Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

chimp

In memory of Kevin Clark

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Shelley Winfrey sponsors this day each year in memory of her brother, Kevin Clark with these sentiments: “For my brother, who passed away…he would have loved the chimps.”

Shelley and her mother, Patty, are such good friends to the chimpanzees and we’re so thrilled to have them as part of our chimp family. We’re touched to be able to celebrate Kevin’s memory with them today.

Thank you, Shelley, for always holding the chimps in your heart and for all you do for them. We are all thinking of you and your family today and sending all good thoughts for comfort, peace and joyful memories.

Burrito:

The Tightrope Walkers

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Jamie and Missy have somewhat different life histories, but they definitely share some things in common.

 

Missy was born in a laboratory in 1975 and used both for hepatitis vaccine testing (and likely other types of biomedical research) and also for breeding. She had four infants, but she did not get to raise any of them.

 

Jamie‘s early life, on the other hand, is a little more of a mystery. We believe she was born in captivity, and we were told that she was raised in a human environment by an animal trainer for the first nine years of her life. She most likely was used within the entertainment industry. Perhaps she was trained to do tricks and loaned out for birthday parties, or maybe she performed in a circus or a roadside zoo attraction.

After “growing up human” during her formative years, she was then put into biomedical testing and, like Missy and all of the Cle Elum Seven, she was used for hepatitis vaccine research. As far as we know, she was never used to breed more chimpanzees.

 

One somewhat random thing that these two chimpanzees have in common is the joy they seem to get out of tightrope walking.

Given Jamie’s early history, you might wonder whether she was trained to tightrope walk as a youngster, and perhaps she was.

But Missy, as far as we know, spent her entire life before coming to the sanctuary in laboratory environments, and not ones that likely had ropes or fire hose or the room to tightrope walk.

In the wild, chimpanzees do a lot of their traveling on the ground, but, when in the jungle, they do traverse through trees and vines to get from one place to another and when playing, hunting, fighting (or running away from a fight), foraging for fruit, and finding a spot for a nest. With their opposable toes, they can grip branches and vines with their feet.

 

Most good captive environments for great apes include ropes or fire hose so that the apes can do what comes naturally to them. If you google “tightrope walk chimp” you will find all sorts of photos of chimpanzees and (apparently mislabeled) gorillas, orangutans, and gibbons in zoos and sanctuaries.

With chimpanzees who have grown up in laboratories, you really never know what they will be comfortable with and what they may decide to ignore or even be afraid of doing. We are unlikely to ever see Foxie tightrope walk, given her avoidance of non-sturdy surfaces, but we did spot Burrito trying out this activity for the first time earlier this month (sorry, we didn’t get a photo). They are all going for year-ten firsts lately!

Jamie and Missy, though, both seem to really enjoy this activity and will do it on their own apparently just for fun. I noticed recently that they do have different styles. I think this may have to do with their individual centers of gravity.

Missy is short and can glide across a fire hose without much need for outstretched arms for balancing:

 

Jamie, on the other hand, is long and lean and seems to rely on quite a bit of balancing assistance from her arms:

Whatever the origins of their common interest in this activity, I’m just glad they can now do it whenever they want.

 

After the party

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The chimpanzees, and particularly the boss lady, started the day out a little tense and have pretty much stuck to that theme all day. There have been a lot of minor arguments and screaming, tension at meals, all stuff that is normal at times in the realm of chimp society. And if even one person is feeling tense, it affects the entire group. Who really knows what the cause is today other than the chimps.  There has been a lot of excitement and new happenings in the last week, perhaps an argument between them last night, getting used to the sudden warmer weather, or maybe just waking up on the wrong side of the nest like we all do sometimes. At any rate, a breakfast forage in the cool morning air with time to explore the hill together, and apart, seemed like a good way to start the day.

We’ve been writing all this special week of celebration about a new side of Negra we’ve been seeing. And today’s been no different. With what seemed like an extra purpose in her step, Negra was the first to lead everyone onto the hill this morning and she explored and rambled around on her own for quite some time:

Annie and Negra (background):

Jody chose ALL the watermelon then high-tailed it back to the greenhouse to relish it all while making her classic happy dinosaur (low moan) noises as only Jody can do:

Missy looking so little out there:

Jamie: “This is serious business.”

Foxie and France Dora were busy exploring up and down and hither and yon:

Even within a day of rest and relaxation after all the excitement of the week there have been things happening left and right! As the weather heated up this afternoon we decided to serve snow cones using the chimps’ shaved ice machine with a few frozen grapes and watermelon mixed in.

Then later in the day there was suddenly a huge ruckus with Annie screaming at the top of her lungs. We assumed a disagreement was happening when everyone broke out into alarm calls and we ran in to see a rather large (and harmless) snake, a beautiful yellow-bellied racer, in the playroom who was desperately trying to find his/her way back out the barn doors they had crawled under. The chimps will usually grab or hit smaller garter snakes, but I think due to the size of this one no one was willing to touch it (thankfully, for the snake). But that didn’t stop Jamie from toppling her kitchenette over onto them and throwing random items in attempt to squish the snake. The poor thing was doing their best to get the heck out of there, but couldn’t get traction on the slick floor! We humans were all quietly cheering the snake toward the door, holding our breath (because these things don’t usually end well for the snake) when who but brave little Foxie (and without Dora!) finally took one big swipe and pushed the snake back outside! Yeah, Foxie! Kelsi and I ran outside just in time to see the snake racing off through the fence, unscathed and probably trying to figure out what the heck just happened.

As I write this, all the chimps are settling down into their night nests after a wonderful dinner forage of fresh summer veggies and a favorite evening food puzzle of grab bags. These bags are filled with a variety of enrichment and toys and most importantly to the chimps, some kind of food. Tonight it was stacking containers that screw together filled with small amounts of peanut butter. To say Jamie adores these bags is an understatement. She typically runs around collecting as many as she can, tossing them over her should into a big pile that none of the other chimps would think to touch. As we said our goodnights she was literally surrounded by all her bags, happy as a clam.

Somewhere in all the happenings today I unfortunately lost a few extra photos from yesterdays party I was going to share. Who knows, maybe they will resurface. But! I did capture a priceless bonus photo from today! Often when Jamie builds a nest she likes to incorporate larger items to surround her, rather like a fort. Today she seemed to have had enough of everyone and went all out creating a wall to surround herself with from her kitchenette (notice the doors open to provide more cover) and the brilliant move of using the shopping basket to secretly peer through and watch our every move. All she needed was a moat. A little creepy, a lot brilliant! She is amazing. But we knew this.

Happy Birthday, Dan!

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This day of sanctuary for the chimps was sponsored by Cheryl Eklund in celebration of her husband, Dan Eklund, on his birthday with this special message:

“Happy Birthday to my wonderful animal loving husband. All Our Love, Cheri and Judee”

Cheryl thank you so much for thinking of the chimpanzees today as you all celebrate Dan’s birthday!

Happy Birthday, from all the primates here at the sanctuary, Dan! We hope it’s your best one yet! We so appreciate you making a difference in the chimps’ lives on your special day.

Missy is able to celebrate every single day to the fullest, thanks to people like you. May your heart be just as full.

So much to celebrate!

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Our dear friend, Kathleen Corby, sponsored this extra special day of celebration and shared this beautiful message:

“Two very special reasons for me to sponsor lucky June 13th: 1. I want to celebrate beautiful, remarkable, beloved Negra on her 45th birthday. The very first time I saw Negra she stole my heart. Knowing her past makes me admire and respect her all the more as I watch her courageously take on new adventures each year. Can’t wait for Negra to surprise me this year and many more years to come….Happy Birthday dear girl! 2. I am excited to celebrate with you from afar 10 magnificent years of Hope… Love… Home… Sanctuary at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. Little did Missy, Annie, Negra, Jody, Foxie, Jamie, and Burrito know that the long trip from PA to WA ten years ago would change their lives for the better forever! You have given them their dignity and you have restored their wild inner souls. Happy Sanctuary Anniversary Day and much love always!”

Kathleen, we are just so lucky to have you as part of our chimp family. From our hearts, thank you for always sharing yours with the chimps, with us all. You make a lasting difference in their lives and we so appreciate the love and reverence you hold for each of them. Thank you for helping us celebrate such a special day!

If you follow us on Facebook, you may have seen us live this morning as the Birthday Queen started her special day off enjoying a homemade breakfast of sweet potato and berry pancakes served in the sunny greenhouse! If Negra could have ALL the bread and carbs, she would be a happy woman. Wouldn’t we all, Neggie, wouldn’t we all.

Happy Birthday, Negra, we love you!

And to Annie, Burrito, Foxie, Jamie, Jody, Missy and Negra, Happy Anniversary!! Ten years in your sanctuary home bouyed by the love and support of so many near and far. You surprise, delight, teach and humble us every single day and we couldn’t love you more.

Jamie:

Annie and Missy:

Foxie:

Burrito:

Annie, Foxie and Jody:

The strawberry patch

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We harvested the first big bowl of strawberries from the chimps’ strawberry patch today! Spring this year has remained windy and on the cooler side so we’ve only removed the panels of the greenhouse that face Young’s Hill to avoid the wind whipping through their toasty space. So the chimps have to go into the raceway leading to Young’s Hill to see the strawberry patch, but without fail, the second I’m out there I can hear a crowd gathering behind me in anticipation.

Jamie – this face!

Jody anxiously awaiting her berries (even Dora looks excited in the background 🙂 ):

Mmmmhhh, sun-warmed strawberries…

Missy reaching for her handful:

Annie and her strawberry covered tongue got tired of waiting for more and decided to help me out by sitting with her mouth and hand ready so I could drop more in as quickly as possible:

Conflict

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We had a question recently on YouTube wondering if the chimpanzees fight less than other groups. It made us realize that we really don’t share that part of their daily lives much. I tried to provide some answers as to why in this video, but maybe there are other reasons that are less obvious (number of likes on Facebook? I hope that’s not it!).

We do have a category called “Fights” for blog posts, so you can check out previous posts on the subject here.

Let us know what you think – does this surprise you or make you uncomfortable to see the chimpanzees fighting?