Gordo’s playful side is really coming out! And he continues to enjoy the never-ending trough of snow.
Animal Welfare
Snow Diggity
With just over a week to go before the winter solstice, our valley is already in the midst of this year’s first big snowstorm.
The accumulating slush doesn’t seem to be bothering the chimps too much, though. On one side of the building, Annie, Burrito, Foxie, Jamie, Jody, Missy and Negra have been scarfing down handfuls of delicious wet snow. (It must be nice to have one of your favorite foods literally falling from the sky).
On the other side, Cy, Dora, Gordo, Honey B, Lucky, Mave, Rayne, Terry and Willy B are also enjoying cozy naps, working on food puzzles, and spending quality time with their respective group members, but they’re still “warming up” to the concept of eating snow. Fortunately, their taste for this Pacific Northwest delicacy is slowly developing; Gordo and Rayne already seem to relish the frozen treat!
Chad took this photo of Gordo inhaling a snowball this morning:
Of all the chimps who live in the new wing, only Honey B has bravely utilized the newly-enclosed greenhouses today. When I unlocked the Chimp House this morning, she was out there to meet me for a game of chase. There’s nothing like a bout of “the zoomies” to keep your caregivers sharp on slushy winter mornings!
Chimp ID: Terry
It seems to have been a while since the last time we did a Chimp ID from the new group. So who better to pickup where we left off than with Terry!
Terry is by far the “floofiest” of the bunch. It’s took the point where sometimes we have difficulty in determining if he is piloerect, or if he’s just that fuzzy.
Terry always tries to get caregivers’ attention. You can hear Terry pretty much anywhere blowing raspberries to get some attention from caregivers. When Terry is interested in your footwear, he will blow raspberries then spit water at your boots and only your boots, which he loves to groom.
He also has a peculiar way of greeting caregivers: licking the back of our hands.
Terry is also a big fan of food!
Usually, we can often find Terry with something in his mouth. Whether that is a wadge made from the paper bags his primate chow come in or wooden blocks.
Terry is also a fan of food puzzles, especially Boomer Balls.
Terry is just a big, lovable goofball who is extremely difficult not to love when you meet him.
We all love Terry!
Their Side of the Mountain
The mosaic landscape in which the sanctuary exists is truly breathtaking.
Even so, it’s difficult to assess the value that such a backdrop provides to four cattle and sixteen chimps who reside here.
For their part, the bovines appear most excited about their environment when it is carpeted with fresh green grass. They’re not particularly expressive otherwise.
As for the chimps, it’s evident that they at least take the time to observe their immediate and distant surroundings. The degree to which they value the aesthetic quality of their environment and the effect that this has on their wellbeing are much less clear. Given that chimpanzee cognition is a lot like ours, I find it logical to assume that they appreciate a good view. Sometimes, it even seems like they go outside just to soak up the weather and enjoy the panoramic perspectives of the surrounding hills.
This older photo by J.B. shows Foxie having one of those moments.
It’s not surprising that the chimps spend so much time exploring their own backyard. These chimpanzees live on some prime real estate.
The sanctuary occupies a grassy patch of land on the western flank of Lookout Mountain (which is not to be confused with any of the the state’s eight other landforms with the same name). Behind the sanctuary’s upper boundary, there is a network of dirt roads that wind their way up the slope to a few private cabins. Last week, I decided to “take the long way home,” pushing my old SUV up the ridge to get an eagle’s view of the sanctuary. As always, the view from up there was incredible.
From the side of the mountain, one can get a sweeping vista of the rust-colored hills and wooded rangeland of the Teanaway River valley to the north, the growing mountain towns of Cle Elum and Roslyn to the northwest, and the rushing waters of the Yakima River and its basalt canyon to the southwest. This entire patchwork is nestled below the mighty peaks of the Central Cascades.
Even with all these features visible from our backyard, the sanctuary itself might still be the strangest artifact on the landscape. It’s not too conspicuous; From a plane, it might be mistaken for a ranch or even some sort of outdoor sports complex. (I’ve joked that Young’s Hill could also double as an interesting paintball course.) From the ridge, however, it’s clear that the wooden climbing platforms and electrified fences are designed for another purpose entirely. If you didn’t already know the sanctuary was here and had never been to a similar facility, you’d probably never guess that sixteen chimps lived in one of the barn-like structures situated at the mouth of the canyon.
Lunch Up Close
I could listen to the crunching sounds of lunch all day!
The Nifty Fifty
I’m sure all of you are familiar with the Lucky Six by now, but do you know the Nifty Fifty?
Before I get any further ahead, I need to clarify something. Y’all may be disappointed, but we don’t currently have any plans to rescue a group of fifty chimpanzees. (Not anytime soon, at least.) The colloquial term “Nifty Fifty” refers to something a little less exciting.
The Nifty Fifty is a type of camera lens.
More specifically, photographers refer to 50mm prime (fixed) lenses as “nifty fifties” because they’re relatively inexpensive, versatile, lightweight and sharp (id est, nifty).
By sacrificing the mechanical components required to zoom in on a subject, prime lenses can be built with a larger aperture* (usually f/1.4 or 1.8) while retaining their relatively affordable price and compact size. This trade-off is particularly beneficial in poorly-lit conditions, but it also creates a shallow depth of field that can produce a bokeh effect (an aesthetically-pleasing background blur that makes the subject stand out). Given all these qualities, the 50mm prime is a staple of event, travel, studio, and street photographers. It’s not bad for shooting landscapes, either!
*For those of you who may be new to this topic, aperture, shutter speed, and ISO/sensitivity are the three main variables that photographers adjust to get the desired exposure. The aperture setting is the camera’s equivalent to the dilation of your eye’s pupil; when the aperture is opened wide, more light reaches the sensor at any given shutter speed or sensitivity, resulting in a brighter image.
Normally, the first lenses we caregivers reach for in the morning are the heavier telephotos that let us zoom in on the chimpanzees from afar. These lenses are particularly useful when the chimps are lounging on the upper decks of the greenhouse enclosures or foraging outside in Young’s Hill. They’re not quite as effective indoors, however, since they have comparatively small apertures that limit the passage of light to the sensor.
Last week, the weather was foggy, chilly and wet, and the sanctuary’s primate residents chose to spend more time lounging and socializing in the heated indoor areas. With the chimps hanging out in close proximity and limited sunlight coming in through the windows and overhead skylights, I decided to use the 50mm “nifty fifty” lens to get some portraits for the blog. Fortunately, some of the chimps let me photograph them while they perused their daily enrichment and made blanket nests in the cozy front rooms.
When we’re holding the camera lens (or smartphone) flush against the caging, it’s easy to forget that there’s steel mesh between us. For some perspective on this, I recommend revisiting one of Diana’s posts from long ago: Caging is OK.
Safely shooting through the caging is one of the most difficult aspects of photographing chimps. One benefit of the wide aperture on the aforementioned Nifty Fifty is that it can blur out a barrier even when sections of it are obstructing the image. Sometimes, this effect even creates a halo-like frame around a chimpanzee’s face. In my opinion, it’s a cool way of highlighting each chimps’ unique expressions while subtly reminding you that the barriers are there. In these photos of Jody and Annie, you can see the caging but it’s not drawing your attention like it would if it was sharply in focus.
One slow afternoon, I sat with half-sisters Lucky and Rayne for a few minutes and let them each observe their reflections in the camera lens. They were both enthralled by the shiny iridescence of the optical pieces, the bizarre motion of my fingertips around the camera’s other controls, and the absurd positions I put myself in to get the compositions I wanted. Their inquisitive stares led to some striking “eye contact” with the lens, and I was pleased with how each series captured pieces of their quirky personalities.
Lucky was the first to approach and spent the whole session looking down at me with skepticism. Typical.
Rayne was munching on a paper wadge when we started, but she eventually spit it out so she could examine her own teeth in the reflection.
Finally, here are a couple more shots I took with the 50mm this past week. Thanks for scrolling down this far!
Let’s taco about Tuesday
Tuesday has been a normal day consisting of cleaning, preparing meals and enrichment, a one-on-one introduction, and also about getting ready for Thanksgiving day. As usual the chimps will get an entire feast just for them with their favorite food items and Fall themed enrichment. On the other hand, the humans will be getting together for an early thanksgiving pot luck tomorrow night. This will consist of homemade traditional Thanksgiving meals, or what we each consider to be traditional. In my case, I’ll bring a vegan sweet potato and marshmallow casserole and although it is not a dish commonly made back home in Puerto Rico on this occasion, I like it so much that I would always require my family to make it just for me. I’ve been told that caregiver Chad makes a mean Nasi Goreng fried rice that is very famous in the chimp house so there is a lot to look forward to.
Enough about food, let’s taco about today’s introductions. I know we have said it before, but even though we plan ahead for possible introduction pairings, the chimps get the final say and that is exactly what happened today. Honey B and Willy B conspired together to not allow us to access the Mezzanine for cleaning, which directly dictated the fate of today’s pairing options for introductions. During lunch time, Willy B shifted out and Honey B remained up there meaning she was the one that was going to hang out with one of the California Six. On the six’s group, Cy was the one that wanted to stay in the front rooms so that made the decision easy for us. This introduction ended up being very low-key, with an on edge Honey B and only a few direct interactions but all in all positive.
Cy reading a magazine. Not pictured here are Cy’s happy sounds while reading.
Dora hanging out in the green house.
Lucky in her favorite spot of the front rooms with a slinky.
BONUS: A beautiful rainbow over Young’s Hill taken by caregiver Chad.
