Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary for primates.

chimp enrichment

If Looks Could Kale

by 12 Comments

Jody has a healthy appreciation for fresh, hand-picked greens.

Recently, local volunteer Krissy has been delivering bags of primate chow to the sanctuary’s front gate. More often than not, she also leaves behind a large bin of produce from her home garden. This weekend, we added the generous assortment of leafy greens to the chimps’ lunches, which we then dispersed in Young’s Hill so that they could spend the afternoon foraging.

Most greens are cultivars of one species: cabbage. In its wild form, cabbage (Brassica oleracea) grows on the seaside cliffs of Europe. Over millennia, the domesticated variants have become a common food crop for humans around the globe. Despite their distinct grocery names, kale, collared greens, cauliflower, broccoli, kohlrabi, and Brussels sprouts are all just types of cabbage that have been shaped by artificial selection. Of course, “Farmer Jo” loves them all equally.

Today, Jo did her usual thing (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6) and gathered up an impressive bundle of greens. Although it was an unusually quiet day at the sanctuary, even around the chimps, the loud crunch of woody stems filled the Greenhouse for a short while. Negra spent the early minutes of the forage collecting the grapes and chow biscuits nearest to the Greenhouse, but missed out on the kale. Upon returning, she sat behind Jody and begged for a piece. Jo ignored her, but eventually discarded enough leafless stalks to satisfy Neggie, who promptly scooped them up and waddled inside.

Compared to the usual dynamics, today’s drama was relatively tame.

Relaxation, Recreation, Recovery

by 12 Comments

There seemed to be a different theme to various parts of the Chimp House today. Depending on what area you happened to find yourself in, you either found chimpanzee people relaxing and taking in the nicer weather we’ve had today, thrilled with a new enrichment item, or recovering from a recent injury.

For the Girl Gang, today was all about Relaxation!

Though Foxie was playing with Orange Blossom and Blueberry Muffin, it was such a relaxing play session.

Jamie also spent most of the day relaxing, though always prepared to lift herself up if there was some supervising to do around the property.

Jody decided to spend most of the day as close to Burrito as she could. She even decided to nap in the room adjacent to his to ensure optimal closeness.

On the other side of the building, today was about Recreation!

Willy B, Honey B, and Mave received Boomer Balls as an afternoon enrichment puzzle.

Right after they finished their lunch, we brought the Boomer Balls out and showed them. They became really excited! Especially Mave! When Mave saw the basket which contained this puzzle inside, she stopped what she was doing and raced for the door. She waited patiently as we set up the Mezzanine. Once we gave her access, she bolted in and immediately claimed hers.

Any time Honey B or Willy B came even remotely close to her and her prizes, she would gather her things up, and move to a new location.

When Willy B finished his puzzle, he set off to search the entire Mezzanine for any potential missed food. Though he seemed as though he wished a magician appeared to alakazam him some more nuts, he in turn looked like a magician himself.

Finally, Recovery!

Burrito is still recovering from his difficult day.

To help lift his spirits, caregiver Kelsi brought him a whole pomegranate.

The rest of the day, Burrito was slowly becoming more like his old self again. While in his recovery room, he let out a mini-display and then demanded to be let into the other front room. We obliged with his demands since we needed to get into the room he was in to clean it. Once in that room, it was playtime for him.

Before that though, we had to get some medicine in. As shared on Facebook and Instagram, Burrito has been taking his medication in little grape juice bottles, usually with the use of a straw. He decided which straw he wants to use, usually a regular paper straw or one of the long plastic tubes. Today, the choice was mostly the long plastic tube. Initially he grabbed the straw to play tug-o-war and had no interest in taking his medication! So I made a deal with him. If he drank his medicine, we would play! After every sip was gone, he grabbed the tube and passed the end to me for tug-o-war.

When he was tired of the tube, the game still continued, but this time with a blanket.

We are all cautiously optimistic about Burrito’s recovery. The more and more we research the venom and some of the long lasting effects it can leave, the more we realize we are still not out of the woods yet in his recovery. We are, however, completely enthralled by Burrito’s resiliency. We are also completely over the moon at the amount of support Burrito has received from around the world. We have received messages far and wide on how people could help Burrito. Yesterday, we added a special page to our Virtual Hoot! 2020 site specifically to help the costs of Burrito’s recovery. We cannot thank each and everyone of you enough for all your kind words, donations, and support. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you!

Enriching the Day

by 6 Comments

It has been one year and one week since Mave, Honey B, and Willy B arrived at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. Since their arrival, we have introduced them to the nightly routine of evening enrichment puzzles. Talking to some of the other staff members, when the Three first arrived, they would have this look of confusion on their face when they received something AFTER their dinner.

The Evening Enrichment Puzzles are a way for the chimpanzees exercise their cognitive abilities while also receiving a food reward. Puzzles could also be seen as a means to try to alleviate boredom. The key to an enrichment problem is to not make them so easy, there is no challenge in completing them. It also means not to make them so difficult, they get frustrated and quit. There is a balance to be made when developing an enrichment food puzzle.

Now that the Three have been here for a year, they are used to (and sometimes anticipating) their evening puzzles. Here are some photos over the past several months of them engaged in their evening food puzzles:

Honey B cleverly found a new way to complete the PVC Tubes.

Mave decided to forego using her chopstick for the Dipper Tubes and just use her fingers.

Willy B searches for more raisins in his Raisin Board.

Mave searches for more hidden treats inside her Firehose Cube.

Honey B trying to find the sunflower and pumpkin seeds in a peanut butter Pine Cone.

Mave tries to fish out nuts from a Kong.

In the video, the Three interact with a puzzle called Frisbee Puzzles (or Hanging Frisbees). We realized after their party last week, that may have been the first time they received this puzzle. After it seemed they really enjoyed them last week, we decided to bump them up in the rotation and make the puzzles for them again today.

Evening enrichment with Negra

by 6 Comments

Did you know we have an Enrichment Database? We love sharing enrichment ideas like these Firehose Cubes with our fellow caregivers around the world. Feel free to spread the word about our database and know that we are always looking for any new chimp enrichment inspiration from other organizations!

 

Willy B on Repeat and Highlights of the Day

by 10 Comments

The video above is a pretty good follow-up to the snippet of Willy B that I shared within this video a few weeks ago.

I took the footage for today’s video last week, but didn’t want to usurp Foxie’s birthday so I saved it for today.

For a glimpse of actual happenings today, visit our Instagram page, and behold some highlights below from the breakfast forage on Young’s Hill.

Missy slacklining on fire hose

 

Missy dismounting from the fire hose, showing off the benefit of opposable toes.

 

Jamie was just scratching her face in that image above, but I like how it looks like she might be saying, “oh, geez, Missy”

Jody once again dominated the willow forage:

and Negra seemed to be just fine with our secret lettuce-for-breakfast-outside weight loss plan aimed to slim her down a bit:

Tutorial: How to Clean an Enclosure

by

The blog often shows the highlights of each day, but we don’t always show the less-glamorous aspects of our jobs. As caregivers, most of our work day is actually spent cleaning, securing, and maintaining the spaces that the chimpanzees live in.

Just confirming that an area is safe for humans to enter is a chore in itself, and then each enclosure requires daily attention so that the chimps can be healthy, comfortable, and entertained. On top of that, there are always dishes to scrub, toys to wash, puzzles to prepare, and paperwork to organize.

This evening, I chose to demonstrate our standard procedures for cleaning and sanitizing a chimpanzee enclosure so that you can all partake in the fun!

Moving Along

by

This weekend, y’all were treated to a pair of vivid stories: J.B.’s about a quiet moment with Jamie and Diana’s about an unusual predicament involving a snake. If you didn’t read them, what are you waiting for?

Today’s blog post isn’t really a story. Instead, I’m changing directions and just providing a few unrelated updates.

As Jody heals up from her recent trip to the sanctuary’s clinic, we have begun to let her have socialization sessions with the other chimps in her group. These meetings are a standard practice for us;  controlled visits like today’s allow for the chimps to groom and play without a barrier. (Of course, the others can always see and interact with Jody through the steel mesh that separates their areas.) Since we’re concerned about Jo’s incision site staying clean, its safer for her to have just one companion at a time. This morning, Foxie darted into the front rooms and excitedly groomed with Jody for a couple of hours.

Meanwhile, over on the other side of the building, the second phase of the expansion project (Phase 2) is well underway. Although the construction team has not yet poured the foundation, one can already see the outlines of two new indoor playrooms, two new Greenhouse-style enclosures, and the central hallway. There’s obviously a lot to be done, but it’s encouraging to witness the steady progress and even more exciting to imagine multiple groups of chimpanzees hanging out in the area when it is complete.

Finally, the day ended with a rambunctious crescendo: Jamie’s delight at an area full of grab bags. Grab bags are one of Jamie’s favorite enrichment items, so she absolutely lost it when we let her group back into the Playroom to gather, process, and savor the valued puzzles hidden inside. As usual, she tried her best to monopolize everything and ended up sitting in the middle of the Playroom surrounded by the remains of ransacked enrichment (much as a dragon would sit on a hoard of gold that it had plundered from the charred remnants of destroyed cities). That’s Jamie’s style, sometimes. Fortunately, we always put out enough enrichment materials to give the other chimps more opportunities.

Even after we locked up the chimp areas, changed out of our scrubs and prepared to leave the sanctuary for the evening, Jamie was still sitting amid her mountain of grab bags, apparently content.