Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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Burrito

Happenings on the Hill

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Earlier this week, Burrito did some more exploring of Young’s Hill with Jody.

Jamie climbed to the top of one of the bouncy bridge posts.

Missy and Jody played chase.

Once Missy picked up the pace, though, Jody couldn’t keep up.

The biggest news of all is that Negra ventured out to check out her cabin yesterday. Luckily Jackie and Debbie captured these photos or I would have had a hard time believing it. She didn’t make it all the way inside the cabin, but it was a big first step for her. You just never know when Negra is going to switch things up and try something new.

We’re not the only ones that get excited when the chimps do something out of their comfort zone – the other chimps get excited too. As Negra sat by the cabin, she was greeted by a parade of her friends who came by to reassure her with hugs and kisses.

Busy hill

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Annie may have had Young’s Hill all to herself yesterday, but this morning JB managed to snap 5 of the 7 out there in one frame. Counterclockwise from the top, here’s Jody, Foxie, Missy (on the move, of course), Burrito, and Jamie. Negra was snuggled up in the greenhouse and Annie must have been just out of sight.

 

Mornings

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Mornings are my favorite time at CSNW. The chimps have had their breakfast and they are all geared up to go out and explore Young’s Hill. Unfortunately it is also the time when we clean the enclosures, so we don’t have much of a chance to sit around and watch them. But it’s amazing how much you can witness in just those first few minutes.

This morning, Foxie took a suitcase full of trolls out to the hill.

She later decided to put the trolls on her back as she walked down the hill, the way a chimp mother would carry her infant. As far as I know, three trolls was a personal record for her.

Missy likes to start the day with some athletic activity, especially this time of year. It’s no secret that January in Cle Elum is not perfect chimp weather, but interestingly enough, the Cle Elum Seven seem to prefer spring and fall to the hot summer months and we are actually seeing them go outdoors more now that the temperatures are in the 60’s.

Today, Missy used the handrail on the shaky bridge as a tightrope. This has become one of her new favorite moves. She’s holding a chow bag in these photos. We still supplement the chimps diet of fresh produce, nuts, seeds, and browse with a small amount of a commercially prepared diet. The manufacturer of the chow that we use recently decided to shrink the bicuits to a quarter of their original size, and now it is too cumbersome to serve them directly to the chimps. So we put them in bags. The chimps actually enjoy this, because they can take their chow out to picnic on the hill more easily. Or walk a tightrope with them.

There was a skirmish in the playroom this morning before breakfast. This is fairly typical, because that is the time of day when Burrito tends to display, and he inevitably gets everyone else so worked up that someone ends up mad a someone else. I didn’t see the conflict between Jody and Missy, but it was clear from their behavior later in the morning that they needed to reconcile.

Jody was coming back down the hill with her leftover lemon from breakfast when she saw Missy on the shaky bridge. (Yes, chimps love raw lemons. Raw onions too. We like to serve the lemons after the onions to freshen up the breath.) Jody immediately became pilo erect (hair standing on end) and approached Missy for reassurance.

The two then touched briefly and then Jody went on her way.

Negra came outside this morning but after a few minutes she decided she’d rather be in the greenhouse under a huge pile of blankets. Negra is not a morning person. She’s not really an afternoon or evening person, either. Really, she would prefer to stay in bed all day if she could. If only the staff would bring her meals to her in bed.

Burrito continues to explore more and more of the hill. He is really getting more comfortable out there. Today he climbed up a structure by himself and sat for a while on the end of a beam, taking it all in.

Here he is sitting on the log bridge, showing off some new scars on his wrist. Chimpanzees, especially male chimpanzees, use the back of their wrists to bang on things when they display, and sometimes to bang on other chimps. This is what primatologists refer to as a “backhand thump.” So many male chimps have thick callouses on the backs of their wrists and often some scabs and scars too.

I didn’t intend for this to be a post about each and every one of the chimps, but now I feel bad leaving Annie and Jamie out. Annie just followed Missy around all morning, as she always does, probably wishing that Missy would just sit still for a minute. But Missy is incapable of sitting still.

And Jamie was kind of a loner this morning. It used to be that Burrito would follow her around the hill. I think she enjoyed that. Not the company so much as getting to be the leader. Now Burrito will follow Jody or even venture off on his own as he did this morning. That left Jamie walking around by herself. But she had fun too. Everyone loves the shaky bridge. Maybe we’ll build some more next summer.

 

 

 

A leader and a follower

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Today was rainy so it was the perfect time to check out the new cabin! Missy and Annie both climbed around on it for a while, and Jody went inside to take a closer look:

A few moments later, Burrito was inside checking it out:

Later, he followed Jody all the way up to the top of Young’s Hill- a first as far as we know of! Apparently Jody was his inspiration on the hill today.

But then Burrito seemed to gain a little bit more independence and climbed up the treat rock.

Autumn on Young’s Hill

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I’m not sure when it happened, but autumn is here. The green summer grass on Young’s Hill has turned yellow and the temperatures have cooled a little. It’s hard to believe we’re approaching our second winter on the hill. As of now, though, the days are still warm, so the chimpanzees are enjoying lots of time outside. This morning we scattered chow (protein biscuits) on the hill to encourage some outdoor activity.

Annie:

Foxie brought a couple of troll dolls with her, including a blue-haired one that volunteer caregiver Katelyn gave her yesterday:

Missy:

Jody:

It really doesn’t get old seeing the chimps explore Young’s Hill as a group. For the most part, they seem comfortable enough out there now to split up, but occasionally they travel together. Here’s Jamie in the foreground, and Foxie and Burrito in the background approaching each other for a greeting:

In this photo Jamie is kissing Foxie’s back in greeting. This is a common greeting for Jamie and is often accompanied by a pant grunt vocalization. (Jamie often greets Burrito this way, much to Burrito’s horror – he’s still pretty intimidated by her.)

But he doesn’t let that get in the way of having a good time:

Burrito’s Choice

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Each day after cleaning the chimpanzees’ enclosures, we set out a couple of baskets of new enrichment (toys, magazines, clothing, blankets, etc.). Aside from a couple of obvious favorites – Jamie and her cowgirl boots, Foxie and her troll dolls – it’s somewhat hard to predict what will be of interest to the chimps. A few days ago Burrito grabbed these flamingo boxers (courtesy of volunteer Becca) and initiated some crazy play with his caregivers.

It’s important to distinguish Burrito’s play with these boxer shorts from chimpanzees you might see in movies or on TV wearing clothes. Chimpanzees who “work” in the entertainment industry are often duct-taped into clothing and forced, through physical intimidation or abuse, to perform. (Check out Executive Director Sarah’s informative blog post on this topic here.) Burrito, on the other hand, is not forced to do anything. We work every day to give Burrito and the rest of the Cle Elum Seven as much choice as possible, and we love to see what choices they make.