of capturing some nice portraits, I was also content to share a peaceful moment with this odd individual.

Volunteers Behind the Scenes

by

Last week I wanted to focus on Spring Negra, which meant there were some photos that didn’t make the cut for the blog. Luckily, I just remembered them! Look no further than the end of this post for the non-Negra photos from last week’s lunch forage.

But first, a word about volunteers.

Probably everyone reading this knows that the pandemic has drastically reduced the number of volunteers that are onsite helping with the daily operations of the sanctuary. There are currently just two volunteers who have basically been additional part-time staff members, cleaning alongside us and trying to keep up with Burrito. We owe them a huge amount of gratitude for all of the hours they’ve worked.

In addition to halting our regular volunteer program, we also put the Central Washington University daily intern shifts on hold until we feel that we can safely loosen restrictions without putting the chimpanzees at risk.

Volunteers and interns have been helping in other important ways, however.

They have been making paper braids in the shed near the chimp house, proof-reading marketing material, delivering totes brimming with lovingly-rolled chow bags, organizing community outreach events like the art contest and upcoming showing at Gallery One in Ellensburg, helping write grant proposals, entering historical medical data into new software, painting mountain murals in the new playrooms (we’ll share photos soon!), helping plan virtual fundraisers (The Queen’s Brunch coming to a computer near you on June 13th), and much more.

While volunteers continue to contribute to the smooth operation and outreach efforts of the sanctuary, our all-volunteer board of directors focuses on the really high-level behind-the-scenes work that you may never even hear about, like creating policies that ensure the sanctuary as an organization can carry on the vision of helping primates for a long time to come.

This strange past year has provided a lot of lessons and new perspectives, but, no matter what, we will remain grateful to those who choose to give their time to help the chimpanzees and bovines too. The sanctuary wouldn’t be what it is today without the unpaid yet hard and important work of so many people.

Thank you all!

Here are those promised photos. This first series is, “Foxie and the Carrot”:

 

This is simply: “Missy in Profile”

And this I was going to call “Burrito with Tomatoes” but I realize that might be confusing… so perhaps, “Burrito Enjoys a Forage Break” is better:

Rejoice

by

Spring is still in its infancy in Cle Elum. The nights are cold, and we will likely see more snow, but it will be the kind of snow that is there one minute and gone the next. There’s no holding back the change in the seasons now.

This change from winter to spring is often the most dramatic. It surprises me every year. I don’t forget that the days gradually stretch in synchrony with the plants reaching for the sun, but I do forget what it really feels like. I can’t seem to conjure up the experience unless it’s authentically occurring.

I remember that the group of seven chimpanzees spend more time outside, and that we often scatter their meals out across Young’s Hill, the two acre habitat. We have thousands of photos of this. But still, watching and feeling the first forages of the season is familiar, but also new all over again.

This winter was, overall, remarkably mild. You may recall that we had a very notable Christmas celebration forage on the hill on December 19th. It was notable because Negra climbed up to the lookout for the first time in pursuit of a pineapple top. Go ahead, go re-live that glorious day.

Today we set out a lunch forage for the group of seven. Negra was the first one out of the raceway and onto the hill. She didn’t go even halfway up the hill, but she did seem to be remembering, like me, what spring feels like.

I couldn’t help but take a ridiculous number of photos of her as she sat, as she stretched to reach pieces of food, and as she walked, in all her glory, back inside. I encourage you to pause on each of the photos and remember. Remember that feeling of warmth and life and hope.

Maybe there are more pineapple climbing adventures in Negra’s future. But, even if there are not, today’s emergence was fulfilling.

 

On the other side of the building, Willy B spent some time sitting on the boardwalk.

We did a forage of a different sort by placing lettuce on top of the chute. I didn’t get any great photos of this forage, but Honey B, Willy B, and Mave all partook of the bounty, with Mave in particular getting into the foraging spirit.

In just a few months, the three will have new spaces to explore while we will work on creating their version of Young’s Hill that will be called The Bray. And six more chimpanzees will join that side of the building.

There’s a lot of hope in the air.