Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Burrito

Mirror Mania

by

Chimpanzee intelligence is well-known and a specific aspect of their intelligence that I find particularly fascinating is their awareness of self as separate from others, or ‘theory of mind’. A classic experiment used to test for theory of mind in animals is the mirror test whereby a mark is placed on the face or some other body part of an animals and then they are presented with a mirror. If the animal notices the mark and reaches towards their own face instead of the one in the mirror, this indicates that they are aware that the image in the mirror is themself and not another animal. This works on a number of species we all recognize to be intelligent like elephants, dolphins, and the great apes while, interestingly, other nonhuman primates like monkeys, will fail this test. Human children typically begin to pass the mirror test around the age of two.

I’ve always enjoyed watching chimpanzees look at themselves in the mirror. Some are more interested than others in their own reflections, usually picking at marks or scabs on their face and head, opening their mouths to inspect their teeth and tongue, and sometimes making faces at themselves. Are they amused? Are they curious? What’s happening in those minds?!

To celebrate this endearing behavior, I’ve decided to put together a compilation of photos and videos of the chimps at CSNW looking at their own beautiful faces. Enjoy!

The Thing About Honey B

by

The thing about Honey B is that she is amazing. Honey B is funny, she is quirky, fierce, mischievous, very opinionated, and not afraid to show you how she feels. My favorite part about Honey B is her humor. She’s never afraid to be herself at any point in time whether she is cracking her caregivers up or secretly getting into something she is not suppose to.

While she recovers we are working hard to keep her brilliant mind occupied, but as you have seen in the video or any of the video of Honey B, she has no problem keeping herself busy!

Ohhh! Wait! Before you go. You can now purchase the winning photo of Burrito, “Hey Girl” canvas, on merchandise website!

How to Entertain a Chimpanzee

by

First up, here is your Honey B update! Despite our best attempts to keep her attention away from her healing eyelid and occupy her time with other activities, she did open up her incision slightly yesterday. Dr. Erin assessed her and for now, we are waiting to see how it continues to heal and consulting with other experts to be sure we have the best plan in place for her. We continue to provide her with extra enrichment, and today one of her enrichment devices doubled as enrichment for the humans who created it.

We have had a large cardboard tube in the Chimp House for the past several weeks without a use for it. Today it found its purpose! We drilled some holes in the tube, added chain through the tube, and clipped it to the caging of Honey B’s room. We added some of her favorite things to the inside of the tube (popcorn, shelled peanuts, raisins) and raspberries to some of the holes to peak her interest. We gave her a bamboo stick as a tool and sat back to see what she did with it.

The idea was that the small snacks would fall through the drilled holes when the tube rolled around the chain, and Honey B would use her bamboo stick to pull the snacks to her. Well…that’s not exactly what happened. To no one’s surprise, Honey B outsmarted our plan! She was able to tap and tip the tube in such a way that the majority of the snacks fell out of either end, so it did not take as long as I had thought it would to finish the puzzle. I would like to create a reusable version of this for everyone with PVC one day, and Honey B has helped me to identify some flaws in my plan! Thank you for the design assistance, BeeBee!

It was a very good day around the sanctuary today. It is warmer here today (not warm…but warmer!). Negra enjoyed a nap in her nest in the greenhouse which was quite cozy with the heater going. Her group enjoyed eating some of the remaining snow, which is now a perfect snow cone texture. Burrito loved looking at himself on my phone and was especially fascinated by his own tongue.

I feel so fortunate to be able to share in these moments with the chimps, and to get to share them with you all. I hope your Saturday has been just as good as ours!

 

Snow cones, Squeegees, and Smarty pants, oh my!

by

It is another cold day here at the sanctuary! The chimps spent their day with extra projects provided by caregivers to keep them occupied since outdoor activities were off the table for the day given the very cold temperatures. For the most part, this included things like adding seeds to their daily forage for them to search for inside, and providing flavored snow made with fresh snow and sugar free juice. But, as you will see in the video for today, Honey B quickly created her own project, and showed off her tool use skills and determination in the process. Her group enjoyed watching her work, and reaped the rewards when trading parts of her contraband back to caregivers for extra snacks!

Jamie’s group had a more laid-back kind of snow day with lots of relaxing in fabulous blanket nests, eating their flavored snow, and playing together with both caregivers and each other. Enjoy some photos from the day below!

Jamie and Burrito enjoying flavored snow

Burrito, Missy, and Jamie eating flavored snow

Burrito, Jamie, and Missy eating flavored snow

 

And some bonus photos from today…

A VERY handsome Cy Chimpanzee!!

Bubba’s Bouncy Ball!

by

Enriching chimpanzees is hard work. We have particular guidelines to ensure that the chimps will not consume something unsafe and that the item of enrichment cannot harm them. Sometimes, we think an enrichment item will be so perfect, only for it to arrive and realize it was made of a material the chimps can’t have. Caregiver Chad did a lot of research on the Jolly Ball that we wanted to give to Burrito on his birthday, but when it arrived it was leaning towards a little to soft of plastic to give to the chimps. However, this morning we were discussing how we knew he would love it soooo much! We decided that we could keep a close eye on the Jolly ball and that if it was destroyed we could remove it. When we showed Burrito his belated birthday present his eyes lit up! Once their group was invited back into their freshly cleaned Playroom, Burrito immediately grabbed it. He was beaming with joy. I think you will all be pleased to know that the ball is still alive and well!

This is a screen grab from the video. I know the quality of the photo might not be great, but it might be the best part of the whole video!

Burrito’s Big Birthday Bash!

by

Yesterday, our dear Burrito turned 41. Can you believe it? To me, Burrito personifies youth, playfulness, & goofyness, so it’s hard to imagine that he is a day over 21.

We adore our dear Burrito for so many reasons, not the least of which being the fact that after just a few moments with him you’re smiling- no matter what kind of mood you were in beforehand. It’s like he is his own scientific principle and instead of Newton’s Law, it’s Burrito’s Principle: Emotions other than happiness cannot exist in the presence of Burrito.

Burrito’s back story makes us appreciate his reliably happy disposition even more, I think. Burrito was born in a lab in 1983 and used in research when he was just over a year old. Then, he was moved and used as a ‘house chimp’ before being leased out to an animal act. He spent one year outside of the lab before being sent back into research.

His story, like many others, is hard to hear and, often, hard to reconcile with the chimp that I know today. He greets me in the morning with a game of chase, then throughout the day he has a caregiver or two race him around Young’s Hill, then play a game of tug-of-war. All between grooming with his chimp family, watching his neighbors, and the other shenanigans he gets into throughout the day. Knowing what he has been through and seeing who is he today is a privilege and we owe it to him to share his story (and his joy) with as many people as we possibly can.

So, in honor of Burrito and all he is, we celebrate him every chance we get!

Yesterday, staff and volunteers put together a big birthday bash that included snow cones (with fresh fallen snow!), slinkies, giant kongs, coconuts, a Young’s Hill forage, TV time, and a special dinner of spaghetti with special sauce of sweet potato, red pepper, avocado (and love, of course).

Check out the video for the full party and don’t forget to vote for Burrito’s photo contest! It ends tomorrow, January 8th at 6:00pm!

 

Burrito’s Birthday Bash in Photos:

Burrito’s birthday wouldn’t be complete without Giant Kongs and Slinkies (and snow-cones)!

The sun came out for a bit, so Burrito’s group enjoyed a lunch forage on Young’s Hill:

Annie (back), Negra (middle), Burrito (front)

Everyone got into the party spirit!

Jamie enjoyed her spaghetti on her table:

Negra:

Burrito Photo Contest!

by

Can you believe Burrito is about to turn 41 years young on January 6th? Sometimes I forget because it feels like his energy is never-ending. Every day we are so grateful for Burrito’s presence. He brings such a light to our lives with his easy-going, fun-loving personality. Life with Burrito is always full of laughter and joy. In celebration of Burrito’s 41st birthday we will be having a photo contest to have you all pick your favorite photo of Burrito, we will then be selling the photo with the most votes. I know we all want a photo of Burrito in our homes! We will post the contest every day on the blog, so you can vote once per day and you are welcome to vote for more than one photo! The contest ends on January 8th at 6:00 p.m. PT.

Bonus!

Not everything got delivered in time for Chimpmas. Jamie got to open her new boots today and was soooo happy! I mean look at them, who wouldn’t be:

She built a giant nest for her and her boots to nap in and seemed very content the rest of the day:

Burrito spying on the neighbors at lunch:

There were a few extra photos of Rayne and Cy from Saturday:

Don’t forget to vote!