Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary for primates.

anxiety

Someone to lean on

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Annie has always had a nervous disposition. In the years immediately following her arrival at the sanctuary, she was prone to bouts of acute anxiety akin to panic attacks. Thankfully, these have become less and less frequent over the years but they still occur on occasion. While it’s hard for us to say exactly what sets them off, they appear to be triggered by tension or ambiguity in social relationships. It’s hard to be a primate, as we all know too well.

This afternoon, I spent some time photographing the chimps as they quietly patrolled the hill, foraged for browse, and climbed the various towers and play structures. At one point I noticed Annie nearby with her hair standing on end. I could tell something was wrong.

She began to pant-hoot softly, each hoot trailing off into a whimper. Alone, she walked hurriedly to a climbing structure and began to climb the ladder. But she turned back before reaching the top.

Soon her whimpers grew into screams.

Her walk became a sprint.

She was alone and desperate for reassurance.

There’s only one person that Annie looks to in moments like these.

Just then, Missy emerged from the greenhouse and into Annie embrace.

And like that, Annie’s face began to soften.

And her breathing began to slow.

As Katelyn mentioned recently, the relationship between Annie and Missy can be complicated at times. Thankfully for Annie, there are still times when it is predictably straightforward and simple. Because Annie is the kind of person that needs someone to lean on.

Still healing

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Negra has always worn her trauma on her sleeve.

The first time we met her, she wouldn’t even show us her face. She hid behind a solid metal panel at the end of a bank of four cages in the windowless laboratory basement that had been her home for years. The only part of her that we really saw that first day was her hand as she reached upwards through the food chute to beg for handfuls of peanuts.

When she arrived at the sanctuary she was inactive and socially withdrawn. She could be anxious around her caregivers and was prone to overreaction when touched. When she finally had the opportunity to go outdoors, she was reluctant and would often become overwhelmed with fear when she ventured too far outside.

I hate to admit it, but we always had low expectations for Negra. Some chimps retain their fighting spirit against all odds. Negra was spiritless. If we could just give her a year in sanctuary, we thought, it will have been worth it. Maybe she wouldn’t take advantage of all the new opportunities available to her, but she deserved to finally have the choice. It was a low bar but we were still afraid she wouldn’t reach it.

But she surprised us. Over the last ten years, she gradually became more social with her chimpanzee and human friends. She grew more accustomed to being touched, even allowing her caregivers to provide basic medical treatment. She has spent more time outdoors and ventured further and further into her habitat.

I don’t want to overstate the extent of her transformation. Negra still spends the majority of her time alone in bed, her head shrouded in a blanket for security. Negra’s progress, like Negra herself, has been slow.

But something unusual is happening right now. The pace of change has increased to the point where it seems like each day brings a new surprise, each one announced with excitement over the two-way radios:

“Negra was the first one outside this morning!”

“Negra is at the top of the hill!”

“Negra climbed to the top of the new structure!”

“Negra is wrestling with Missy!”

“Negra is playing with me!”

“Negra is spooning Jody!”

This morning, Diana called over the radio to say that Negra was playing with her in a way that was more typical of Burrito. See for yourself in the video above. This is the kind of thing we live for. Not because we enjoy playing with Negra (though we do), but because we’re excited to see her become more active, playful, and trusting. We love seeing her become more engaged with the world around her.

Why is this happening ten years after she arrived at the sanctuary?

There are a number of factors that enable chimps (and other animals, including humans) to recover from trauma. Things like agency, autonomy, a sense of safety and security, and a physical and social environment that allows for species-typical behavior are all critical. But one thing we mustn’t overlook is time. It took Negra 35 years to accumulate the traumas she experienced while being torn from her mother and her home, having her children ripped away from her again and again, being housed in tiny, barren cages, and being subjected to invasive experimentation. These memories, and the resulting patterns of behavior, can’t be undone overnight. And Negra will set her own pace.

Will these changes last? We don’t know. Negra has come out of her shell before only to retreat again. But for now we are going to play as much tug-of-war with this silly, seemingly care-free Negra as we can. And more importantly, we are going to enjoy watching her socialize more with her chimpanzee family and spend more time foraging on Young’s Hill.

Negra, troll dolls, and overcoming anxiety

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If you read J.B.’s blog post yesterday, you know that we’ve had quite an interesting development at the sanctuary. Negra, who normally ignores enrichment, has taken a shine to troll dolls, which up until now have been Foxie’s “thing.”

An unrelated fact that you may have noticed if you’ve been with us for a while is that Negra is not as often pictured participating in forages on Young’s Hill as the other chimpanzees. Sometimes Negra decides not to join the group on the hill for forages. We are not entirely sure why this is, and we are trying to figure it out right now (more on that later).

The new development today is that Negra took a troll doll with her to forage on the hill!

It certainly seems that Foxie is able to get comfort from her dolls that she carries everywhere – a kind of security blanket, and perhaps Negra is experiencing something similar with the dolls now.

This is a not-very-good photo of Negra, with the troll doll in her right hand as she is walking back to the greenhouse with a mouthful of lettuce:

Negra holding troll on young's hill

 

Here is Negra passing Foxie (her inspiration?). I like the way that chimpanzees, even when there is lots of room (like 2 acres), will go out of their way to have physical contact:

web_Negra_Foxie_pass_butt_forage_lunch_yh_dg_IMG_2045

 

I was excited to get this photo – you can see Negra’s hand around the troll and Foxie’s around a Dora as they walk in opposite directions:

hands holding dolls

 

One of the many things that I love about Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest is that all staff caregivers meet twice a month to talk about the chimpanzees and raise concerns or even just share stories. One of our recent topics has been Negra’s reluctance to participate in forages. For a while, every time that Negra did not forage with the group, we would give her a meal in the greenhouse or inside the building. But then it seemed that she wasn’t even considering going onto the hill, perhaps because she knew she would get her own private picnic. She does sometimes show anxiety about going on the hill, and we don’t want to cause her to miss lunch if she is responding out of genuine fear.

However, we do want to encourage all of the chimps to experience everything that the sanctuary has to offer, to get exercise, and to work on overcoming situations that might cause a little bit of anxiety. So, a few weeks ago we decided to try not giving Negra a private meal if she didn’t at least make a move to participate in the forage. This may be providing her the encouragement that she needed to join the group in foraging.

Negra eating lettuce

At our last meeting we decided to start recording the different factors that may be influencing Negra to choose whether or not to participate in forages on the hill. But now we might just have to add one – whether or not she has a troll doll with her!