Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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“If you build it, chimps will come.”

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Sometimes, the development of the sanctuary feels oddly like the plot of Field of Dreams. Instead of building a baseball diamond in the middle of an Iowa cornfield to attract the ghosts of early ballplayers, we’re constructing a facility in the foothills of the Cascades to rescue chimpanzees. It’s practically the same thing. “If you build it, chimps will come.”

The new wing as viewed from the south pasture

Truthfully, the incremental growth of the sanctuary is serious work, and the immense contributions of specialized contractors is one aspect of the ongoing expansion effort that we don’t often highlight on our social media channels. Today, I’m using the daily blog to show some appreciation for their work.

We’ve had some great teams building various components of the new areas, from the foundation to the exterior paint. Recently, the crew from Sage Mechanical, LLC completed the hydraulic doors and steel caging in the new playroom enclosures (which now provide a comfortable indoor space for chimps) and resumed work on the adjacent greenhouses.

Honey B.
The new greenhouse enclosures, mid-construction

Sage Mechanical is based in Yakima and led by our friend Gary McInnis. The first project they completed for us was 2019’s “Phase 1” of the expansion effort (including the enclosures where Honey B, Mave and Willy B currently reside) and we’re happy to have them on board for 2020-2021’s “Phase 2.”

From L to R: Gary, Aaron and Jose
Aaron and Jose working on the greenhouse ceiling

Carrying out an expansion project at a chimpanzee sanctuary can be difficult when the facility is already home to ten chimpanzees, but Gary’s squad has the right attitude for it; They’re always willing to work around the chimps’ schedules and preferences so that the construction causes minimal disruption to their daily lives. When not moving equipment around and welding things together, the guys are interested in the individual chimpanzees and are eager to learn more about them from the caregivers. His crew has also been great about following the stringent COVID-19 protocols designed to protect the chimps and human staff from possible exposure, which we require and greatly appreciate.

Gary
Jose
Aaron

Although they don’t interact with the chimps directly, the people working on the new enclosures are not completely separate. For example, the chimps living in adjacent enclosures and the guys on Gary’s team can watch each other through the bulletproof playroom windows. Occasionally, the chimps will even greet the crew members when they show up for work in the morning. The chimps seem to have habituated to the presence of Gary and his “regular” crew of Aaron, Jim and Jose, and it seems like the ongoing construction can be a form of environmental enrichment for them. We also ensure that the chimps have access to other areas so they aren’t forced to be within view if they prefer otherwise.

Aaron and Gary welding the caging panels onto the frame of the new greenhouses

Currently, Honey B, Mave and Willy B have front-row seats for the assembly of the new greenhouses. Much like the existing greenhouse enclosure on the other side of the building, the new areas will be multi-level outdoor environments that can be enclosed with solar-radiant panels in the cooler months. Each area will be furnished with organic substrate, live bamboo, wood climbing features, hanging firehose “vines,” and elevated platforms.

Mave

The coolest aspect of the new greenhouses will be the central structures, allegedly modeled after the Ewoks’ treetop village from Return of the Jedi. Yesterday, the chimps watched as welders Aaron and Jose built the frame for one of these platforms. We can’t wait to see the chimpanzees explore and grow comfortable in the latest addition to their home!

P.S. This blog’s honorary title is “Hunt for the Welder-people.” This is Chad’s work, but it was too good to leave out. We both love the referenced film.

Spring’s Bounty

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These past couple of days have been a whirlwind of seasons. On Sunday, the weather hit nearly 85º. Then yesterday the temperatures dropped into the 60s and we had a brief stint of rain. Today, the weather is in the low 50s with strong winds. By the end of the week it’s supposed to climb back into the 80s. As I watched the Group of Seven explore Young’s Hill this morning, it finally hit me. With these sporadic days of high temperatures, could this be Summer trying break through Spring’s hold? There is only a month left of Spring before Summer begins. Then I found some supporting evidence that Spring is in it’s final month.

As I was cleaning the Greenhouse, there was a grave yard of goat’s beard dandelions. As some of you know, goat’s beard dandelions are one of Missy’s favorite Spring time treats. Goat’s beard bloom from May to June, so the window to forage for them is relatively small. Though I did see Missy go out on Young’s Hill several times today, I hadn’t put two and two together yet. It wasn’t until I saw Jody race around the Hill grabbing whatever dandelion and prickly lettuce was within arms reach, that I realized we are in peak Spring. Neither wind nor rain nor heat will seem to stop them from enjoying the plentiful Spring bounty Young’s Hill is currently offering.

Here are some photos of Jody gathering some dandelions and prickly lettuce on Young’s Hill then enjoying them in the Greenhouse:

Bonus Photos:

Missy eating her sweet potato during lunch.
Burrito with Dora the Explorer.
Mave watching and waiting for breakfast to come out.

A PAN-tastic Group of Humans

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It’s now been well over a year since we began the “new normal” style of sanctuary operations.

The objective of these changes has been to mitigate the risk of transmitting COVID-19 to the chimpanzees. Of course, the nuclear staff cannot stop interacting with the chimps entirely, so we’ve found other ways to meet their daily needs while maintaining a bubble of safety around them. To facilitate this social “quarantine,” we had to sadly cancel many on-site initiatives powered by our extended community of volunteers, interns, and local supporters.

The need for social distancing hasn’t stopped these people from contributing to the organization on a Major-League level, though.

In a recent blog post, Diana described the remarkable work that our volunteer corps is continuing to do during the pandemic. We know that many of the volunteers and interns would be helping at to take care of the chimps if public health conditions allowed for it, but they’ve found ways to help the sanctuary regardless. Take that, SARS-CoV-2!

Today’s blog is dedicated to the members of Central Washington University’s Primate Awareness Network (PAN), who have provided crucial support this year by planning creative and fun events for the sanctuary. This year, they arranged an art contest and exhibition at Gallery One in Ellensburg and a smash fundraiser at Dru Bru’s new taproom in Cle Elum. They did all this while hosting a virtual primatology conference, collecting enrichment materials for the chimps from locations around town, helping CSNW staff to enter welfare data into the sanctuary’s new database, and continuing their mission of advocating for primate conservation and welfare via social media outreach. Given all they’ve done for us, the least we can do is to thank this year’s PAN cohort of Ashton, Calvin, Carson, Courtney A., Courtney G., Danna, Jenna, Kelsie, Malcolm, Margaux, Riley and Sydney for all their dedication and enthusiasm.

(To learn more about the Primate Awareness Network, check them out on Facebook or @cwu_primate on Instagram and Twitter. You can see flyers and photos from a couple of their recent events below!)

In addition to heartfelt appreciation, we owe some of them cheerful congratulations as well. They’ve all been advancing their respective research projects outside the sanctuary despite the turmoil of the past year, and all of them are embarking on new adventures, including (but not limited to):

Ashton recently co-authored a paper about COVID-19’s effect on wildlife in the journal Mammal Review and began working at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado.
(Fun Fact: CSNW board member Dr. Lori Sheeran is Ashton’s advisor and also co-authored the paper!)

Carson has been accepted into the Applied Anthropology doctoral program at Texas State University where she will study the microbial ecology of free-ranging chimpanzees in Africa.

Jenna has just accepted a full-time caregiver position at fellow NAPSA member sanctuary Center for Great Apes in Florida and will be starting in June.

Riley, after he defends his graduate thesis, will be getting married this summer!
(Jenna suggested I link to his registry but we don’t want to mix it up with our own Wish List, causing Riley and his partner to receive enrichment puzzles and cleaning supplies while the chimps get new bed linens and cookware.)

It’s sad to watch this cohort of students move on without a proper farewell at the sanctuary, but we’re excited to see the places they will go, the things they will do, and the people they will become. Hopefully, local conditions keep trending in the right direction so that we can gradually incorporate volunteers, interns and visitors back into our routine without increasing the risk to the chimps and staff. For now, we’re just happy to express our gratitude for these people and the time they’ve donated to the sanctuary!

The Zen of Mave

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You may have noticed some of the most recent posts have been very lilac-y. That’s because lilacs are in bloom and before we know it, they will be gone. So we have been trying to take advantage of the season. Last week, I was able to capture these images.

To give a little background, Honey B, Willy B, and Mave tend to be a little suspicious of new foods or items. Last year it took them a while to even nibble at the lilacs. Same as last year, at first they seemed to be completely insulted we even offered it to them last week. Mave, however, ultimately collected all of them and was found munching on them throughout the afternoon. Last Thursday, when we received another collection of lilacs for the chimpanzees, we offered some to the Three. Honey B did end up with one, which she ended up passing to J.B. and he passed back to her. She began munching on hers shortly after.

Willy B was genuinely disinterested in them and walked right passed them.

But MAVE on the other hand had other plans. She collected as much as she could. But instead of immediately beginning to munch on them, she just casually carried them around with her for a while.

As she carried around her bouquet, she would take time just to sniff them.

As she sat in the Chute with her lilacs, sniffing them periodically, she gave off this aura of pure relaxation and content.

I tried the get the perfect photo of her in this state, however we try not to stay for too long when taking photos. It’s a “in and out” type of operation as to not stress them out. I though I had the perfect shot, but after I made my way back inside, I realized she had blinked during my opportunity. However, I will always admit she is blinking in this photo if anybody asked, but it almost added to the vibe of the situation and photo. You will have to imagine this photo but her eyes open for of a more realistic idea, but everyone who has seen it so far said, “She looks so zen in this photo!” which makes this imperfect photo the perfect photo of Mave. (Though Mave is always perfect!)

It’s almost impossible to know exactly what is happening in their minds, but we can always just imagine.

Here are some bonus photos from today:

Burrito

Burrito with a Dora the Explorer doll.
Burrito doing Burrito things.
Burrito walking through the long grass.

Negra

Negra enjoying an orange during a forage on Young’s Hill.

Annie

Annie eating chow biscuits during the forage.

Foxie

Foxie going back to get Dora the Explorer who fell off her back.

Jamie

Jamie teaching Sofìa and Sam about her rules about going around Young’s Hill with the Gator. Kelsi was there to also help them get used to Jamie’s rules.

Another Mother’s Day for Jody

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It’s Mother’s Day.

At the sanctuary, our celebration of this special day always includes a birthday party for Jody. Her actual date of birth is missing from her original records, but the date aligns with both Jody’s history as a biological mother and her honorary status as the group’s “den mother.”

Like Jody, Annie, Foxie, Missy and Negra (four of the sanctuary’s eight female chimps) also had offspring during their tenure as “breeders” in the laboratory. Altogether, we believe they gave birth to at least twenty-five infants. The newborns were each taken from them shortly after birth by the company that owned the chimps, and the separated infants were destined to be raised by humans in nurseries and sold as biomedical research subjects. At the time, this was a life sentence for chimps.

As advocates began to successfully pressure the laboratories to retire their captive chimpanzees from research, some of the aforementioned offspring were lucky enough to find sanctuary homes. In fact, Missy’s daughter Honey B found her way to CSNW thirteen years after her mother- almost three decades after they were pulled apart at birth. The two don’t seem to recognize each other or have any special bond, which is unsurprising given that chimpanzee social bonds are maintained through lifelong interaction and communication, not mere genetic relatedness or physical likeness. Still, they sometimes behave in ways that reveal some similarities that may be more than just coincidence, giving a bit of magic to their familial relationship.

I won’t add much more since we have written about this topic in the past and I feel like other staff could offer more heartfelt and insightful perspectives than mine. All I have to say is that, as someone who watches Jody interact with her companions and surroundings on a daily basis, she is a natural protector and shepherd to all around her.

Jody would have been an excellent mother to those nine children. She got robbed of that experience, and so did they.

The gravity of that injustice cannot be expressed through any words that I know.

The best that we can do now is provide Jody and her friends with a safe and comfortable sanctuary home, with opportunities to live a fulfilling life, and tirelessly advocate for non-humans who are still being exploited elsewhere.

So, on this well-deserved Mother’s Day, we celebrated not just Jody but all the mothers in our lives who have helped us to grow, learn, and live meaningful lives. We’re thankful that you exist and we love you all.

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Finally, since I was unable to take many photos while filming the embedded video, Chad was willing to share some images he captured of the big event!

Annie:

Jody:

Missy:

Burrito:

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P.S. Just in case you missed the usual title pun, I almost named this post “JO Mother, Where Art Thou?” but decided to keep it a bit more serious this week. I’ll think of something really corny for the next post. I promise.

It’s the Great Tomato Hunt, Missy!

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To watch Missy during a forage with tomatoes involved is like watching a pinball in a pinball machine. At first it seems like random zooming all over the place. But after a while, you realize that it’s all controlled and Missy indeed has a plan. The best way to describe it is “organized chaos.”

Last August, caregiver Anthony was able to perfectly describe Missy’s tomato obsession.

As soon as she spies us take those waxy red orbs out of the refrigerator, Missy turns into a ravenous lunatic whose sole objective is to ingest as many tomatoes as quickly as possible.”

When Missy first makes her way outside, first thing is to grab whatever tomato that is immediate vicinity.

Once all those are gone, it’s time to make her way to the structures. This serves as two benefits:

1) There are usually some hidden at the base of the structure.

2) Structures also provide a good vantage point to spot more tomatoes.

(Plus there may be a hidden one on the top of the structure.)

At times, when she is at a high view point, it almost seems that she plans out her route to capitalize on her movements.

While during the initial start of the forage, Missy eats as she goes. When she passes this stage, she begins collecting her prized foods. This is where her planning from the top comes in. Racing from one spot to the next, grabbing all that she can hold onto with her hands, feet, and mouth.

Once she cannot carry anymore, she anchors in a spot and enjoys the bounty of her tomato hunt.

It’s days like today, watching Missy zoom from place to place in the hunt for tomatoes, we feel very fortunate to be able to provide things they love. You can help us by donating to this year’s Give Big Washington campaign, which ends tomorrow. Anything helps us reach our goal and it directly helps them. So please consider donating if you can.

Bonus photos of Burrito and Jody grooming:

Coach Honey B

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There is no one in the world like Honey B. She has so many different layers to her personality. She certainly has her mother’s charm and athletic ability. Missy loves making her caregivers run around the whole sanctuary while she only has to move a few steps. Missy as we all know is lightning fast. These traits may be genetically ingrained into Honey B. Honey B is FAST and on top of being quick, she has a thing for making her caregivers run around the entire building. Her preference is that we run inside, outside, up, down, back, forth, and through a construction site! If Honey B was a trainer she would be tough, but you would see results. Between Honey B’s workout routine and Burrito’s hill sprints you can see why we caregivers are out of breath and exhausted by the end of the day!