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Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary for primates.

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bovines

Health Care for the Bovines

April 11, 2021 by Anthony

With the exception of the occasional snow flurries, we’re welcoming the arrival of spring here at the sanctuary.

For the small herd of rescued Jersey cattle that resides here, the onset of spring corresponds with green pastures for grazing and warm sunshine for sunbathing. They’re already nibbling at the carpet of new growth that has emerged from the muddy winter paddock and we’ve begun to catch them delving into the creek to eat the vegetation. Soon, we’ll open the path to the summer pastures so they can roam the hillsides on either side of the chimpanzee enclosures, grazing and napping the long days away until next winter.

The cattle grazing in the winter paddock… note that Meredith, as usual, is just a little out of step with the others!

The cattle may require less attention than the chimps, but they’re not entirely independent. In fact, they require a bit of maintenance, especially in the spring and fall. Each year, there are a few things that need to happen before the cattle can go on summer vacation.

First, we need to make sure the pasture grass is ready for cattle. Domestic cattle aren’t native here and turning the herd out to pasture too soon can damage the vegetation and terrain (and can also be harm their sensitive guts).

We also need to check the pasture fences and make sure nothing was damaged during the winter storms and freezes.

Then, we have to wean them off of the supplemental hay that we provision through the colder months.

Finally, we prefer to have their annual veterinary exams completed while they’re still hanging out in the winter paddock.

We’re gradually working our way down that checklist. Even though the pastures aren’t quite ready yet and we’re still giving the bovines a bale of hay each morning, we were able to do their annual exams last week.

To facilitate these procedures, we closed the cattle in the Bud Box and then did a quick exam on each individual before letting them back out into the larger paddock. Dr. Erin led the exams as J.B. and I took notes and provided a little extra muscle (although even the two of us are relatively useless when the rowdy patient weighs over a thousand pounds).

The routine exams consisted of full body check-ups, hoof inspections, annual vaccinations, and follow-up diagnostics related to any minor health issues that caregivers had previously documented (e.g. Meredith’s brief “ain’t doin’ right” in January). As usual, Dr. Erin worked quickly; even the tamest of domestic cattle don’t particularly enjoy being confined and restrained for very long, which can cause them to grow fractious in a hurry.

Fortunately, we successfully completed the essential tasks and the cattle resumed their normal routine almost immediately. In addition to our meticulous documentation of the exam procedures and findings, we also managed to take some quick snapshots to share with you all.

Nutmeg assists Dr. Erin
Honey waits patiently in the chute
Dr. Erin rewards Honey with some scratches
Dr. Erin cleans Nutmeg’s ears as we hold him steady with a halter

We’re happy to report that everyone looked great and seems to be in prime physical condition. (Nutmeg, especially, is the epitome of health and oozes masculine confidence. If you’re not yet convinced, check out some of our past blogs about him. You’ll be in awe of this majestic lad.)

Betsy
Honey

Now, the cattle only need their annual hoof trims and a little more growth in the pastures before they can resume their summer landscaping duties!

Filed Under: Cattle, Farmed Animals, Sanctuary, Veterinary Care Tagged With: animal rescue, animal rights, animal shelter, Animal Welfare, bovines, cattle, chimpanzee sanctuary, Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, Cle Elum, cows, dairy cows, farm animal sanctuary, jersey cattle, jersey cows, northwest, rescue, Sanctuary

Just a Couple of Wishes

December 10, 2020 by Anthony

What a week! Sunday was weird, Monday was better, and Tuesday and Wednesday were both busy and fun. It’s been another busy day of construction projects, produce shopping and delivery, routine cleaning and caregiving, and planning for the winter holiday season.

Speaking of which, we’d love if you all took a moment to consider purchasing something off of our holiday Wish List! Outreach Coordinator Kelsi curates the list and has added some special items. The additions include a new skateboard for Honey B, books for Jamie, fleece blankets for all the chimps, and hardware that will help us to furnish the new playrooms.

If the item you hope to donate is already purchased, there are always items such as dietary supplements, storage totes, cleaning products and office supplies that are equally important! I can’t speak for the other staff, but I get pretty stoked when people donate mundane items like wet erase markers and refills for the label printer. If you feel like making my day (or contributing to the welfare of the chimps), you can access the list directly by clicking here.

Additionally, we caregivers have two primary wishes that are not Prime items but are equally tangible: for all chimpanzees to reach their sanctuary homes and for all the sanctuary’s residents to stay happy and healthy.

Of course, this wish also applies to the bovines. As Katelyn mentioned on Monday, Meredith looked much better than the day before and her check-up went well, so we’re not too concerned but are still taking precautions.

To facilitate the health exam, we shifted the cattle into the Bud Box and then isolated Meredith in the narrow chute. Dr. Erin plays the role of “quarterback” during veterinary exams, managing the team and doing the specialized tasks that require her expertise. In this case, J.B. and I served as her assistants (and Chad also helped on a couple of occasions by promptly running some supplies up from the sanctuary’s vet clinic).

J.B. holds Meredith’s halter.
Erin listens to the activity in Meredith’s rumen.
Nutmeg sniffs the veterinary kit.

 

Frost covers the pasture and surrounding forests.
Meredith’s mother, Honey, watches attentively.

In summary, Dr. Erin did a full visual inspection, palpated and listened to Meredith’s gut, tested her reflexes and responses, collected blood and fecal samples for diagnostics, and used the opportunity to administer some preventative antibiotics. We then let Meredith back out with the herd and monitored her for further discomfort or difficulties.

Meredith peeks around the barn.

Since then, we’ve been frequently visiting the barn to check on Meredith and give her supplements. These include minerals, probiotics, electrolytes and anti-inflammatory meds. Surprisingly, though, Merry looks fantastic. She’s eating heartily, breathing normally, moving with the herd and laying down in the straw bedding at night. As happy as we are with this improvement, it makes her Sunday troubles even more mysterious. Dr. Erin and the staff are working to rule out some possibilities, but our initial diagnosis of “ain’t doin’ right” currently still stands. This whole thing loosely feels like a low-budget episode of House, M.D. where the team wears Carrhart overalls instead of lab coats.

The best part of the exam, however, was this series of opportunistic portraits that depicts Nutmeg showing affection for his mother, Betsy…

…to the point of being mildly annoying.

P.S. I took all of these photos with the new mirrorless camera and an 85mm portrait lens. A generous supporter purchased both of these items for us via the same Wish List I mentioned above. Consider it further evidence that your contributions help us to do our jobs!

 

Filed Under: Cattle, Enrichment, Sanctuary, Thanks, Veterinary Care, Wishlist Tagged With: animal protection, animal rescue, animal rights, animal sanctuary, Animal Welfare, bovines, cattle, chimp enrichment, chimp sanctuary, chimpanzee, chimpanzee rescue, chimpanzee retirement, chimpanzee sanctuary, Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, chimpanzees, csnw, Enrichment, jersey cattle, jersey cows, northwest, Primates, rescue, Sanctuary, veterinarian, veterinary, veterinary care

Bovine Thanksgiving

November 29, 2020 by Anthony

The sanctuary’s four rescued cattle have a pretty good life.

During the colder months, the bovines live in the winter paddock. Although it’s not as expansive as their full complex of pastures, this smaller area contains everything they need to stay happy and healthy. They have 24/7 access to fresh hay, heated water, and a couple of warm, straw-lined shelters. (Caregivers, on the other hand, have to muck these areas each day. That’s a story for another blog post.)

In the warmer seasons, they roam the grassy hillsides without much need for human interaction. You’ve probably seen a lot of this idyllic lifestyle on the blog. As with the chimps, we don’t always emphasize the barriers that contain these individuals, but we don’t want you to forget about them, either. The picturesque backdrops and dedicated caregivers cannot change that these four domestic cattle are living in captivity against their will. At times, it may even be necessary to confine them for their own safety. To offset the injustices of captivity, we are obligated to give them more freedom in whatever way we can, facilitating a lifestyle of relative comfort and choice.

For the cattle, the ability to roam around at will is paramount. Each winter, we typically keep the bovines in the paddock because the steep trails that lead to the other pastures turn into muddy slush. This slick terrain is not ideal for four Jersey cattle, so we close off the pastures to be safe. This year, we had to shut the gates in the middle of November, much earlier than we’d normally prefer.

Fortunately, the weather dried out and warmed up a bit last week; Thanksgiving brought us sunny and clear blue skies. While the chimps were napping off their holiday feast, we decided to open the swing gates to let the cattle back out onto their pastures.

When bovines get excited, they will trot, gallop and buck until they are content. The best time to see this behavior is when they get access to a new pasture. Even though it’s almost winter and it had only been a few weeks, they still seemed to appreciate having their familiar pastures once again.

P.S. Thanksgiving may be behind us, but there’s a lot to be excited about. In just a couple of days, we will be participating in Giving Tuesday and we have some exciting news to share!

Filed Under: Cattle, Farmed Animals, Latest Videos, Sanctuary, Thanks, Weather Tagged With: animal rescue, animal rights, Animal Welfare, bovines, cattle, chimp, chimpanzee, chimpanzee sanctuary, Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, chimpanzees, Cle Elum, cows, farm animals, jersey cattle, jerseys, Sanctuary

The Bud Box

November 22, 2020 by Anthony

Primates and Bovines

Most of our staff were, at one point or another, either primatology students at nearby Central Washington University (CWU) or interns at the university’s Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute. People are often surprised to learn that CWU students can specialize in primate behavior at the undergraduate, graduate, or professional certificate level. It’s quite the niche.

We sometimes joke about our research-oriented backgrounds whenever we catch ourselves doing strange tasks around the Chimp House (like fishing stray troll dolls out of the septic tank filter, perusing Amazon for Jamie’s next favorite picture book, or shoveling chimp-size paths through the snow on Young’s Hill). Irony aside, the people who use their Primate Behavior degrees exclusively for studying primate behavior are the true anomalies. The skills developed while studying primatology are widely applicable to a variety of different career paths, and most of us end up doing things we never even dreamed of when we were students.

This point was reiterated when I remotely interviewed for a caregiver position at CSNW. One of the topics that came up was that of cattle care, which is quite different from the other Chimp House duties and may have turned off some candidates. When J.B. asked if I had any familiarity with bovines, I responded that “I have never cared for cattle.” The phone went awkwardly silent for a second, and I quickly realized my strange wording suggested I didn’t like cows. Of course, I actually meant that I had literally never worked with them before, and I tried my best to convey that I was in no way prejudiced against cattle. In fact, I knew little about bovine health or behavior but was super stoked to learn.

Shifting For Safety

In some respects, taking care of chimpanzees is vastly different from managing domesticated animals such as cattle. Sometimes, though, the overlap is considerable. From my perspective, one similarity shared by all species is the tendency to not go where you want them to, making their care more difficult.

We’ve recently discussed the challenges of shifting chimps around the building so that we can safely unlock areas for cleaning. In some cases, such as Willy B’s epic filibusters in the Courtyard and the chute, we can make alternate plans that align with the chimps’ preferences. However, we don’t always have that luxury. On rare occasions, we encounter situations when we need the chimpanzees to leave an area for their immediate safety. These improbable events may be related to extreme weather, enclosure maintenance, or dangerous wildlife. In these critical moments, confused chimpanzees tend to pay less attention to their caregivers and are less likely to cooperate.

One example is that of Burrito’s rattlesnake encounter in Young’s Hill back in September. On that day, the chimps voluntarily came inside, letting us administer antivenom to Burrito and remove the snake from the habitat. In the weeks after, we prioritized recall training. To execute a recall, we invite the the chimps to return to the building, letting us close the doors in exchange for high-value treats. In a couple of cases, this proactive cooperation helped us to humanely relocate non-venomous snakes that had mistakenly found their way into the chimps’ outdoor enclosure. Once the warm weather returns in the spring, we will surely resume this training.

Note: We are frequently asked whether we intervene in fights by splitting the chimpanzees up. We usually do not. Separating a frenzied group of chimps during an altercation is extremely difficult since they are so focused on each other during these moments. They almost always resolve the conflict and reconcile without our assistance.

Other institutions do similar activities for the sake of their chimpanzee residents. At the closed Wildlife Waystation (from whence came Honey B, Mave and Willy B), caregivers are currently teaching the chimps to willingly shift into transport cages in case nearby wildfires threaten the facility again. This ongoing effort recently garnered some well-deserved media attention. As the sanctuary community works to re-home the remaining chimps, it’s good to know that their immediate wellbeing is still a top priority. When those chimpanzees make their way to accredited facilities like ours, hopefully they’ll be like Honey B and bring their cooperative attitudes with them.

The Bud Box

Of course, the chimpanzees aren’t the only CSNW residents who need this kind of training. The sanctuary’s four cattle are also managed using positive reinforcement, and training them to voluntarily enter a smaller corral is one of our top priorities. Plausible scenarios in which we would need to confine the cattle would be to address individual health concerns, to make repairs to the pasture fences, or to evacuate the herd due to a nearby wildfire. We also use a similar process to isolate them for their annual hoof trims and vaccinations. In all of these cases, the first step is to get them out of the larger pasture and into a smaller corral. From there, we herd them into an even smaller pen and then into a narrow chute that allows for safe handling. Cattle are naturally skeptical of anything that seems different (and for good reason), so anything we can do to familiarize them with this process has a positive effect on their welfare.

The key to all this is the Bud Box. Although it sounds like a monthly subscription service for cannabis enthusiasts, the Bud Box is actually a type of cattle pen named after its late inventor, Bud Williams. Bud’s design was (and remains) quite simple: a rectangular enclosure that has one or more outflows located near the main entry gate. Cattle will often turn back once they encounter a dead end, at which point they easily divert into a narrow chute for veterinary care or transport. This relatively cheap design is wildly effective and popular. J.B. built our sanctuary’s Bud Box shortly after the cattle arrived, and it’s already proving to be worth all of his hard work.

Source: Michelle Proctor, University of Missouri

As the above diagram shows, the Bud Box is designed to keep the cattle “flowing” into the chute without much human participation or promise of reward; their aversion to containment drives them through. Ideally, all the human operator has to do is close one gate and open another. Still, it can work better if the animals are familiar with the pen and relatively relaxed. Training is one way to achieve this.

Erin and I have been doing some Bud Box training recently. During these sessions, we put some of the bovines’ regular hay into the box and then briefly close them inside. Then, we open the side gate so they exit through the corresponding chute, receiving the rest of their hay as a reward. Afterwards, we leave the swing gate wide open so that they can re-enter the Bud Box for any leftovers. The following photos show a step-by-step record of the entire process (in case you want to try it with your beloved Jersey cattle at home).

1. With the swing gate open and the chute gate closed, we place an alfalfa/grass hay mixture into the Bud Box and call the cattle over.
2. The cattle come into the corral voluntarily and slowly walk toward the Bud Box. We close the pasture gates behind them.
3. Honey is the bravest. She takes a good sniff of the Bud Box before entering.
4. Honey settles and begins to forage.
5. More skeptical individuals tend to hang back. Meredith need a moment to observe her mother eating safely.
6. The number of cattle in the Bud Box suddenly doubles as Meredith joins Honey inside.
7. Betsy comes over, too.
8. Betsy begins to eat. Nutmeg is the last one to arrive.
9. Nutmeg needs to lick things.
10. With the cattle happily filling their bellies, I close the swing gate behind them.
11. Nom nom nom nom nom
12. Once they’ve eaten a bit, I open the side gate so they can exit via the chute.

13. Although they eagerly leave the Bud Box, they soon decide to go back to it and scarf down the remaining hay.

Our plan is to continue this training on a weekly basis until the cattle calmly enter the Bud Box and exit via the chute with only a tiny bit of coaxing. It may seem like a lot of work now, especially for a bunch of primatology nerds like us, but this training could prove invaluable if we ever have to round up the cattle in a hurry.

In the meantime, I think we all need to appreciate how awesome Nutmeg’s hairstyle is. This anatomical feature is actually an occipital protrusion called a poll, but I think it looks more like a messy man-bun. Either way, he rocks it.

Filed Under: Cattle, Farmed Animals, News, Training, Weather Tagged With: animal behavior, animal rights, animal training, Animal Welfare, animals, bovines, bud box, cattle, chimpanzees, cows, emergency management, jersey cows, livestock, positive reinforcement, ranching

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509-699-0728
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