Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Animal Welfare

Wildcards…plus a medical update

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We have a had a lot of things going on for the past weeks so here is a brief update from your friendly veterinary assistant regarding Bubba’s encounter with a rattlesnake. After Burrito’s sedation to infuse the antivenin, we had him apart from the group for almost a week to ensure he was recovering correctly. During this time he was getting medications to help with overall itchiness and discomfort after exposure, and we were also collecting fecal samples. The importance of these samples was to monitor his coagulation factors after being exposed to rattlesnake venom. Such bleeding abnormalities can show up days after the exposure, which made it crucial to monitor him for at least a week.  All of our caregivers were on poop duty and thankfully all of the samples came back negative for occult blood which meant that his clotting factors were not affected. This guy was the best patient, he took all his medications in food and wanted to engage in play at all times. Right now, he is doing awesome and has been keeping us all caught up with our daily cardio.

Caregiver Anthony took these photos of Bubba today and if they don’t reflect this guys goofiness and constant happiness, I don’t know what does

On the other side of the Sanctuary, one-on-one introductions continue. One of our wildcards is Gordo, he tends to be a little unpredictable when it comes to neighbors although he has been showing a lot of interest in Mave since their arrival. He first met Willy B, nothing super exciting, they had a brief positive interaction and parted ways. Next up was Gordito’s crush, Mave. This introduction was very lighthearted as both engaged in some very amusing grooming sessions. Because we had some extra time, we had Honey B meet Gordo through the mesh. She was a little amped up about the situation and we decided it was best to keep a barrier between the two individuals. Through all of this, Gordo seemed unfazed and behaved great. Next up was Cy meeting Honey B through the mesh. At this point, both Cy and Honey B had so much energy going on that after a few interactions through the mesh, both individuals returned to their groups for dinner.

Here is Mave and Gordo in one of their grooming sessions today

BONUS: Negra nesting this morning in the green house

The Rayne Attraction

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Last week, I introduced you all to… uh… well… introductions.

You can read that blog post here if you need to catch up. Since then, we’ve posted the following updates related to social integrations: Chad’s Today’s Forecast: Rayne, Kelsi’s Exhilarating Day, J.B.’s Ups and Downs, Diana’s Play During Intros, and Sam’s The Introductions Continue!

Well, today was another exciting day…

Rayne met Willy B in a controlled introduction session!

Willy B
Rayne

They took a few minutes to warm up to each other, but they both behaved in a friendly and respectful manner. Eventually, they “broke the ice” and began to playfully stomp around and wrestle. It’s remarkable how two chimps who have never been together before can suddenly decide to inundate each other with goofy gestures of affection. Their exuberant facial expressions and thunderous chuckles lit up the indoor area where their meeting was staged.

We’ve learned that Willy B has a tendency to start introduction sessions with enthusiasm but quickly grows bored. In today’s meeting, the opposite happened; Willy wanted to keep playing but Rayne eventually grew tired and began to watch the humans expectantly.

Rayne and Willy B amicably separated shortly before dinner and voluntarily returned to their respective social groups in the new playrooms and greenhouse enclosures.

Tomorrow, we hope to continue the integration process by facilitating more introductions!

Today’s Forecast: Rayne

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So there wasn’t any rain in today’s forecast, though I think everyone would appreciate some in the state, but there is Rayne!

There are so many aspects about Rayne that remind us of Honey B. The stare she gives you. Her confidence in knowing what she wants and likes. And catch her at the right angle and you would be fooled on who is who. Let’s not forget they are biological sisters.

Though Rayne and her group have been here over a month and they have shown us a great deal of their personalities, we really are still finding new things out about them. One thing we are learning about Rayne, she seems to love food puzzles. Just like Honey B.

Rayne with three Boomer Balls

As Anthony has mentioned before, Rayne and Friends are a little bit more destructive than we had anticipated when it comes to their enrichment. So we have been slowly been introducing them to new things, one-by-one. Boomer Balls have been the latest.

Speaking of new things, we recently found one Burrito seems to absolutely love now: KONG Zoo! A gigantic Kong!

With Burrito still recovering from his recent incident, we decided to give him two of his favorite new thing he was introduced to before the incident. When he has these, he can be found dragging them along with him, throwing them up in the air, rolling them along, and bouncing on them like a hopper ball.

Here are some of the photos I took when he first got a hold of the gigantoids before the incident:

Jamie also seemed to really like them when they were first introduced.

As posted yesterday, the introduction process between Rayne and her group, and Mave and hers has begun. And please bear with us through this process as they can make for a long day. As mentioned in yesterday’s post, we will most likely just be sharing some highlights of the process. We try to get photos and video if we can, but it’s important to give them the space they need to try to form a relationship without our interference or distraction.

The highlight for today was Mave met Rayne today.

They spent a lot of time grooming one another and reassuring each other when the neighbors were rowdy. Similar to yesterday’s meeting with Terry, Rayne didn’t seem to want to leave Mave, and Mave didn’t seem to want to leave Rayne when we thought they were ready to move on, so we gave them some more time until we knew they were ready. Overall it was a very positive meeting between the two.

Mave also met Cy today as well. Cy spent a lot of time grooming Mave and trying to get her to play with him. Just as with Terry, Mave was a tad hesitant to play with the big guy at first, though she did. But her preference was grooming, which Cy obliged. Overall a positive meeting between them as well.

After their meeting, Cy went back to perusing through his magazines.

It was an eventful day for all, so I hope you all have a great night!

Some bonus photos:

Missy trying to spy on the new neighbors
Foxie during her morning patrol of Young’s hill
Lucky sitting on the firehose in one of the front rooms

An Introduction to Introductions

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We’re happy to announce that our team has begun the process of integrating the six newest arrivals with the three individuals in who arrived in 2019.

This development means that, if all goes according to plan, we’ll be forging a new social group consisting of nine chimps: Cy, Dora, Gordo, Honey B, Lucky, Mave, Rayne, Terry and Willy B.

This will not be easy. As others have explained here in the past, chimpanzees are not biologically predisposed to accept strangers into their group. Although free-living chimpanzees have fluid social dynamics with other members of their community, they can be brutally xenophobic towards outsiders. Males stay with cohorts of related males who frequently wage war on rival communities. Meanwhile, females can only transfer between communities during the brief window of young adulthood when they are sexually mature but have not yet conceived their first infant. Therefore, asking a chimp to become friends with an unfamiliar neighbor is challenging, and asking entire groups to do so is nearly impossible.

With all that being said, merging two groups of chimpanzees is possible in captivity, and it’s often worth the effort; Large, mixed-sex living arrangements give chimps more social partners to choose from, thereby giving each individual more freedom to regulate their social relationships as they wish.

Although it would never occur in the wild, most captive chimpanzees have undergone some sort of social integration at least once in their lives and are somewhat familiar with the process. Because of this, chimps who were raised in labs, zoos and sanctuaries are often more welcoming of new partners than their free-living relatives tend to be. Even so, they’re still generally skeptical and nervous about interacting with chimps outside of their usual configurations and even the best integration methods can go awry.

Many of you probably remember that, in late 2019, we unsuccessfully attempted to integrate Honey B, Mave and Willy B with the group of seven long-time residents that now live on the other side of the building. At that time, we employed an approach that has been successful at several other facilities: we opened the doors, let some chimps into a big room, and hoped for the best. Merging two groups in this manner allows for them to have lots of space during the initial meeting and keeps each chimp close to their established social partners. When this method works, it works well and it works quickly. However, this also creates situations where multiple chimps can form coalitions against their rivals, occasionally leading to chaos and injury for the chimps involved. Unfortunately, that’s what happened here, so we abandoned those integration efforts until circumstances changed.

This time around, we’re going to utilize a slower approach that will likely involve dozens of short, controlled introductions between pairs of chimps while they are separated from their respective groups. First, the participants must be separated from their current partners and shifted into a quiet, restricted space (e.g., the new front rooms). Then, they can have a supervised “howdy” at the caging. If this goes well, caregivers can open the doors and let them interact for a short amount of time before they return to their existing groups.

In these situations, individuals are more likely to behave in a friendly manner because options for forming coalitions and inciting conflicts are both limited. Over time, the chimps will become familiar with each other’s tendencies through these regulated meetings, thus facilitating a smoother transition to a mixed, cohabitating social group when the time is right. Doing these quick introductions is a repetitive and tedious process, but we believe that such a gradual transition will be better for these individuals given their unique personalities and backgrounds.

To coordinate the integration of the two groups, we’ve brought in our friend and colleague Jen Feuerstein as a consultant. Jen is a biologist with twenty years of experience caring for and socializing captive primates, so she’s exactly the person we want to guide us through ambitious endeavors like this one. This week, Jen traveled to Washington from her Florida home to help us with the first round of introductions (which began this afternoon).

Both introductions that occurred today went smoothly!

For the initial icebreaker, we isolated Mave and Lucky in the new wing of the building and then let them meet in new front rooms. These two “hit it off” relatively quickly and spent a good chunk of time hugging, grooming, and playing with each other. Mave was clearly the best chimpanzee to pilot the introduction strategy as she exhibited patience and tenderness at each moment. Lucky was also her usual sweet and goofy self.

When Mave and Lucky appeared done with the initial meeting, we rotated Lucky out and allowed Terry to come in. Terry is a testosterone-driven bruiser of a male chimp, and we weren’t shocked when he immediately barreled around the room and drummed on the caging. Even so, Terry simmered down and showed his gentler side by inviting Mave to meet him at the barrier. She approached and they inquisitively touched each other through the mesh before Mave grew anxious and retreated.

At this point, Jen gave us the signal to open the hydraulic door between the chimps and let them interact freely. Terry charged in and displayed again before settling. Mave kept squealing and jumping back but the two gradually calmed down enough to investigate each other. after a few minutes, Terry began to playfully stomp and skip around, beckoning for Mave to chase him. She hesitantly joined in, and it was only moments before they were laying on the floor grooming each other. This session went on for another thirty minutes or so before we broke it up; Terry didn’t want to leave her side but Mave seemed ready to meet the next chimp in the queue.

These two meetings went well, but we have an arduous road ahead. We expect to do more introduction sessions over the next few days and not all of them will be this easy. Even by conservative estimates, we’ll continue introducing pairs and trios for several weeks before we begin assembling these individuals into larger subgroups. Given the sheer amount work that we have to do, it’s unlikely that we’ll be posting comprehensive updates on a daily basis. Of course, we’ll continue to share the highlights when time allows, but it may be some time before we can share a definitive progress report.

Thank you all for caring about the chimps and for being as invested in their emotional well-being as we are! Feel free to leave comments and ask questions below. 🙂

Image of Lucky (left) and Mave (right) by Jen Feuerstein

 

Nothing’s Wrong

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Burrito was trying to convince us in earnest today that we was completely fine and ready to get back into the mix of things, despite his very recent ordeal.

Dr. Erin gave the okay for him to spend some quiet time with Jody, who was eager to check out his recovery digs and see if there were any uneaten treats lying around. They greeted each other with enthusiasm, did their own thing for a while, groomed a bit, and then had a tickle session.

No one bounces back like Burrito. He is a man with more than seven lives. A being whose love of life will not be quashed or tarnished. Every adversity he faces, he comes back with more energy. He is the inspiration we all need. I don’t know why he is the way he is, but aren’t we all so lucky to know him.

Be sure to catch tomorrow’s blog post about Foxie’s 45th birthday celebration!

National Watermelon Day!

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Today is National Watermelon Day! A day in which we celebrate that delicious sweet summertime treat. Watermelon is the perfect treat during hot summer days because they are comprised of 92% water and are delectable.

Today, we decided to give the chimpanzee residents some of this delicious fruit for lunch and as an afternoon snack served up on some crushed ice!

Missy eating her lunchtime watermelon.

Cy enjoying his while trying to convince the humans to also play with him.

Negra about to dig in to her watermelon shaved ice.

Mave enjoying her iced treat.

Honey B inspecting her watermelon ice boat…

Before digging in.

Terry snacking on his afternoon snack.

Jamie being served her watermelon boat.

I was able to get that photo, before I was promptly reminded that is wasn’t photo time, but play time.

And as a bonus, a photo I took of Lucky watching me from the other side of the window as I cleaned the Mezzanine today.

Hazed and Confused: Coping With Nearby Wildfires

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When the wind picked up the fire spread
And the grapevines seemed left for dead
And the northern sky looked like the end of days
The end of days…
– “Grapevine Fires” by Death Cab for Cutie

Once again, Earth’s inhabitants are suffering through yet another record-breaking wildfire season. Forests are ablaze from Turkey to Siberia and almost everywhere else, sending clouds of haze over the northern hemisphere from the burroughs of New York to the ice sheets covering the North Pole.

Here in the American West, a combination of social and environmental factors has resulted in several consecutive years of devastating wildfires and oppressively hazy conditions.

The surrounding valley blanketed in a smoky haze

As with many ecosystems around the globe, the continent’s prairies and boreal forests have depended on periodic fires to recycle nutrients since before humans even existed. However, the current frequency, intensity and duration of large fires is unprecedented and concerning.

As of yesterday, there were 91 active wildfires in the continental United States and another 241 fires burning in the Canadian province of British Columbia (just across the border from Washington State). The monstrous Bootleg Fire in southern Oregon has been sustaining itself for over a month and has charred half a million acres of land on its own. Thanks to high winds, prolonged drought and excessive heat, some of the region’s larger fires may continue to burn for several months.

Currently, the sanctuary is covered in a dystopian fog that obscures the horizon and, much like that of a smoggy urban area, could be unhealthy if breathed in for prolonged periods of time. As with past summers, the chimps will continue to have access to the outdoors unless conditions worsen to “Hazardous.” The air quality hasn’t dipped as low as it did last September, but we still have several months left before we’re literally out of the fire. Thankfully, the forecast indicates that atmospheric conditions should improve over the next few days, giving us some relief from the haze.

The “158” in the center of the map is the closest data point to our location

In the past, the sanctuary team has had some close calls with brush fires. The scariest experience was the Taylor Bridge Fire, which ignited near the sanctuary in August of 2012 and almost reached the Chimp House before firefighters could get it under control. If you’d like to read the harrowing story from several different perspectives, you can still read the blog posts from that nightmare of a week almost a decade ago: The Story of the Fire (Part 1), Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.

Another close call occurred in 2016 when Jamie, a proactively vigilant chimpanzee, notified her caregivers that a brush fire had ignited within sight of the Chimp House. Thanks to Jamie’s efforts, local firefighters were able to extinguish the blaze and subsequently gave her the title of Honorary Firefighter in 2017.

Sam took this photo of the haze before leaving last night

Given the ubiquitous threat of wildfire in our region, several of our dedicated blog readers have recently asked how we protect the sanctuary and its residents. Today’s post will review our strategy for coping with these dicey conditions so that you can all stay informed.

First and foremost, here’s an elementary chemistry lesson: fires need fuel, heat and oxygen. The ideal strategy minimizes these three components.

We can’t rid the sanctuary of oxygen (for obvious reasons), but we can lessen the amount of combustible material around the property so that any nearby fires have less to consume. When it comes to weed control, bringing in natural grazers can be a sustainable long-term solution. Since 2018, our unofficial fire prevention squad has consisted of four rescued Jersey cattle who subsist on seasonal vegetation that would otherwise become a fire hazard when it desiccates in late summer.

You can observe the difference between areas grazed by the cattle and those that they cannot reach.

The staff take care of the rest by mowing, trimming, and spraying weeds. Importantly, we avoid any activities that could accidentally ignite a new fire. For example, our crew avoids using machinery (tractors, vehicles, mowers) in tall grass during the summer and restricts outdoor welding to the cooler and wetter months.

Additionally, we make sure that there are no large trees or shrubs within a certain radius of the Chimp House so that it would be difficult for a fire to jump closer to the main building. This perimeter of defensible space is mandated by our county’s regulations, but we would gladly maintain it even if it weren’t. In the case of the aforementioned Taylor Bridge Fire, such a boundary enabled the firefighters to safely protect the building with the chimps (and human) safely inside. The building itself is predominantly built from concrete and steel and is covered with a metal roof, so it’s unlikely that the structure itself would catch fire. The interior is also constructed to code and has a sprinkler system that would activate if we had a fire inside the building. The chimps always have access to outdoor enclosures like the greenhouses and chute to which they could escape if the indoors were filled with smoke.

The Chimp House is now surrounded by a system of wildfire sprinklers that J.B. built in 2014. In just a few seconds, any staff member can start a propane-fueled pump that collects water from a nearby pond and sprays it into the air around the building. This mist creates a humid microclimate which effectively dampens any airborne embers, converting the building’s immediate surroundings into a fire-resistant oasis. Our staff regularly tests and maintains the sprinkler system during the late spring and summer.

Finally, local firefighting departments know the sanctuary well, have visited the site and the chimps, and consult with the sanctuary’s leadership on issues related to fire prevention. In turn, we use their social media channels to stay informed about local conditions.

Firefighters thanking Jamie for her assistance back in 2017

Even at our maximum level of preparedness, there are limits to our defenses and we will remain open to contingency plans. For example, we have the capacity to evacuate all humans, canines, felines and bovines from the property if another evacuation order is given, but we would be less likely to evacuate the chimps. Many supporters have asked if we have ever, or would ever, evacuate the Chimp House in one of these situations, and the answer is complicated. As J.B. explained in the aftermath of the Taylor Bridge Fire, keeping the chimps in their defensible home has always been the safest option for them and for us. This statement is more true than ever given the upgrades to the facility and additions to our chimp family in recent years; loading sixteen chimps onto a trailer would be a big challenge.

While we may encounter a scenario that causes us to do otherwise, we hope we never have to resort to such extremes.

It’s almost certain that our fire prevention and emergency response strategies will continue evolving as new technology and information become available, we continue the ongoing expansion of the facility, and the regional climate shifts further into precarious territory. Through all this and more, we will keep doing whatever is needed to keep the sanctuary’s beloved residents safely out of harm’s way.