Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

behavior

Be Still My Heart

by

It’s appropriate to get really mushy because it’s Valentine’s Day tomorrow, right?

I am going to share something I love about each of the chimpanzees below, but first I need to get mushy about you – Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest supporters.

First, a confession: fundraising has not been my life’s ambition. I’ve met people who I might call “born fundraisers,” and I can definitively say that they posses qualities that I  simply do not.

However, the more I do this fundraising thing, the more I appreciate what a unique and special position I am in. I get to make dreams come true – dreams for the chimpanzees, and dreams for donors who support the chimpanzees. We are all very much in this together, with the same goals for the future, and I feel that connection when I talk to those who support the sanctuary.

Not many people have a job that is so fulfilling, and very few people have a job with so much positive feedback. Katelyn and I were talking about this in the office the other day – we regularly have people call or email to not only make a donation, but also to say that they love the work we are doing and appreciate us sharing stories of the chimpanzees, allowing them to feel connected to the chimps as the individuals who they are.

Thank you for being supportive and for sharing your love with the chimpanzees – and with the humans too!

Speaking of which… as I write this, we are just $1,797 away from reaching our $12,000 goal for the Share the Chimp Love fundraiser, which ends at the end of the day tomorrow. UPDATE: big thanks to Julie L. for donating exactly $1,797 after this post was published!

If you are feeling the love, but haven’t yet made a donation, you can share that love now on this page.  You can choose to spread the love even further by donating in honor of someone else for Valentine’s Day, or just make a donation for the love of Annie, Burrito, Foxie, Jamie, Jody, Missy, and Negra.

Below are just some of the things that I love about each of the chimpanzees at the sanctuary.

It would be so fun for me if you also shared what you love about Annie, Burrito, Foxie, Jamie, Jody, Missy, and Negra in the comments!

 

I love ANNIE’s serenity:

web_Annie_lie_on_back_deck_blanket_hold_feet_GH_kh_IMG_1241

web_Annie_lie_on_back_deck_blanket_hold_feet_eyes_closed_GH_kh_IMG_1245

and her bird noises!

 

I love when BURRITO’s “chimpanzeeness” really comes through (for the full explanation of the video below, see this blog post from 2013 when it was originally published):

 

I love FOXIE’S “happy toes” (video from 2010):

 

I love JAMIE’s brave leadership:

 

I love JODY’ nesting skills:

 

I love MISSY’s ability to entertain herself:

 

I love NEGRA’s playful moments (video from 2011):

 

Thank you again for being a part of Sharing the Chimp Love!

Layout 1

Jody Harvesting in the Greenhouse

by

As Katelyn mentioned in her post the other day, Jody is known as Jody the Harvester.

Though we have been having a very mild winter, there isn’t much new to harvest on Young’s Hill yet. Today, instead, Jody turned her harvesting attentions to the Christmas tree.

We’ve been getting a lot of use out of that Christmas tree – using it to hide goodies during various foraging parties. It’s in a big pot right now in the Greenhouse, and we are hoping to plant it on the hill in the spring, but we weren’t sure if the chimps would allow it to survive until we can plant it.

For the most part, they’ve ignored it, aside from getting treats out of it during parties. Every once in a while, however, Jody decides to take a few samples:

Jody harvesting the Christmas tree

Jody biting tree

Jody holding tree bit

Jody inspecting tree bit

Jody eating tree bit

Jody eating tree bit

Jody inspecting tree bit

Jody eating tree bit

Lazy forage

Snuggling up with blankets: A retrospective

by

This post may reflect what I would like to be doing on this cold and damp day…

In any case, below are some photos – some oldish and some newish – of the chimpanzees getting snuggly with blankets. We give out at least 60 blankets a day. Sixty is a somewhat arbitrary number, but it’s based on the amount that we can successfully get washed in a normal day with our current washer. We (and the chimps) like fleece blankets, because they are very comfy and the wash and dry fast and easy.

As you probably know, Negra is never far from a blanket, and she often has one draped over her head and/or shoulders:

negra under red blanket 1

The photo above is on the holiday card available for purchase in our Zazzle merchandise store!

 

Negra blanket covering body

 

Missy sometimes “imitates” Negra’s blanket style, even nesting in Negra’s usual spots:

Missy under blanket

Always the athlete/acrobat, however, Missy incorporates interesting moves when she is nesting. For the full nesting sequence the  photo below was taken from, see this post:

missy headstand in nest

 

Jamie also occasionally sports a blanket over her head when nesting:

Jamie blanket over body

though she often chooses a sheet instead of a blanket for the job:

Jamie under sheet eyes closed

 

Jody is known for her nest making (she also likes straw nests – see this video from 2009 as an example):

Jody nesting

I don’t think I’ve ever seen Jody with a blanket over her head, but she still looks darn cozy when she’s curled up in her blanket nest:

Jody sleeping

 

Annie is also a nest builder, and can frequently be found gathering nesting material and moving it to another area:

annie carrying blanket

Once she’s made her nest to her liking, she always strikes me as very satisfied:

Annie nesting

 

Burrito and Foxie are not much into building nests. Though nesting has a strong instinctual component, it seems there is a period of learning involved. Both Burrito and Foxie do mostly what we call “phantom nesting.” Once in a while, Foxie will actively nest with blankets:

Foxie in nest

but more often than not, she has a more passive relationship with all of the blankets we give out:

Foxie on blankets

 

Burrito is also more on the passive side of the spectrum when it comes to nesting, though he does like to snuggle up, particularly when someone else has done the work of making the nest:

Burrito on blanket

 

web Burrito nest paper tutu playroom DSC_0069

 

Let us not forget, blankets are not just for nesting, but can also be great props when playing too:

Burrito clutching blankets playing

web_Burrito_bipedal_fling_blanket_bite_toy_ghost_enrichment_play_initiation_GH_ek_IMG_9086

ghost play

Burrito blanket play

I hope this inspires you to get snuggled up in your own nest tonight, or maybe play a game of ghost with a friend?

So Like Themselves

by

This morning I was contemplating how we as humans view chimpanzees and how my own views of chimpanzees have changed after getting to know many different personalities. And then I got to the computer and saw these photos that J.B. had taken this morning while strolling with Jamie and Missy.

I know most of you reading this already know how seriously we take safety, but for those who might be reading for the first time, I like to make sure it’s clear that J.B. was safely on the outside of the double electric fence when he took these photos.

No fence, however, prevents us from taking part in the lives of the chimpanzees – Jamie insists on her human caregivers joining in her strolls. And Missy sometimes comes along for the exercise, fun, and companionship too.

Today, Missy got an extra surprise – Jamie’s Halloween / birthday bag that was left at the top of the hill yesterday (see the Jamieween video for reference).

Jamie and Missy walking

Missy and Jamie walking

Missy standing up

Jamie and Missy

Missy looking in bag

After taking a look in the bag, I’m guessing Missy ran down the hill at breakneck speed – not because of what she saw, but because this is what she likes to do. She sometimes joins Jamie in strolling down the perimeter, but Missy’s speed is usually on “fast,” and she really enjoys running down from the very top of the hill, leaving us slower folks in her dust.

Jamie, on the other hand, makes sure that her human walking partner is keeping up:

Jamie looking back

 

Walking around the hill is perhaps Jamie’s greatest pleasure. This is the face of contentment:

Jamie looking awesome

Many people, when first learning about chimpanzees, are in awe of how similar they are to humans. And, in fact, many behavioral researchers have spent years comparing chimpanzees to humans in so many ways – language ability, counting prowess, puzzle-solving, teamwork, etc, etc, etc. I think this is what first interested me in non-human great apes. And it still does. It’s remarkable to see Jamie communicating her desires with her human caregivers using gestures, using a (plastic) screwdriver, drawing with a ball point pen, playing with an iPad, and many other activities that she enjoys. And their similarities don’t end on the individual level – observing the social interactions of chimpanzees often really does resemble watching a human reality show – strong personalities and lots of drama.

But what I like most about chimpanzees now, and I think what more and more people are being drawn towards, is their chimpanzee-ness. It’s true that they are so like us, and we, in turn, are so like them, but what they are even more like is themselves, and that’s what makes them fascinating, wonderful, and deserving of protection.

Grooming is so cool

by

We’ve talked about the importance of grooming among chimpanzees before, and it’s pretty well known what an essential aspect of life grooming is for most primates. Below is a video of very good friends Burrito and Foxie grooming, with Missy (off-camera), occasionally also grooming Burrito.

There’s a lot of cool things about grooming. In a comment on a post back in 2009, I mentioned some of the following:

The basics: aside from the social aspects, grooming is the removal of dirt and debris and the tending to wounds (licking and picking scabs). It’s why chimpanzees don’t need baths – they do a really good job of cleaning themselves and each other – no water necessary.

The debris found on the grooming partner is not necessarily consumed, even though the lips are usually involved in grooming because chimpanzees use their prehensile lips, almost like another set of fingers, for many activities like inspecting objects, turning the pages of a magazine (in captivity), and especially in grooming.

Increased grooming often occurs after a conflict to reassure and/or “make up” with one another and to cement social bonds. Grooming has a calming affect, which is easy to see when you observe chimpanzees grooming one another. A study of wild chimpanzees that used non-invasive methods to collect urine samples after grooming bouts found that oxytocin (sometimes referred to as “the love hormone”) levels were higher in bonded grooming partners than in samples collected of chimpanzees who had not been grooming or had been grooming with a “non-bond partner.”

Regarding lip movements during grooming: it is common for chimpanzees, as well as other primates, to “lip smack” or “teeth clack” or make other “sympathetic mouth movements” when grooming (also when performing other fine motor behaviors – like many of us who move our tongue a certain way when we’re really concentrating on a task).

Each chimpanzee does his/her own thing, Burrito is a lip smacker (he may teeth clack on occasion too), Foxie is a teeth clacker, and Annie makes raspberry sounds with her lips. The intensity of the mouth movement/noise will increase if something (especially a wound or scab) is found during grooming.

Some scientists have hypothesized that these sympathetic mouth movements were an evolutionary step towards spoken language. Our friend Gabriel Waters and [former] Central WA University professor Dr. Fouts published a study on this theory a few years back: http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=1349990, and there was a book with this premise called Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language, which I admittedly still need to read, that argued that gossip for humans is what grooming is for chimpanzees and other non-human primates.

So, with all that information, here’s the video of Burrito and Foxie strengthening their friendship through grooming today:

 

Everybody Nest Now

by

I recorded several clips of happy nesting today. Like wadging, which was the subject of yesterday’s blog post, nesting is a fundamental behavior for chimpanzees both in the wild and in captivity, which is why we make sure that the chimps always have lots of materials (blankets and straw are favorites) so they can choose to create their beds no matter where they are. Watch the video below!

Nature without nuture

by

Burrito is a male chimpanzee.

web Burrito sit on beam YH structure IMG_3398

You may not be all that familiar with chimpanzees, but if you’ve ever known a male human being, you’ve pretty much got Burrito figured out. Because if there’s one thing us guys share above all else, it’s that we are compelled by forces beyond our control to do stupid things.

I like to think that each male chimp has a little devil on his shoulder that whispers bad advice into his ear all day long:

Hey – since everyone’s asleep right now, wouldn’t this be the perfect time to throw this barrel across the room and make a lot of noise?

Pssst…you know what really impresses girls? When you hit them on the back of the head.

I bet the caregiver will give you extra food if you spit a little of it back in her face.

web_crop_Burrito_pant_hoot_face_pilo_display_PR_ek_IMG_6384

Don’t get me wrong…the little devil is not all bad. Chimpanzee society is organized into a dominance hierarchy, and you need the little devil to help you stake out your place. But the trick is to keep him under control. Over time, most male chimps learn that they can ignore him once and a while, or at least limit his influence. When they are young and they act inappropriately, they get reprimanded by their mothers or put in their place by the adults in the group. And at the same time, they learn to model their behavior after the adult males in their community so that they can harness all of that testosterone effectively. But what happens when you are raised without a mother or without any other chimpanzees at all?

When Burrito first came to the sanctuary, he seemed genuinely surprised when the girls got mad at him. He would fly around the room like a Tasmanian devil during his displays and when they began to react, he would push it even farther until they all ganged up on him. Afterwards, he would lay by himself and nurse his wounds, with a pathetic Why me? look on his face, as if he had been minding his own business when the girls just spontaneously attacked him.

web crop burrito facial expression fear excitement yh IMG_3609

There are all sorts of subtle interactions between chimps that keep their society running smoothly. For example, when a subordinate chimp submits to a dominant chimp, the dominant chimp accepts this submission by extending a hand to be kissed, or reaching his arm around them for reciprocal grooming. But Burrito never learned how to be a chimp and these social situations seem to make him nervous, so he has developed an alternative strategy: close your eyes and pretend nothing is happening. Not surprisingly, this doesn’t work very well.

web Burrito_sit_eyes_closed_climbing_structure_gh_dg_IMG_4556

In a way, Burrito is like a kid that never grew up, and adult behavior just doesn’t make sense to him. He knows that he wants to be dominant – that it’s his rightful place to be dominant – but he can’t quite figure out how to make it happen. So he has been stuck in limbo. Strong enough to be feared, but not wise enough to be respected.

Every once and a while, you get a little glimpse of that male chimp swagger, and you start to think that he may just figure this whole alpha thing out after all.

web_ed for auction poster burrito pilo youngs hill IMG_9683

But I wouldn’t hold my breath…

web_burrito_toy_in_mouth