Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

behavior

Contact

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Chimpanzees engage in close physical contact for a variety of reasons. They might be seeking reassurance, playfully tickling one another, or quietly grooming. If two chimpanzees haven’t seen each other in a while, they often embrace each other just as we would. But what I love most is seeing chimpanzees hug, kiss, or hold hands out of sheer joy or celebration. For the Cle Elum Seven, just being on Young’s Hill is still reason enough to celebrate

Jamie encounters Foxie on the hill and puts her arm around her friend:

Foxie responds by giving Jamie a “soft bite” on her back (this is a friendly behavior):

Foxie and Jamie run off with big smiles on their faces:

Later, Jamie walked by Jody, who was eating grass near the bamboo. Jamie stops and gives Jody and quick kiss:

Chimpanzee kisses are slightly different than human kisses. A chimp kiss usually involves a soft bite, often with the lips covering the teeth, and some breathy panting. When Jody moved to a different bamboo grove, she received a kiss on the arm from Foxie:

A dominant male chimpanzee usually accepts submissive greetings from subordinates like a king is greeted by a commoner. The subordinates are made (or choose?) to grovel, and the dominant male acts like he is being generous by allowing the subordinate to be in his presence. Burrito, however, is not dominant, and he lacks some rudimentary chimpanzee social skills. Rather than submit to the females or accept their submission, he usually closes his eyes and acts like he doesn’t even see them when they approach him. But sometimes Jamie won’t let him get away with that, and in this case she ran after him and grabbed his feet. While foot-grabbing is usually an invitation to play, in this case Jamie seemed to be forcing Burrito to simply acknowledge her friendly greeting.

Sometimes greetings are preceded by a lengthy introduction. Jody often greets Burrito in this manner – there is a lot of pant grunting and bobbing (bouncing up and down on all fours), and in Jody’s case even some soft pant-hooting, before the two ever make contact. In this clip, Annie waits for Foxie to approach and gives her an extended greeting:

Pure Joy

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I’ve been referring to the weather we’re having in Cle Elum as bi-polar. One minute it’s sunny and the next minute there’s a blizzard. Yesterday we caught an unexpected break – the forecast called for snow flurries, but it was a pretty mild day. As you saw from the video yesterday, Missy took full advantage of the spring-like weather and was, well… spring-like.

In addition to all of that video, J.B. also managed to get some photos of Missy and Annie playing on the hill. I probably don’t need to say this, but it is still such an amazing thrill for us at the sanctuary to watch the chimps on the hill. Each time they go out, they seem even more relaxed. Playing is now a regular occurrence, but it’s still all so new and exciting. Watching Missy with a play face wrestle with Annie makes me indescribably happy.

Missy looks like she’s going to do a pro-wrestling move on Annie:

Annie and Missy play on the hill 1

 

Annie returns with a play bite to Missy’s brow ridge:

Annie bit Missy's brow ridge play young's hill 2

 

Annie tries to give Missy the slip:

Annie Missy play young's hill 3

 

Missy grabs Annie’s fingertips:

annie missy play houng's hill 4

 

Later, Missy was sitting by herself behind a post on the hill:

Missy sit behind pole young's hill

 

Here’s a close-up of the photo above. That’s a happy chimp face:

close up missy behind post young's hill

What is natural?

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If you’ve been following our blog for a while, you know that we strive to post photos and videos of the chimps’ daily lives – everyday. We made a decision even before the Cle Elum Seven chimpanzees arrived that we wanted people to get to know who they were and what Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest is all about. We share every area of the sanctuary, even if there’s paint peeling in the shot (it’s so hard to get paint to stick when you clean as often as we do!). We want to let people in, and we want them to fall in love with Missy, Jamie, Negra, Burrito, Jody, Annie and Foxie as we have.

Working in a sanctuary and doing all of this sharing leads to some interesting questions about what “natural behavior” is for chimpanzees. It’s not the easiest question. Captivity itself is not “natural” for chimpanzees. We firmly believe that chimpanzees don’t belong in captivity. We’d love to see the day when sanctuaries like ours are obsolete because there are no more chimpanzees in laboratories, entertainment or in private homes – no more chimpanzees that need rescuing. In the meantime, we care for seven chimpanzees who have come from very unnatural and impoverished lives. They all have unique personalities shaped by their genetic makeup combined with their unusual and tragic past experiences.

The daily lives of the Cle Elum Seven are pretty different than what they would experience in their native habitat in Africa. All of the staff members have studied primatology, and we understand this. We use our knowledge of chimpanzee behavior to provide the chimps with what they need: a social group, room to roam, nesting material, enrichment to keep their minds occupied, choices, vertical space, the opportunity to exercise, a diet full of variety but focused on fresh fruits and vegetables, food forages to mimic what chimpanzees spend most of their time in the wild doing – looking for food, a routine so they know what to expect, and celebrations plus anything else we can think of to make each day unique.

I do worry sometimes that people might come across a photo like the one below that I took earlier today and not understand all of what I wrote above. I worry that, taken out of context, what we share might give people the wrong idea about chimpanzees and what Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest is all about. I’d love your thoughts on this issue.

Below is a very unnatural chimpanzee scene, unless it’s from a chimpanzee sanctuary in the NW of the United States in February, in which case it’s pretty normal.

Jamie licking peanut butter off of a pair of clown glasses while Jody and Foxie enjoy snow from a kiddie pool:

Jody, Jamie and Foxie around a pool full of snow

Copycat

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Jamie loves to take part in the human activities at the sanctuary. When we do our closing rounds at night, Jamie insists on having her own pen and clipboard so she can take part. When we clean, Jamie will often begin to scrub a part of her enclosure. And when I am building or repairing something, Jamie will sometimes use her plastic tools to make some repairs of her own.

Yesterday, we began collecting samples for routine fecal exams. Jamie watched intently as I scooped up a sample in a special container. I could tell that she wanted to participate, but I couldn’t spare one of the special containers, so I gave her a tongue depressor on my way out the door. Later that day, when Jackie went in to spot clean the enclosure, she found that Jamie had used the tongue depressor to collect her own stool samples…into the head of a troll doll.

I often hear people say that a certain chimpanzee behavior is not a sign of intelligence because they are simply mimicking human behavior. But I’ve noticed that the chimpanzees that mimic human behavior the most are often the best problem solvers and tool users as well. This makes sense when you think about it. Children spend years mimicking the behavior of adults without understanding their goals or intent, but in doing so they gain valuable skills and learn patterns of behavior that will be important to them later in life.

Jamie is certainly capable of solving problems through a flash of insight. Sometimes you can almost see the wheels turning in her head while she runs through the possible solutions to her problem. But those possible solutions are only available to her because she spends so much time observing and mimicking the behavior of humans and other chimpanzees.

So I think that copying should be given the respect it deserves. We’ll see if the laboratory feels the same way when they receive their next stool sample in the head of a troll doll.

 

Trouble on the hill

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It is getting very cold here in Cle Elum, but the sun is out and there’s no snow on the ground so the chimps continue to go out on the hill every day. Today, Jamie led Missy, Annie, and Jody on a walk through the bamboo.

Later, Jody was alarmed by something in the upper corner of the enclosure. Here you can see a great example of a fear grimace – what many people mistake for a smile.

Annie stayed back, but Jody was determined to go in for a closer look. She kept looking back for some support, but she was on her own.

The chimps love being able to roam across two acres, but at times like this I think it can feel a long way from the safety of their original sanctuary home.

She got as far as the bamboo grove but didn’t seem to have to courage to go any further; at least not without backup.

So she went back to the platform to be with Annie.