Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Missy and Foxie were having a pretty good time in the greenhouse while the humans were cleaning the playroom today. I took so many photos that I decided to try something new – see the full visual story of their play session in the small photos below.
Burrito and Debbie had a fun game of chase going this morning, with Debbie running on the outside of the chimp building where the garden is, and Burrito running inside from window to window. At one point in the game, Burrito generously shared a little bit of his water.
Jamie played a bit too, but she mostly wanted Debbie to pick her something from the garden.
I do not jest
Jody loves to nest
For chimpanzees a nest is a bed
A place to put a heavy head
It’s a joy everyday to create a spot to lay
with blankets,
paper,
or hay
Sanctuary for Jody is the best rest
It’s a literal nest fest
Every once and a while, our neighbor’s horses escape their pastures and come over to the sanctuary. I like to watch the look on their faces when they see the chimps for the first time. It goes from interested to confused to frightened in about five seconds.
I think the chimps enjoy engaging in territorial behavior from time to time. CSNW is different than most other chimpanzee sanctuaries in that we have only one group and they are together at all times. They never see or hear other chimpanzees and therefore they rarely have a reason to defend their territory as a group or to patrol the boundaries of their enclosure. But occasional visits from wild deer, stray dogs, and escaped horses and cattle keep them on their toes.
Jamie, being the alpha that she is, seems to live for this kind of thing.
As we’ve mentioned before, grooming is an important aspect of chimpanzee culture. Between lunch and dinner in the afternoon is probably the most popular time for grooming among the Cle Elum Seven.
Even though she’s the boss, Jamie is not always the center of grooming. Missy grooms Jamie fairly often (see some photos from about a year ago on this blog post).
But Burrito is a less frequent grooming partner to Jamie.
Today Burrito and Missy were both grooming Jamie at the same time as they all sat in front of one of the windows on the catwalk of the playroom.
Burrito kept looking at me while I was taking photos.
It’s amazing how much Burrito has changed in his time here at the sanctuary. When Burrito arrived, he was afraid of everything. And who could blame him…he was taken from his mother shortly after birth, put into a biomedical research study as an infant, then raised as a pet in someone’s home, and then sent off to perform in a circus. After all that, he was forced to spend 20 years in a lab cage as a hepatitis vaccine research subject. He never learned to be a chimp, and that left him with an extreme lack of confidence in social situations. But he has grown so much over the past four years.
This morning, the chimps rushed out onto Young’s Hill to face off with a dangerous intruder. OK…it wasn’t so much a dangerous intruder as it was a couple of puppies barking from our neighbor’s property. But the chimps were on high alert! In the past, Burrito might have hung back and let Jamie and some of the other girls take care of things. But this morning, Burrito was determined to be part of the team.
For Burrito, this was not the most comfortable situation. First, he had to venture to the very top of Young’s Hill, an area he has only been to a couple of times. Second, he had to do this with everyone else in a state of high arousal. When chimps are in a state of high arousal, group dynamics can be fluid and unpredictable. Aggression towards someone else can easily be directed back at you if you aren’t careful.
Burrito seemed determined not to let that stop him. But before he went up the hill, he needed some reassurance, which Missy was happy to provide.
This is a typical reassurance interaction. Burrito stands bipedal and waits for Missy to approach. The two hug, and then quickly extend their arms over each other and groom each others backsides.
After the barking stopped, Burrito continued to walk around the top of the hill. When he needed more reassurance, Foxie was there to give him a hug.
It’s important to note that reassurance like this is not just hugs and kisses between friends. When Burrito is in a state of high arousal, he is a loose cannon. In addition to lending their friend a helping hand, the girls are trying to diffuse a potentially dangerous situation.
A calm Burrito is in everyone’s best interest.
First – there’s still time to shop until your heart’s content at many fabulous businesses that are giving 10% of their proceeds to the Sanctuary Century 100-mile charity bike ride in Portland that will benefit Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, Hope Animal Sanctuary and Out to Pasture Sanctuary. Lots of the participating businesses are online, so there’s no excuse not to blow some money on chocolate, vegan food-stuffs, clothes, jewelry and more. If you’re on Facebook, go to the Sanctuary Century 10% Fundraiser Day event page and hit “more” to see the list of participating businesses. If you’re not on Facebook, you can see a not-quite-complete list of businesses on this announcement from Herbivore Clothing Company. You can also just make a straight-up donation here: http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/TheSanctuaryCentury/thesanctuarycentury2012
Now that you’ve shopped or are getting ready to shop or donate, below are some precious photos from today of J.B. interacting with Negra. It’s a very special occurrence to have these tender moments with Negra because she is the least interactive with her caregivers and often does not like to be touched.
We respect Negra’s wishes and only touch her when she asks to be groomed, which the chimpanzees do by pushing their bodies against the caging. We are big fans of safety at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, and we only do physical interactions with the chimps that do not put ourselves in a position to be bitten or grabbed, so that means that our fingers (or anything else attached to us, for that matter) never enter the fencing when the chimps have access to the other side.
Negra was really enjoying this attention from J.B., as you’ll see from the three photos below. The chimps know the rules as well as we do, so they know what to expect when a human (only trained caregivers!) touches them, and they choose which parts of their body to present. They have each other for the big hugs and intense grooming sessions that help keep them a cohesive group of chimpanzees – they don’t rely on or need us for that.
We’ve mentioned “getting kisses” from the chimps before. You can see what we mean by this in these two photos. You’ll notice that the only parts of J.B.’s body that he is letting Negra kiss are his elbow and the the back of his hand, and Negra sticks her lips out of the fencing in order to touch J.B., making things safe. This also allows Negra to invite J.B. to be kissed by putting her lips outside of the fencing, so we know when she’s looking for that kind of interaction and when she isn’t. Negra was giving J.B. some pretty long kisses today. Eventually, I felt like I might be intruding on a personal moment between them, so I decided to take the camera and let them have their privacy.
