Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

chimp enrichment

Happy Birthday, Foxie!!

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Woohoo!! It’s Foxie’s birthday and a very special day of sanctuary was sponsored in her honor by her (and our) wonderful friend, Tracy Headley! Foxie is 41 and full of sass and spitfire this morning! I think it’s more like 41 going on 14. She started her birthday morning off with a wild game of chase with Annie and Missy, swinging on a firehose while play-kicking at her friends and laughing, and then hanging upside down from the greenhouse ceiling while kicking her feet every which way possible.

Birthday packages arrived this morning, an exciting brunch forage is being prepped, and all the trolls and Dora dolls are lining up for the celebration!

Tracy, thank you so much for helping us make this an extra special day for Foxie! We are so lucky to have you as part of our chimp family. Foxie is such a special soul bringing joy, comfort, love and shenanigans to the lives of us all.

Foxie, if there were a picture of my heart I am pretty sure it would look like you. We all could not possibly love you more. We hope this day full of excitement, smoothies, fruit, crazy chimp shenanigans, more trolls and Doras than you could possibly carry, hug, bite and do pirouettes on, friends, family and love, so much love, is the best birthday yet. Until the next and the next and the next…

Happy Birthday, Foxie!!

Moments of comfort

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After experiencing over 30 years of deprivation, it never ceases to amaze me (or make my heart burst) to see the chimpanzees so fully embrace a life of comfort in their own unique ways. It physically hurts my heart to think of all they went without for so long and makes each moment of joy and comfort for them all the more meaningful.

The chimps recently received some new SUPER fluffy fleece blankets and they adore them. They look as though they are floating on clouds sitting in their nests, the blankets sometimes as high as their chests. We found two super voluptuous nests this morning while cleaning the playroom. Despite Jamie’s aversion to snakes, she really loves to incorporate the stuffed toy snakes into her nests:

Jamie (we assume) decided to use a chopstick to remove a washer from somewhere yet to be discovered. She is far too smart for our own good:

This beauty was spread out over the catwalk:

Beautiful Annie lounging:

Jody in particular loved the new blankets (naturally) and frequently rubbed her head and face against them:

Jody’s sweet feet in a cloud of fluff as she napped this morning:

Seeing the chimps surrounding themselves in comfort will never grow old.

Building Patience one Tomato at a Time

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If you did not already know this about Missy, she LOVES tomatoes. Currently in our garden we have tomatoes and cherry tomatoes growing. The garden is a type of enrichment for the chimps. It is fun to have the excitement build while they wait for some of their favorite foods to grow! This morning Jamie and Missy reminded Caregiver Katelyn and I that they were out there! Missy stuck around a little longer to see if they were ripe yet. Unfortunately, they are not ready to be consumed. But… I did fine tomatoes in the fridge, which everyone got to enjoy for lunch!

Missy looking out into the garden:

Missy

Missy staring back, waiting for us to find the ripened ones:

Missy continuing to look for tomatoes:

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To each their own

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If you’ve been following the blog for long you’re aware that we often write about providing enrichment for the chimpanzees as a way to help alleviate boredom and bring interest and fun to their days. A lot of the enrichment is provided by us humans in the form of things like toys, food puzzles, parties, and wild browse we collect. And a lot of the enrichment the chimps provide themselves such as harvesting wild greens from Young’s Hill. Staff and volunteers alike spent countless hours trying to think of new and exciting things and we keep enrichment calendars so that we’re inspired to think outside the box and mix things up. And inspiration often simply comes from the area we live in and the distinct four seasons we have.

Being summer, it’s fun to offer the chimps extra ways to stay hydrated and cool. So today we placed the ever-popular ice water buckets and a table of ice in the chimps’ playroom. We also made a very shallow pool in the chimps’ sandbox in the greenhouse and filled it with cups for them to help themselves to throughout the day. For all the effort we put into making things new and exciting, sometimes it’s the simplest things that get the chimps excited. There was so much hooting going on over ice!

Annie found a big ice chunk and quickly made her way to the greenhouse where she made a nest to enjoy it from (you can notice the ice chunk just outside her nest):

Enter Missy. Missy LOVES ice and being the more dominant of the two chimps, Annie decided not to eat the ice with Missy hanging around. Missy was very aware of this and kept taking passes looking at the ice, but she didn’t take it from Annie. So the ice melted away as the standoff continued. But this didn’t keep Annie from relaxing and enjoying her time. That leg!!

I never did see where the ice wound up, but either way Annie seemed utterly content.

And then there’s Jamie. Two summers ago we noticed for the first time that somehow (and much to our surprise) she and Missy had discovered wasp larvae to be an exceptional delicacy. This is pretty intriguing for a variety of reasons, but the bottom line is Jamie loves them and finds the risks in harvesting them worth the reward.

Yesterday she and Missy came running in from the hill with a small nest and Jamie was screaming and alarm calling all the way with all the other chimps in pursuit to see what was wrong with their friend. As far as we could tell, Jamie appeared to have been stung on the foot. She fell into her nest (still clutching her valuable wasp nest tightly), screaming, alarm calling and looking at her foot. But within mere seconds she was up and walking around the playroom continuing to alarm call in between taking bites of her treat. All the chimps continued to follow her being interested in 1) what the apparent threat was that Jamie kept alarm calling about and if she was okay and 2) what she was eating. But Jamie quickly settled down and with six chimps gathered around her food peering (staring intently because they were hoping she’d share) she enjoyed her treat. And she did not share. It was all pretty dramatic.

So today while cleaning the greenhouse I had to remove a couple starter wasp nests for the chimps’ and humans’ safety. Jamie was watching intently and so we decided to hide this apparent (wasp free) delicacy with the rest of the forage. She immediately scooped it up and began food grunting. Missy is the only person I’ve seen show an interest in wasp larvae and she quickly followed Jamie doing her best food peer and polite requests, but Jamie was unmoved by Missy’s plea. (Missy did get a smaller bite of one later though).

Mmmhhh…wasp larvae.

Foxie’s Magic Touch

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Foxie is one of the only chimps that can really get Jamie to loosen up. Which makes sense because Foxie really knows how to have a good time. I find Foxie often doing a lot of imaginary play with her dolls and enrichment, getting her caregivers to run around and do crazy things, and she loves to play chase and explode into crazy fun spins! But it is really a sight to see when she gets the Boss (Jamie) to let her guard down and cut loose, because we all know how busy Jamie’s schedule is.

Moments with Jamie

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Jamie enjoyed a particularly relaxing moment this afternoon as she had Jake, one of the graduate students who is currently in training to be a volunteer caregiver, groom her back. She’s training him very well:

I’d like to share a story about Jamie from today that although we couldn’t get photos of, is too wonderful not to include you in. After lunch Jamie asked for her favorite pair of boots and began building a nest with them, which is pretty typical. When Kelsi and I walked down the human hallway of the chimp house awhile later we found her sound asleep and snuggled up with an empty boot box we’d given the chimps for enrichment. When Jamie saw us (because there’s no sneaking up on a chimpanzee), she immediately got excited and asked to go on a walk. Kelsi had put on another boot when suddenly Jamie grabbed the boot box and opened it up. Much to our surprise, she had placed her beloved pair of black boots inside just as if they were a new pair! Maybe you had to be there, but Kelsi and I looked at each other in amazement. It was incredibly endearing. Jamie promptly took the boots, ran upstairs to the loft area and tossed them over the top of the caging so that Kelsi could put them on for a walk and off they went. No matter how long we work with the chimps, they continue to amaze us every day.

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Jamie’s style

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You may have read past blog posts in which we’ve shared that we have daily calendars with themes for the chimps’ daily enrichment. The themes are things like “blue” day, “tea party” day, or “clothing” day. We don’t assume the chimps are aware of the themes, but they definitely help the humans think out of the box and keep things fresh. And we love that the chimps then have the choice to engage with (or ignore) their enrichment exactly as their interest and curiosity dictates at any given time.

Yesterday’s theme was “troll scarves.” Jamie in particular loves these and chose to wear one to lunch today. She definitely knows what works for her. She is such a strikingly beautiful chimpanzee woman.