Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Annie and Missy are quite well-known for their excited games of chase and wrestling throughout the chimp house. Negra, however, isn’t always the most likely play partner—and when she does play, she’s got her own speed (kinda slow). This time Negra was keeping up with the experts!
This video is a little longer than some of our others but I thought you wouldn’t want to miss a second of this fun play session. Thanks again to Patty W. for sponsoring today for us and for being Negra’s Pal!
)
The last couple of days we’ve been experiencing some extra snow fall, which means the chimps get to snack on some fresh snow, which they love! Elizabeth and I filled up the chimps’ sandbox with snow and added some troll dolls for some CSNW flair.
Everyone was snacking on the snow, including of course Jamie. Since she is the boss, the other chimps wanted to make sure they were okay to snack on the snow, too. That’s completely natural chimpanzee behavior, and something that is essential to their society. Jamie was fine with the other chimps enjoying the snow, there was plenty to go around, and she wasn’t feeling particularly territorial of it.
When Jody asked for Jamie’s permission, she displayed perfect reassurance behaviors. She approached with a drooped lip, making it clear that she was not being at all aggressive or threatening. Then she reached out toward Jamie as if to say “is it okay if I join?” Jamie didn’t disapprove, so Jody’s next move was to give Jamie a quick kiss on the mouth. Jamie reciprocated and gave Jody permission by giving Jody a kiss back on her brow ridge. Jody then knew it was fine with Jamie that she join in, and immediately started snacking.
When Foxie first came to the sanctuary about five and a half years ago, she took her time getting adjusted to her new home. She didn’t fully trust her caregivers right away, and she didn’t want anything to do with the enrichment that was offered to her.
About a month after the chimpanzees’ arrival, Diana came across a troll doll at a secondhand shop and grabbed it, thinking it might make good chimp enrichment. That troll doll was destined to change Foxie’s life. (You can see one of the very first photos taken of Foxie and her new friend in this early blog post.)
Trixie (the doll stuck by Foxie’s side for so long that the staff eventually gave her a name) was well-loved and soon the staff put out a call for more troll dolls. People responded, and here is Foxie’s collection today:
Foxie’s favorite doll changes frequently; recently, it’s been this tiny fuzzy orange one. Who knows what we’ll see her carrying next week?
One of the biggest challenges of this job is keeping Jamie enriched. The other chimps certainly need enrichment, too, but Jamie in particular requires a lot to keep her engaged. So I’m continually trying to find things that will be enriching for her. Kongs are a good food puzzle for the chimps because we can put nuts, peanut butter, or even mushed banana into the crevices making it tricky to get the treat out.
Recently I discovered these Kong “Genius” toys which connect together, and I thought it seemed perfect for Jamie! Thanks to Carrie M. who ordered a bunch of these Kongs for us off our Amazon wishlist recently, we were able to make several connected Kongs. Jamie of course hoarded many of them, but all the chimps were able to enjoy this puzzle. You’ll hear in the video just how happy Jamie is with all her food groans and grunts.
Speaking of Jamie and of the wishlist, we are in desperate need of a new boot dryer! Ours broke yesterday and as you can imagine we are constantly running the dryers to get Jamie’s boots quickly dry after we wash them. Dry boots makes for a happy Jamie! Both she and I would be forever grateful to anyone that is able to purchase a new one for us. If you do grab anything from the list now or anytime in the future, send me an email at [email protected] so we can be sure to send you a thank you! (UPDATE: Thank you Patrick and Carrie for purchasing the boot dryer for us! The boss will be happy).
We have continued to get quite a bit of snow off and on at the sanctuary over the last week and while the chimpanzees do have access to Young’s Hill, they have understandably chosen to stay indoors and make good use of their caregivers by asking us to fetch snow for them to eat. Maybe not so much asking, as demanding. But that’s why we’re here and we wouldn’t have it any other way. They each took handfuls, mouthfuls, and “footfuls” (that could be a word…) and swung up to the upper level of the greenhouse, or the southern facing windows, to enjoy it while lounging in the sun. Smart chimps.
The sun has been out intermittently today so the chimps have spent a lot of the day napping and grooming in the warmth. Before lunch, I found Burrito (left) and Missy (right) grooming one another in the sun:
Notice Missy’s prehensile lip action while grooming Burrito.
Of course, Jamie is a busy lady and doesn’t have much time to relax. In the midst of everyone else lying about, enter Jamie, pant hooting (notice the hoot face) and pounding on her barrel:
As a result, Missy and Burrito’s grooming session came to an abrupt halt. As you can probably tell from the photo, they may have just been a little too relaxed to respond:
Jamie’s display was short lived and I think everyone else was feeling so relaxed they chose to ignore the outburst for the most part and just continue enjoying the warmth of the winter sun.
And THANK YOU to all of our amazing supporters who have not only helped us reach our Share the Chimp Love goal, but surpass it!! It’s truly because of each of you that the chimpanzees are able to enjoy their “day in the sun” so to speak. We are so grateful to all of you who have been able to contribute! We still have 8 days left so please continue to share your love for the chimps and spread the word about our fundraiser!
This guest blog is by Rich Zimmerman, Executive Director of Orangutan Outreach. Rich helped facilitate getting CSNW an iPad as part of their Apps for Apes program! He is our first guest blogger to tell us information about our red ape cousins in Asia. Rich’s experience is in helping raise awareness and funds for the projects in the field. He has accompanied a few rescue missions in Borneo but his work is mainly in New York and online—advocating on behalf of orangutans, promoting the cause and communicating the critical need to help them before it’s too late.
—
What inspired you to work with orangutans?
I’ve loved orangutans since I was a child. I went in a different direction professionally and it was only later in life—when I realized just how perilously close the orangutans were to extinction in the wild—that I decided I needed to do something to help them. After traveling to Indonesia and seeing the utter devastation to their forests and the rescue center cages full of hundreds of orphaned and displaced orangutans staring out with such sadness and desperation in their eyes, I decided to dedicate my life to helping them. I created Orangutan Outreach in 2007 as a way to raise awareness of the crisis facing wild orangutans and to raise funds for the rescue projects in Borneo and Sumatra.
Can you tell us a brief story about an individual orangutan that was personally affected by human encroachment?
Every orangutan in every rescue center has been affected by human encroachment. Whenever there is a conflict, the human always wins. Orangutans—and elephants, rhinos, tigers, monkey, you name it—always fall victim to the constant expansion of human settlement and the destruction of their habitat by logging, palm oil, and mining companies. Every baby in a rescue center was torn off his or her dying mother. These innocent babies are traumatized—just as any human baby would be if pulled from its mother. And for each infant confiscated and brought to a rehabilitation center, it’s estimated that anywhere from four to nine did not survive. It’s horrific what is being done to these creatures… for no fault of their own they are being wiped out of existence by humans.
Let me tell you two quick stories. The first is Rickina, who was rescued by our partners International Animal Rescue (IAR) when she was less than a year old. When they confiscated her she has a gaping machete wound in her skull—obviously received when the poachers killer her mother. The wound was fresh. Rickina is now doing really well—thanks to the expert care of the team at IAR Ketapang. She is quite famous online—with more than 350,000 views of her video on YouTube.
Baby Orangutan Rickina is being cared for at IAR Ketapang (and can be adopted!). Photo © International Animal Rescue.
Another amazing story is Gober, a blind, older female orangutan being cared for by our partners Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme (SOCP). When she was caught eating fruit in the garden of a local villager she was going to be killed. Instead she was rescued and brought to the SOCP quarantine center. She had cataracts and could barely see. She was housed in a cage next to a younger male orangutan (named Leuser) who had been shot with a pellet gun more than a hundred times by local villagers. He was totally blind and the fact that he’d even survived is testament to the phenomenal will to live of orangutans. Well, orangutans never cease to amaze… nine months later Gober gave birth to beautiful twins, Ganteng and Ginting. Twins are extremely rare among orangutans—which makes sense given the fact that in the wild they spend their lives high up in the treetops. Imagine trying to move around in the canopy carrying two babies! Gober had successful cataract surgery and her sight has been partially restored. Hopefully she and the twins will be released back into the wild later this year!
Gober & the Twins are being cared for by SOCP (and can be adopted!) Photo © Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme.
Why are orangutans endangered in the wild?
The expansionary activities of the timber, mining and palm oil industries have led to a catastrophic decrease in wild orangutan populations. Palm oil has been the main contributor to the orangutan genocide in the last decade. Around 90% of the global supply of palm oil comes from Indonesia & Malaysia and this has come at a tremendous cost for biodiversity. Indonesian forests are being burned to the ground—releasing so much carbon into the atmosphere that Indonesia now ranks only behind China and US in carbon emissions—and it is barely industrialized. The UNEP estimates that the forests of Indonesia are being cleared at a rate of six football fields per minute, every minute of every day.
The palm oil industry is guilty of truly heinous ecological atrocities. The forests of Borneo and Sumatra are the only place where these gentle, intelligent creatures live, and the cultivation of palm oil has directly led to the brutal deaths of thousands of individuals as the industry has expanded into previously undisturbed areas of rainforest at an alarming rate.
When the forest is cleared, adult orangutans are killed on sight. These peaceful, sentient beings who share approximately 97% of our DNA are shot, macheted, beaten, burned, mutilated, tortured and often eaten. Babies are literally torn off their dying mothers so they can be sold on the black market as illegal pets to wealthy families who see them as status symbols of their own power and prestige. This has been documented time and again.
Surveying deforestation in West Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo). Photo © Orangutan Outreach
Have you seen any recovery of wild orphaned orangutans (e.g. is reintroduction possible)?
Reintroduction is very possible! Over the last year and a half, our partners at BOS have released more than 100 rehabilitated orangutans into a safe and secure forest deep in the heart of Borneo—far away from bulldozers and oil palm companies. And the population is flourishing! While there has been one death reported there have been multiple births recorded by the post-release monitoring team. The cycle of life continues in the forest for the world’s first re-created orangutan population. It takes roughly 250-300 individuals to create a stable population so there are many releases to go before the forest has reached carrying capacity according to strict IUCN guidelines. What BOS needs now is to find more forests to release more orangutans. There are still around 600 orangutans being cared for at the Nyaru Menteng Facility. They also have orangutans in East Kalimantan who are gradually being released into a separate forest. IAR is doing the same in West Kalimantan. They’ve been able to release orangutans from their excellent new facility in Ketapang. SOCP has a successful release program in Northern Sumatra. All these projects and programs are ongoing—and are only possible due to the generosity of donors.
BOS Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Release Photo © Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation.
For lunch today, caregiver Lisa served the chimpanzees corn, cauliflower, potatoes, cherry tomatoes, snow peas, and red onions.
Annie with a corn cob wadge (you can see that chimps don’t have the same hangups about “table manners” as we do):
Negra with a mouthful of cauliflower glancing out the window on her way to her favorite spot on the catwalk:
Jody:
Missy heading upstairs with her haul:
She settled in front of the window for a lunchtime view of the valley:
