Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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animal rescue

Willy B + Jody

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First, the photos that go along with the story in today’s blog are not going to win any awards. But the story is good, so I hope you’ll forgive my quick cell phone pics.

Second, if you are new to the sanctuary and the photos make you wonder why the chimps are in cages, please read this blog post that answers that very question!

Speaking of questions, I know there are SO MANY questions about how we are going to go about doing the introductions between the seven and the three. We still have a lot of questions ourselves that we have been mulling over. It’s daunting and scary and incredibly exciting all at the same time.

We’ve talked to a few different people who each have experience with hundreds (hundreds!) of introductions of chimpanzees, and each of them has a different general system they use and a philosophy behind it. On Tuesday, one of these very knowledgeable people, Amy Fultz from Chimp Haven, came out in person to talk to us about introductions. It worked out perfectly that she was here when the groups got the first good look at each other.

We are taking in all of this information and combining it with the data that Jake Funkouser recorded and analyzed of the social networks of the seven chimpanzees, and combining that with what we are observing of the new three and their interactions with the seven at a distance.

We also will let the chimpanzees dictate the process once we start. All that is to explain that we cannot share with you the step by step details before they happen because it’s not that kind of process and we are not there yet. We do plan to share details with you after the fact, though!

So, that brings me to today’s story about a connection/attraction between Willy B and Jody that is continuing to develop. It actually started before the three arrived at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. When J.B. and I were at Wildlife Waystation, we showed some videos of Jody to Willy B on my cell phone, and he immediately moved in to get a closer look,  paying more attention to the Jody videos than videos of any of the other chimpanzees.

Now they get to see each other in person every day, and Willy B continues to show an interest in Jody. And now we can say that the interest is mutual.

This morning, Jody made a special foray onto the hill and stood up just to get a glimpse of Willy B who was at the end of the chute:

Willy B returned the glance:

When Jody was heading back into the greenhouse, Willy B climbed to the highest spot in the new chute to have the best view:

Jody noticed his new position, and climbed up high on the caging in the greenhouse and made a low moan vocalization. Jody is famous for her various low-moans, most of them associated with food, and all of them indicating that she is happy.

With Jody’s cute hand wave/reaching out that J.B. included in the video yesterday and today’s friendly overtures to Willy B, our predictions about Jody being inviting towards the newcomers seems spot-on, unlike our inaccurate predictions of how Burrito would react to the sight of unfamiliar chimpanzee people.

Burrito, by the way, continues to be obsessed with the new three and spends most his day hanging out by the windows just waiting for them to appear.

Can you imagine how strange and exciting it must be to see new chimpanzee strangers for the first time after over a dozen years?!

Structural Enrichment

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I have occasionally heard the word “enrichment” defined as items that are given to animals once their basic needs have been met.

In contrast, I think of enrichment as an entire philosophy, not just something extra that we do when our other work is done. For these chimpanzees and all other captive animals, enrichment is a basic need. Although survival would be possible without enrichment, thriving would not. Here at the sanctuary, every aspect of our daily routine, from meal preparation to cleaning, is done with the ultimate goal of keeping the chimpanzees happy and healthy. There is no easy way to group items or activities into “enrichment” or “not enrichment.” We just enrich everything.

In addition to distributing troll dolls, cowboy boots and slinkies, our team designs and builds new structures for the chimpanzees. The way in which we design and furnish the facility is considerate of the chimpanzee’s physical and emotional needs, and we often add or change components of the enclosures to keep the surroundings interesting and functional for the chimps. A great example is the network of firehose “vines” that transects the Playroom, Greenhouse, Hill, and new wing of enclosures. The video posted above shows how Jamie gets to use the firehose however she wants, giving her a greater degree of choice in addition to the obvious security and stability that such additions provide.

We’re also excited to share a photo of a new firehose hammock, modeled by Level III volunteer and CWU graduate student Chad. Several volunteers and interns helped staff and contractors to furnish the chimpanzee areas of the Phase 1 expansion with benches, firehose, hammocks, and ladders. The new hammock is hanging in the upstairs mezzanine enclosure, and will hopefully be enjoyed by the sanctuary’s newest residents once they arrive!

They Know

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The Cle Elum Seven Chimpanzees spent decades in biomedical research laboratories and holding facilities in the 70s, 80s, 90s, and early 2000s.

The minimum space requirements for housing chimpanzees under the Animal Welfare Act remain shockingly, well, minimal. It’s still legal to keep a chimpanzee in a 5’x5’x7′ cage. These days, however, most laboratories that are still housing chimpanzees allow them to live in social groups and give them some sort of outside access. The National Institutes of Health recommends (though doesn’t require) enclosures that provide at least 250 square feet of space per chimpanzee. As a point of reference, for our group of seven, that’s a total of 1,750 square feet. Think about the size of your apartment or house as a comparison. Now think of yourself having only that amount of space for the rest of your life. Still, 250 square feet is way beyond the twenty-five square-foot cages that the Cle Elum Seven spent much of their lives.

The changes in how labs house chimpanzees came about in part due to pressure from a public that had gained insight into the deep intelligence and social lives of these beings that are so closely related to us.

Beyond just amount of space, providing an enriching, stimulating, interesting environment for chimpanzees is about giving them lots and lots of choices. Even if they only use some of their space a fraction of the time or only pick up a certain object one out of every five times it’s available, simply living in an environment that provides a large amount of variety is a huge part of giving intelligent primates at least some of what they need.

After spending decades in small spaces without access to the outside, I wonder if the Cle Elum Seven could have imagined a place like CSNW with 85,000 square feet of space.

Once they were at the sanctuary, their bodies and their minds knew what to do.

They followed their instincts, put their muscles to work, and got down to the business of exploring.

They reached into their imaginations and indulged in private games and adventures.

They broadened their palate and relished opportunities to search for and gather food.

No one had to teach them to be chimpanzees.

(Just a note about these photos – they were all taken today! The photos include Foxie, Jamie, Annie, and Missy.)

The Unknown

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The chimpanzees have been remarkably nonchalant about the giant wing that was added on to their building this spring. Curious at times for sure, but for the most part just going about their days as usual. With the exception of Annie.

Ever since that day last year when we moved the trailer away from the barn doors in preparation for construction to begin, Annie has spent time at those doors peering in, as she is in this photo (she’s the one standing up), or just sitting next to the doors, listening:

The other chimpanzees have been tuned in when something really interesting and new happens, like at the end of January when the hydraulic door on the other side of the barn doors was operated for the first time:

Today though, it was Missy who was spending quite a bit of time hanging out near that doorway to the unknown.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, she did not spend the whole day camped out there. She had other things to do:

I’d love to know what Missy is thinking, what all of the chimpanzees are thinking, about what awaits them on the other side of that door.

Missy has no idea that next month she will be able to look through that door and see the face of her 30 year-old daughter, Honey B. We have the same question as everyone else – will they feel a connection to one another?

They spent less than 24 hours together when Honey B was born to Missy at the Laboratory for Experimental and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP), so it would be extraordinary if they recognized each other by sight. Chimpanzees’ sense of smell is just about as lousy as ours, so that’s not going to help them know each other. It really is like a human mom and baby who were separated at birth. Maybe there will be some kind of connection that even they don’t understand; or maybe it will be the same as Missy with Mave and Willy B – strangers (as far as we know) meeting for the first time.

There are a lot of unknowns.

What is certain is that the chimpanzees are ever more curious about what is going to happen on the other side of that door. Tonight when I went in to the playroom to spot clean I discovered that someone had used a willow branch as a tool to reach a lock on that door.

Soon, chimpanzees, soon.

Video: A Day in the Life

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We were really busy last week preparing for our big event in Seattle. HOOT! 2019 was a great success, due to the staff and volunteers who put in hours and hours over the last year preparing and planning, plus the staff and volunteers who gave it their all at the event on Saturday.

But the gala is just a small part of what they do. This video is a look at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest that provides a glimpse into all that goes into a day of sanctuary.

We’re sorry we were so busy last week to not give #SanctuaryCaregiverDay its due. The sanctuary would be NOTHING without paid and volunteer caregivers. So, please watch this video and thank them for all of their hard work. We appreciate them so much!

Clean Up Crew + Enrichment for Nutmeg

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Today, well after the other chimpanzees had moved on to other post-lunch activities (specifically nesting, napping, and grooming), I “caught” Annie going through the front rooms and collecting uneaten Brussels sprouts, then taking her found food to the playroom to enjoy.

Just a few minutes later, I saw Foxie do the same thing, but this time with avocado peels (in the first photo below, see Foxie’s signature happy toes and small orange-haired troll doll stationed nearby):

Foxie was working diligently to get every last bit of avocado flesh. The chimpanzees have enjoyed an abundance of avocados lately, thanks to donations of Charlie’s Produce via Darwin’s Natural Pet Products, and that has suited Foxie just fine.

As a bonus, for those who are wondering what the bovines have been up to, here’s a video I took yesterday!

A Subtle Hint from Jamie

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Last week, you may recall that I had a difficult time choosing a subject for a blog post. Well, here’s an explanation of one of the reasons why.

The enrichment theme for that day was “reading day” and Jamie took that to heart.

She seemed particularly enamored with a Dwell magazine. I even saw her gather up the magazine when she was moving from the front rooms to the playroom.

We see the chimpanzees carry blankets from one space to another and their favorite things (dolls for Foxie, boots for Jamie, wooden or plastic objects for Burrito), but it was the first time I’ve seen a chimpanzee so deliberately take a magazine that wasn’t smeared with peanut butter into a new space.

I didn’t get a sense that it was any particular page that she was interested in, as she carefully and thoroughly looked through the entire magazine:

Included in the reading day was a large catalog full of all sorts of products. When I went into the playroom in the evening to spot clean one last time, I found the catalog on the catwalk opened to this page:

Did boot-loving Jamie  purposely leave the catalog for me to find, hinting at a future gift idea?