Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Animal Welfare

Sanctuary’s Sprouting Seeds

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In their natural habitat, chimpanzees help maintain their ecosystem by helping with the dispersal of seeds. They disperse seeds by either ingesting the fruit or nut and later depositing the seeds elsewhere in their feces, or wadging the seed or nut and leaving it somewhere else in their habitat. Once the chimpanzee leaves the seeds via droppings or wadge, it germinates and a new generation of fruit tree can begin to grow. It is one of the many upon many of reasons protecting wild chimpanzee populations is important. It helps maintain the natural ecosystem.

Seed dispersal can also occur in captivity. Last summer, we had noticed a couple of pumpkin plants growing in the Oakwood Greenhouse. This year is no different. In fact, this years seems like there is more of a variety of plants growing throughout the sanctuary. Some of them can be attributed to the night bags the chimpanzees receive at dinner, while others are a bit more curious. They are sometimes part of the ingredients we use for the chimpanzees’ morning smoothie, and the only way they could have started to grow is by the chimpanzees passing them.

Here are some of the plants growing in the greenhouses (currently):

Pumpkin Plants

In the Riverview Greenhouse.
The biggest one so far is hidden behind bamboo in the Riverview Greenhouse.

Elderberry

Elderberry is sometimes added to the morning smoothies. This seedling is starting to grow in the Riverview Greenhouse.

Blackberry

Blackberries are also sometimes added to the morning smoothies. And this seedling started to grow in an area Jamie’s group is know to defecate.

Sunflower

Notice the pumpkin plant starting to sprout at the root of this sunflower in Burrito’s greenhouse.
In the Oakwood Greenhouse.

It also appears that growing is not exclusive to the greenhouses:

A sunflower sprout growing on one of the artificial leaves in the Marmot Playroom.
And another growing under the door in the Mezzanine.

Though these plants probably won’t grow to their full potential since the chimpanzees will probably root them out at some point, we can only hope they are left untouched and can start growing some fruits/veggies.

Here are some of the seed dispersers today!

Jamie:

Honey B:

Gordo:

Foxie:

Mave and Rayne:

And some photos of our recovering Queen Negra:

Negra has been receiving frequent visits from her group mates all throughout the day. This was during Foxie’s visit.

Negra seems to not mind this set up. She has been staying out of the family politics, been covered in blankets, receiving a lot of attention from the human caregivers…

And yes, Hawaiian rolls!

Mave’s Feminist Uprising

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Mave is currently living her best life. She seems to thrive in a larger group with more chimpanzees to interact with and look after. These last few days, she’s virtually never alone.

The video above is of a very fun play session between Mave and Rayne, but the blog post title is more about these two stories…

You may remember from a blog written by J.B. entitled “It’s Only Natural” that Terry and Dora are the only two chimpanzees who express a certain natural behavior. We know from their former caregivers at Wildlife Waystation that they haven’t always done this – they did it for a while, stopped for a very long time, then started again in recent years. Terry only requests that Dora mate when food is brought out for meals. Yep, food is VERY exciting for chimpanzees. From our observations so far, Dora is not always in the mood for Terry’s advances, but she eventually gives in to his requests.

Enter Dora’s new friend Mave.

Mave, apparently, is not willing to tolerate Terry’s behavior and will not only yell at Terry if she catches him requesting Dora to copulate, but will physically “protect” Dora. Chad wrote up the first instance of this the other day. To quote Chad, “Mave began screaming at Terry, and blocked Dora from him via hugging her.” She apparently spent the rest of lunch guarding Dora while also trying to reconcile with Terry. At that point, Terry was more interested in lunch. He did reassure Mave that all was okay, and did not make another attempt that day.

We’ll have to see how this plays out in the end, but I can tell you that the female humans at the sanctuary were feeling a certain feminine solidarity with Mave.

 

The second story is from last night when everyone was getting ready for bed. I was watching on the remote security cameras. Every night prior to last night, Mave, Willy B, and Honey B have slept in one of the Front Rooms while the six chimpanzees from the other group spread out among the two playrooms.

Last night, Cy was still up taking some alone time (or so he thought) in the Mezzanine. I watched as Mave gathered some blankets from the Marmot Mountain Playroom. I expected her to take her large pile of blankets through the Mezzanine and down through the door in the floor that connects to the Front Rooms. What she did instead was make a nest right in the “cubby” of the Mezzanine, blocking the door that connects it to Marmot Mountain. She made a beautiful nest and lied down.

A few minutes later, Cy approached where she was lying down. It was clear to me that he wanted to vacate the Mezzanine. Mave, however, remained lying down, not moving a muscle. He got a little closer and patiently waited again. Still no movement from Mave. After about ten minutes, he climbed over her to get out the door. She still didn’t move.

Mave is a female figure that we all can admire. She’s a friend to everyone but is strong and confident in her position.

If you haven’t already, I suggest you celebrate Mave by getting a Mave hoodie. I will wear mine with even more pride and admiration now.

Social Studies

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It’s been about four days since the newly-integrated group of nine rescued chimps spent their first full day together. We caregivers have been closely observing with our fingers crossed that things keep going smoothly, but we’re already impressed by how well the chimpanzees have adapted to cohabitating with their former neighbors.

We have previously touched on the challenges and benefits of socializing captive chimpanzees. If things continue going well, Cy, Dora, Gordo, Lucky, Rayne and Terry will keep living with Honey B, Mave and Willy B in the newer wing of the Chimp House.  It was evident from the first introductions that these chimpanzees have some sort of affinity for one another, and our observations since then have largely reinforced those beliefs. There have been displays, disagreements, misunderstandings and (occasional) fights, but the chimpanzees have repeatedly found ways to resolve their differences through grooming, play, and a great deal of measured politeness.

Although free-ranging chimpanzee communities consist of fluid subgroups that change membership frequently, merging entire communities is not something that they naturally do. Even so, it’s clear that these nine individuals want to do exactly that. For these captive chimps, all rescued from the closed Wildlife Waystation, expanding their social network will enrich their lives in ways that puzzles and climbing structures cannot.

Our team will continue to post occasional updates and will probably produce some sort of comprehensive summary once we know more about the group’s long-term compatibility. Our daily routine currently includes all the usual chores plus additional observation and discussion, so the blogs may continue to be a bit atypical for a while.

Today’s blog post features a simple assortment of video clips we have recorded during the last couple days! Most of these are close-up shots taken “through” the caging with an 85mm lens; the steel mesh is often visible as a square vignette around each frame (always reminding us of the unusual environment these chimps reside in). Hopefully this post gives you a glimpse of current events at the sanctuary and some more excitement for the future!

Terry (right) grooms Willy B (left) in the shady Oakwood Greenhouse.
Gordo extracts raisins from a “raisin board” enrichment puzzle
Honey B perches on a firehose “vine” inside
Cy sits amid the foliage outside
Gordo literally puts his feet up in the front rooms

Please Excuse the Interruption

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To our supportive blog followers and lovers of the sanctuary:

We are always ever so grateful for all the love and support you have given us throughout the years and want to thank you for following along and interacting with us through the blog. As you all know, we have been in the process of integrating Cy’s group and Willy B’s group over the past several months. Our friend and colleague, Jen Feuerstein, will return tomorrow to help us with progressing even further into the integration process this week. During this time, we are going to be extremely busy monitoring the process as the chimpanzees come together and work on their relationships with one another. We will still be posting the daily blog, but please forgive us if at times this week it seems it is abbreviated or posted a little later in the day. We hope you understand. We will be back on a regular schedule soon!

As we prepare for the week ahead, please enjoy these photos from today!

Willy B:

Honey B:

Mave:

Cy:

Lucky:

Gordo:

Dora:

Rayne:

Terry:

Love a Chimpanzee Day 2022

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Today was a Love a Chimpanzee Day for the books! Not only did Monica continue her tradition of generosity by paying for party supplies (including a bunch of stuff like scarves and giant stuffed animals that are not pictured here, but the Primate Awareness Network at Central Washington University also got involved and planned the party! It was bug themed and the food for the day included bugs on a log (celery with peanut butter and berries), whole sweet potatoes, watermelon radishes, kale, bok choy, and Swiss chard.

We didn’t get a lot of photos of all of the elements of the parties because the chimpanzees were a blur of excitement, but Kelsi and Anna got some great photos of the chimpanzees. There were so many, I had a difficult time selecting only a few.

Thank you to those who have already donated on my and Monica’s GiveBIG fundraising page in celebration of Love a Chimpanzee Day. Monica’s matching donation is live, so your donations will be doubled.

Huge hugs of thanks to Monica, and Happy Love a Chimpanzee Day to everyone!

 

Gordo enjoying Swiss Chard:

 

Terry enjoying bok choy:

 

 

Beautiful Rayne:

 

Some set-up shots of creative party elements that the Primate Awarness Network made for the chimps:

 

Negra digging into a box and later eating some greens on the hill:

 

 

Willy B with the big party banner:

 

Missy slack-lining and carrying sweet potatoes:

 

Burrito with a watermelon radish and bok choy then “hanging out”:

 

Annie with some kale:

 

Jamie was the first on the hill and collected as much bok choy as she could:

 

A goodnight photo of Mave grooming Honey B while Honey B was in her nest:

The Mondays

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Do you all know that bit from Office Space about “The Mondays”?

(Here’s a link for those of you who have never seen the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AB9zPfXqQQ.)

I’ve been thinking of that scene a lot today.

To be clear, I have a neutral opinion on Mondays. For that matter, I don’t hold grudges against any arbitrarily-named days of the week. Still, I can’t help but feel like the chimps have been grappling with a case of “The Mondays” for a few days now. This morning began with more of the chimpanzee drama that J.B. recently described in Friday’s blog post: Grooming. Although everyone seemed to be contributing to the chaos in one way or another, Terry remained at the center of the maelstrom which continued to churn up the social waters throughout the day.

To paraphrase one of J.B.’s passages: chimps simply cannot keep going “full throttle” for long before someone calms down and starts putting the pieces back together again. In today’s case, the chimps eventually stopped screaming long enough to catch their breath. Within minutes, they had begun to groom each other in a collective act of reconciliation that lasted for quite some time. Chimps may have physical altercations more frequently than free-living humans do, but their ability to put that animosity behind them and quickly reach a bipartisan solution makes up for it.

I didn’t manage to record much of the action with a camera, but I did take some photos during the peaceful moments between the storms.

Cy looking down at caregivers through the overhead caging
J.B. adding to the wall murals in the new front rooms
Rayne grooming Cy
Rayne
Terry reaching through the caging to inquisitively touch a caregiver’s boots.

 

Alpha Cy-chology

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Within a chimpanzee community, the term used to describe the dominant chimpanzee is alpha. There seems to be an agreement there are different styles of dominance, with two being the main types: those who are political and those who use brute strength. There is a great TED Talk with Frans de Waal where he explains these two different styles. Those who are more political savvy navigate their way through their community to build trust and relationships with their community. These alphas, when they lose their top position, can still be a big influence on their community years after their term is up. The other type are those who use strength and fear to make their way to the top. By showing they are stronger than the rest, the rest submit to their displays. These alphas in the wild tend to be excommunicated from the community or killed when their term is up. There is a National Geographic documentary called Kingdom of the Apes, which showcases these two styles when brothers Freud and Frodo vie to become the alpha of their group. This all took place within the Kasakela community, the group Jane Goodall has studied over the decades.

The groups who reside here do have their alphas or perceived alphas. One of the alphas I want to talk about today is Cy.

We are coming up quickly on the 1 year anniversary since Cy and his group arrived here, and we have been in awe of Cy since. From what we’ve seen, Cy is very patient and very socially aware of the other chimpanzee’s emotional states.  He always seems to know when it’s the right time to show off his size and strength or to just let the others get what they need off their chest. During the introduction process, Cy has been great at making friends. I think we were all caught off guard when him and Willy B first met and how well it went. When two alphas get together during this process, there is a huge sense of anxiety that lingers in the air on what will happen between the two. Luckily for us, we have Cy. Throughout the entire process we have seen Cy time and time again place his own body between two who are getting nervous around each other and diffuse the situation. That’s not to say he doesn’t show off his strength when he needs to.

Of the two styles of dominant chimpanzees, I would place Cy on the political side. He seems to receive the respect from everyone not because he demands it, but because he earns it. I know he has earned mine.

Cy is the most patient, big-hearted, caring, playful, and handsome alpha.