Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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Celebrating World Animal Day… with Mediocre Haikus

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This past week has been warm, but the transition into autumn is unmistakable. The sun is setting earlier, the morning air is crisper, and the elk are passing through the valley as they migrate to their winter ranges.

Even if you’re not into drinking pumpkin spice lattes, harvesting your crops in a worn-out flannel, or listening to Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors while walking through fallen leaves, this season’s potential silver lining is that it contains some great holidays.

Giving Day for Apes, Jamieween, Dia de Los Muertos, Native American Heritage Day, Election Day, Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving, Black Friday… it’s always hard to pick a favorite! Of course, the best strategy is probably to cherish each one in its moment, just as we make the most of each passing season.

To kick things off, we honored today, October 4th, as World Animal Day. The first celebration of this holiday, which occurred in Germany in 1925, was chosen to honor the Catholic Saint Francis of Assisi who is regarded as a protector of nonhuman beings. In 1979, Pope John Paul II actually declared that Francis would also be the patron saint of the science of ecology, protecting the Earth’s fragile ecosystems. Rock on, St. Francis!

In celebration of this unique day, Chad and I thought it would be fitting to highlight our nonhuman friends: the cattle. Is there a better way to honor these bovine lawnmowers than with four amateur haikus, accompanied by some of my favorite seasonal photographs?

 

“Betsy”

Before the new grass

Look for her in the creek bed

In Nutmeg’s shadow

 

 

“Nutmeg”

Warm gentle giant

Mowing sanctuary lawns

Saxophones taste good

 

 

“Meredith”

Strolls the golden woods

Black mask over sweet nature

Real Jerseys have curves

 

“Honey”

Tan fur capped with frost

She awaits the alfalfa

Do not touch the horns

 

Happy World Animal Day, everyone!

Happy Birthday, Peter!

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Today was sponsored for Peter in honor of his birthday!

“As a docent at the Oakland Zoo, Peter’s favorite animals are the chimpanzees. In his honor, we’re pleased to donate to Chimpanzee Sanctuary NW. Love Kelly, Mike, Katie and Michael <3”

Kelly, Mike, Katie, and Michael, thank you so much for thinking of the chimpanzees as you celebrate Peter today! We truly appreciate it!

Happy Birthday, Peter! All of us at CSNW hope you have a fantastic day and many thanks for the difference you help make in the lives of so many chimpanzees! They really are incredible people. 🙂

Jamie:

Missy:

Honey B:

Jody and Burrito (foreground) and Negra and Annie (background):

Greeting Tour

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A while back, one of our followers specifically requested a video of us greeting the chimpanzees in the morning.

Well, here it is.

I hope y’all appreciate the chimps’ enthusiasm as much as I do.

If Looks Could Kale

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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.

Veterinary Clinic Tour

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The sanctuary’s upgraded veterinary clinic has come up quite a bit lately.

We have utilized this area frequently over the past year, and it recently gave us the ability to respond to an unexpected emergency. Thanks to its impeccable usefulness and immediate relevance, the clinic was also mentioned several times during last night’s virtual auction: HOOT! 2020. As we explained to the event’s participants, your generous contributions have built this on-site clinic for the chimpanzees and will help us to add additional equipment and vital supplies in the near future. We caregivers are all comforted to have such a modern and secure facility located just across the hallway from the chimpanzee enclosures so that any necessary procedures can be done safely and effectively.

Because we are so grateful for all of the support and we love to teach people about our work, Dr. Erin and I thought it would be fitting to take you all on a virtual tour of the veterinary clinic! In the video, Dr. Erin also explains some of our protocols and we would love to answer any questions that you may have.

Thank you once again for making all of this possible!

 

Relaxation, Recreation, Recovery

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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!

Putting Out Fires

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This is the time of the year that the inland regions of the Northwest dry out and burn.

Wildfires are a natural and necessary process in the grasslands and forests of the American West, but that doesn’t make them any less daunting. The flames can turn forested hillsides to ash, drive people from their homes, and engulf any structure left in their path. The resulting haze can block out the sun for weeks and make it dangerous for many people to go outdoors. We know more about the role that such infernos play in our ecosystem, but decades of fire suppression have left abundant fuel laying around. Climate change has brought higher temperatures and drier summers, population growth has brought more people into the woods, and development has placed more anthropogenic structures in harm’s way. It’s no surprise that wildfires have grown more intense, frequent, and economically impactful in recent years.

Right now, almost a thousand personnel are fighting a wildfire that has crossed into Kittitas County and descended into its namesake valley. This agricultural hub contains the towns of Ellensburg and Cle Elum, Central Washington University, and Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. The sanctuary is not threatened by this blaze (although some past fires were way too close for comfort and led us to develop a mitigation and prevention system), but the plume of smoke was visible from the sanctuary and the valley was covered in a thick blanket of haze for a couple of days (below).

The firefighting crews of the Pacific Northwest spend lots of time preparing for events like this, and their main goal is always to protect human lives and homes while allowing for nature to do its thing. The Evans Canyon Fire, as it is now called, has incinerated over 75,000 acres of land (an area 1/10 the size of my home state) and is still only partially contained. Even with diverse experts, mathematical models, state-of-the-art equipment and dedicated firefighters, one unexpected breeze could drive the fire past the breaks and into new territory. Containment depends on preparedness and insight, of course, but it also depends on luck. For now, the conditions have been forgiving enough to get us through.

This is where we found ourselves this weekend with Burrito Chimpanzee. You can do lots of things to prepare for a scenario like this, and of course we have discussed the possibility of a chimpanzee being bitten by a venomous snake. Ultimately, though, we were grateful that luck was on our side.

The snake only bit one chimpanzee, not any of the others who mobbed it. The chimps retreated, allowing the team to close off the enclosure and carefully remove the confused rattlesnake. Burrito voluntarily isolated himself in an indoor enclosure, permitting immobilization. We obtained the necessary antivenin, and a little extra, quickly. Our entire staff rushed in to help on a weekend, and Dr. Erin was able to wrangle difficult circumstances to get the life-saving treatment into Burrito. Bubba, despite his initial bad luck, once again proved his resilience and strength. There were so many ways that this situation could have unraveled, but we’re glad it didn’t.

Now, the blaze is mostly contained but the fire is not out yet, and we’re still working around the clock to make sure we can respond to any setbacks. Most importantly, the team is monitoring Burrito’s clinical signs 24/7. Diana and J.B. set up a makeshift bed in the foyer of the Chimp House (above) so that people can be around all night, and we have a supply of emergency drugs loaded and ready-to-go on the clinic counter (also above). We have charts covered in hastily scrawled observations and checklists, and we were ready to give him food, meds, and liquids as soon as he was feeling well enough to sit up. Everyone whooped when he first sat up and urinated, and the atmosphere grew even more exuberant when he reached out and took a grape. We all exhaled in relief as Burrito, our resident phoenix, rose from the proverbial ashes and began to play the “poke” game with caregivers from the comfort of his blanket nest (below). J.B. recently remarked that veterinarians never get to eat dinners in peace, but that also seems true for the rest of the sanctuary staff lately. All day, we’ve been sending texts back and forth regarding Burrito’s status, and we’ve been doing our best to keep the greater CSNW community in the loop. I’ve never been so grateful to work with such a supportive, cohesive, dedicated group of people.

With the consultation of veterinary experts, led by our own Dr. Erin, we’re taking every precaution to give Burrito the best chance at a full recovery. He’s a popular guy, overflowing with charisma, and helps us to know that his loyal fans are also supporting our efforts. We look forward to sending you all some more good news very soon. For now, though, all we can do is continue to monitor Bubba and enjoy tonight’s beautiful sunset- one that only a horrific wildfire could paint.