Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

caregivers

Good Morning Cardio

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Over the course of the years, you may have seen some of the videos posted by other caregivers of them greeting the chimpanzees in the morning. Most of those videos include head nodding, breathy panting, kisses, grooming, etc. Nice slow and calm morning greeting one could expect. But not all caregivers are greeted in the morning the same way. My mornings usually consist of some kind of cardio activity.

Note: The video has been sped up as to not allow the video to stay in it’s nearly 20 minute length it was. I was going to add some music to accompany the video, but I think it’s better with the pitter patters and chimpmunk (see what I did there) voices. And if you’re looking at the time stamps of the footage, the time stamps are different by an hour. This is because there are two security camera systems. From time to time they have to be calibrated so the times can sync up. It was when find this footage I realize I had forgotten to calibrate them after Daylight Savings Time. (They’re sync’d now.)

 

Chimp-Specific Vocalizations

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Chimpanzees have a variety of vocalizations: some to warn their group members of potential danger, some when they’re excited, some when they’re anxious or scared, some when they’re happy, playing, or greeting someone… In the captive world, the chimpanzees also use vocalizations to express their specific needs/wants to their caregivers. As CSNW caregivers, we have been conditioned to know what certain vocalizations are, based on who they come from and what the context is.

For today’s blog, I have compiled 6 of the top sounds you would hear from our chimp residents and I explain their special meaning.

Enjoy!

To Shift or Not To Shift

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Shifting occurs when caregivers are moving the chimps out of one space and into another, in order to clean the enclosures. We shift the chimps every morning, two to three different times so that we can clean every space. Our cleaning routines typically stay the same so that the chimps know what to expect. However, one of the many beauties of sanctuary is the fact that we don’t have a true schedule of where the chimps have to be at certain times (such as a zoo, where they may need to be on exhibit by a certain hour). While we have an ideal daily cleaning schedule in mind (typically from 9:30am-1pm), the chimps can say yes/no to our plans at any time.

After our first round of cleaning, we always put out a forage with greens (cabbage, lettuce, sometimes radicchio). While the chimps love greens, sometimes the forage alone isn’t motivation enough to shift. As we have discussed in many blogs before, Honey B is probably our #1 hold out (meaning she is less likely to shift with her group than anyone else), Negra is probably in the number 2 position, with the occasional Foxie, Dora, and Mave as runners up. While the cleaning day certainly goes by faster if all the chimps shift on-time, we don’t force anything. If Honey B doesn’t want to shift with her group, for example, she isn’t required to, and we will work around her while she hangs out alone or with team Mora when they occasionally don’t shift. Negra, on the other side of the chimp house, also has days where she prefers to stay in her warm, cozy Greenhouse nest and won’t shift back into the Playroom so we can clean the Greenhouse. Again, that’s okay and we will try at another time or the following day. Surprisingly, despite all of these ladies who always seem to question, “To Shift or Not To Shift?”, we manage to clean every space the majority of days!

The only times that we would absolutely need them to shift is in emergency situations, such as a rattlesnake or unusual bad weather. In emergency situations, caregivers would bring out high value foods (e.g. grapes or berries) to get the chimps attention and ask them to move to x enclosure or to vacate x enclosure (depending on the situation). We practice recalls regularly, so the chimps are familiar with the recall process and it should run fairly smoothly.

Today was a rough day for myself + the camera. I present to you the one photo that turned out…

Negra and the hair on her brow ridge:

Ill Communication

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Chimpanzees are amazing communicators. Other than their vocalizations we all know and love, chimpanzees also use a wide array of gestures to communicate. Jamie is one of the best at this. As you might be aware, Jamie is a being with some very particular tastes. When she wants something, she usually won’t let up until she gets it. Sometimes this takes several tries. Sometimes it takes more than one person to decipher Jamie’s code. In this case it was both! As you can see in the video, Jamie would point at J.B., then point at me. It took us a little while, but we ended up figuring it out! She wanted the thing J.B. was carrying and the thing I was carrying, and for us to put them together. It now seems kind of obvious in hindsight, but in the moment, it was really, really confusing.

Here are some bonus photos from today’s lunch forage!

Willy B

Gordo

with Willy B

Rayne during breakfast

Caregivers, Assemble!

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I send my apologies to our supporters, followers, well-wishers, and passersby of today’s blog. Today is the first time staff had a meeting since a couple weeks before Jamieween. Usually, I can put together a blog and photos after the meetings, but since some time has passed since our last meeting, there was a lot to discuss. So please excuse today’s blog as it is really several ideas I had today to write about, but wasn’t able to let any of them to come to full fruition.

Willy B seemed a tad annoyed when I thought I would write a blog about him since it has been a little while

So I let that idea go.

Mave inspired the thought of trying to write about chimpanzee facial expressions

But a blog like that would require a little more time to do it justice.

Jamie carrying her boot onto Young’s Hill

And Cy carrying his magazine onto the Bray

I was going to have a montage of enrichment items the chimps bring with them into the outdoor enclosures, but I couldn’t find anybody else and I didn’t have time to go through our archives.

Rayne getting low to get a better look at the approaching stranger danger (really it was Jenna in her street closes that threw Rayne off)

And Jamie and Burrito going around Young’s Hill with caregivers Grace, Jenna, and Diana

Which in turn ended up Burrito going around Young’s Hill with me

Those last few sets of photos inspired me to think of writing a blog on chimpanzee/caregiver interactions/relationships. But again, time stopped me.

Maybe those topics will be covered someday, however today isn’t that day unfortunately.

And thank you to everyone that joined us during last nights online gathering for Comfort & Joy! If you couldn’t make it, you can watch the event on YouTube. And if you thought that was the end of the auction, it’s not! You still have time to bid on your favorite items until November 18th!

Human Time

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Chimp house mornings are quite busy. We begin by prepping meds and breakfast and putting together the day’s food puzzles, and then spend the next 4-5 hours cleaning enclosures. The chimps spend most of that time eating, playing, grooming, and occasionally squabbling with one another. When lunch is finally served, there is a bit of a reprieve from the more hurried morning pace. It is then that we begin to clean dishes, wash produce, fold laundry, prepare enrichment, and work on the blog. The chimps know that they can’t ask for too much of our time in the morning, but in the afternoon we will usually drop whatever we are doing to cater to their wishes.

Each chimp has their own preference when it comes to socializing with caregivers. Some prefer to take walks or play chase, while others would rather sit quietly and groom. With Gordo, I’m lucky if I can get a brief bunny hop out of him, while with Burrito, I’m lucky if I can ever get back to work. Foxie wants to play with dolls, Terry wants to groom boots, Lucky wants to pick scabs off and maybe create a few new ones, and Cy wants to give a few tickles. Willy B wants to watch movies on our phones, though if he could figure out how to do this without the need for humans he probably would. That said, he does sometimes play chase with us, which involves him running away and then bouncing up and down while facing the wall. Go figure.

These moments are play time for us caregivers, too, but they are every bit as important as the other work we do.

Are you joining us for the Comfort & Joy Virtual Gathering tonight at 5pm PT/8pm ET? If you can’t make it, there’s still time to visit the online auction and bid on items for yourself or for the chimps—including helping us complete those new climbing structures. The bidding ends 11/18!