Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

chimpanzee rescue

Three Exciting Things!

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1) HOOT! online bidding opened today. More items will be added throughout the week before the event, which will stream live one week from today, Saturday, September 18th at 6:00pm PT on Facebook and YouTube. Learn more and see the current auction items available for bidding now on the HOOT! auction site.

2) The Lucky Six aired two nights ago on NBC7 San Diego’s Down to Earth with Dagmar, and you can watch it online now! It’s in four parts, so be sure to watch each of the four videos in sequence.

3) You saw the video celebration of Annie’s birthday yesterday, and now you can see these bonus photos of Annie and others in her group thoroughly enjoying the celebration. It was raining during the forage, but, as J.B. said yesterday, that did not slow them down a bit (well, maybe Negra, who decided to find food under the cover of the greenhouse).

Annie:

Missy, who enjoyed the kale as much as the coconuts:

Foxie:

Burrito, in sequence:

Negra on her throne:

CSNW (Lip)SmackDown

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As mentioned last week, chimpanzees produce several different noises while they’re grooming. Lip smacking, blowing raspberries, and teeth clacking, are among some of the sounds produced. The meeting between Cy and Willy B was perfect example of teeth clacking.

For this week, I decide to let you hear some of the other noises in the form of a Guess Who game!

Below are two other residents here producing some grooming noise. Can you guess who they are?

Guess Who Part 1

Guess Who Part 2

I will give you some time to take a guess. In the meantime, some other little updates from today!

It was a fairly quiet day today, overall. We did continue with the introduction process between Willy B’s Group and Cy’s Group.

The first meeting today was between Willy B and Terry! Just like last time, when Willy B and Terry realized it was their time to hang out with each other today, they were excited to say the least. There was no initial display that we might expect between two adult males. It was instant grooming, playing, and laughter between the two.

Next was Terry and Honey B! As you may have read about their last meeting, things didn’t go as planned. We are taking it very slow in allowing these two to get to know each other. Today, they just met each other through the caging and did not share the same space. Though Honey B was a little apprehensive of first, her confidence grew. When it did, she almost beckoned Terry to meet her at the caging. He obliged, which resulted in a long grooming session, and a longer play session between the two. We will continue to provide them opportunities to interact with each other through the caging before they both are comfortable enough to play with each other in the same space.

Have you locked in your guesses yet!?

If not, I will give you a little more time. Here are some photos I was able to capture today (and one from last week). Is there a clue with in the photos of who they are? Maybe? Maybe not?

Gordo in a box!

 

Lucky and Rayne hanging out with each other on a front room bench!

 

Nutmeg in the creek! (He’s a wild steer now. You can’t change his mind.)

 

Willy B with one of the new Giant Kongs last week!

Ok! Without any further delay… *drum roll*

The first video is Terry!

And last but certainly not least, the second video is Honey B!

How many grooming noises did you hear in those videos and what kinds?

Thank you for playing along everybody!

Clack of the Titans

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As we continue to develop our plan to move forward with the introductions between Cy’s Group and Willy B’s Group with two-on-twos, we are continuing with the one-on-one introductions between group members in the meantime on a varied schedule. Today, both titans met for the second time today. When the doors opened between them, Cy tried to initiate a game of chase with Willy B, though he was a little hesitant at first. But once Willy B’s courage built up, they engaged in chase. Afterward, they had a very long grooming session with each other.

As you may hear in the video, both were breathy panting and teeth clacking. Teeth clacking is one of the noises chimpanzees produce when they are engaged in grooming. There are a few theories as to why chimpanzees make these noises when they groom. One of those theories is that it is a way for one chimpanzee to indicate to the other that their intention is to groom them. These noises become more prevalent when the chimpanzees find something particularly interesting to groom on their partner. Grooming also plays a big role in chimpanzee social life. Besides the hygienic aspect of removing any dead skin, scabs, or parasites, the act of grooming itself is a way to initiate, maintain, and enhance the social bond between individuals. There’s a certain level of trust that goes into letting somebody groom you, and in the case of chimpanzees, the area in which they groom.

These are all positive signs between the two big gentlemen.

Cy
Willy B

Other Bonus Photos From Today:

Jamie patrolling Young’s Hill this morning with Foxie and Missy behind her.
Lucky relaxing in the nice breeze rolling through her Greenhouse.
Mave doing the same in her Greenhouse.

On to the Next Challenge

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This post is both about the great staff at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest and about the chimpanzees who they care for; the chimpanzees who lead the way towards embracing challenges and demonstrating resiliency.

I’ve been incredibly impressed with our staff during the last few of years of challenges and uncertainty. We’ve done some hard things and been faced with difficult decisions, and the staff have embraced it all and moved forward with hope.

The most recent challenge has been starting introductions between the two groups of chimpanzees from Wildlife Waystation.

There are risks involved in introducing chimps to one another, risks we have experienced firsthand. It would be easy to decide to just not try, to keep things as they are. But the staff realize that the benefits to the chimpanzees’ welfare far outweigh the risks.

The chimpanzees themselves have already given us glimpses of these benefits – male friends for WillyB! So many new grooming partners for Mave! Half-sisters to play with Honey B! Lucky, Cy, Terry, Gordo, Rayne, and Dora could also benefit from living in a larger group with more choices for social partners.

I’ve been incredibly impressed with how the chimpanzees have reacted to the initial one-on-one introductions. Each of them have been able to overcome any anxiety in meeting those in the other group. In fact, they have embraced the opportunity, sometimes making it difficult to get the pairs we want because there are chimps who stay in the room, attempting to be the one who is next in line for an introduction.

Chimpanzees are amazing that way.

While we humans live in our heads much of the time, worrying and wondering, chimpanzees most often assess the situation and pretty quickly dive in. It’s not that they can’t think ahead – they certainly can. And it’s not that they never experience worry – for sure they do. But when something goes awry or they encounter something unexpected, they are usually able to quickly reassess and adjust, or just turn to the next good thing they know is coming, like pears for dinner.

While it’s true that Burrito is a very special being in so many ways, his ability to bounce back is a trait he shares with many of his species. Chimpanzees are tough, both physically and mentally. Sadly, that is one reason they were used so readily in biomedical research.

I’ve been particularly impressed with Rayne’s group and how they have so quickly adjusted to their new home. They marched in and claimed their space, quickly finding favorite spots and embracing the sanctuary’s routine.

J.B. shared yesterday that the new group was given access to the Chute for the first time this week. And he let you in on a secret: many (perhaps even the majority of) chimpanzees LOVE cage tunnels, choosing to spend time in them over larger areas that humans might describe as more “natural” looking.

This might be a good time to remind everyone of this blog post which is subtitled Caging is OK.

It’s not up to us to decide for chimpanzees in captivity what areas are their favorites; it’s up to us to provide them with variety and give them the choice to decide for themselves. For now, Lucky’s group has clearly decided that the Chute is awesome, even when they have access to the new beautiful greenhouses with grass and bamboo.

Today when we were cleaning, I snapped a couple of photos of all six chimpanzees in the Chute. I couldn’t even tell where one chimpanzee began and another ended. Gordo was the only one not in the chimpanzee puddle at the top of the Chute, instead laying claim to the spot closest to the end.

At another point during the day, I found brother and sister Cy and Lucky lying next to each other, facing opposite directions at the top of the Chute:

While Dora was trying out a small perch for a bed:

Thank you to all of the wonderful chimpanzees at CSNW who embrace change, find their thing, and power through the challenges towards the good times that may be just out of sight, but are surely there. Thank you to the staff who do the same. And thank you to all of you for reminding us, with your comments and support, what a special mission we have.

All Season Burrito

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My phone has been angry at me the past week or so. The memory is near capacity and it sometimes refuses to run some apps. The culprit of the memory consumption? Photos and video. Though I upload them to a cloud drive, I still have them on my phone because you never know when you’re going to need one to send to some one. It’s (personally) tough to purge the photos and video from my phone. As I delete 100, I take 100 more the next day I arrive at work. But, as I try to better myself at deleting things off my phone and trust the cloud drive, I found several videos of Burrito and I running around Young’s Hill over the past year. Watching these over again, I realized something. Every season is running season for Burrito! Please enjoy this montage of him running around Young’s Hill in the various seasons of Washington State.

Here are some bonus photos I took today and yesterday:

Foxie watching the produce delivery this morning from Young’s Hill.

Negra in the Greenhouse while the others venture out on their first patrol of the morning.

Jody foraging for some pine branches and wild roses on Young’s Hill this afternoon.

Jamie with her sweet pepper haul yesterday during Missy’s birthday.

Annie with her sweet potato haul yesterday.

 

Burrito is the light in all of our lives

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You’ve probably seen a video just like this in the past if you’ve been following the blog for a bit, but playing with Burrito never gets old. Head nod along as you watch the video above!

 

Bonus photo of Mave:

 

Today’s Forecast: Rayne

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So there wasn’t any rain in today’s forecast, though I think everyone would appreciate some in the state, but there is Rayne!

There are so many aspects about Rayne that remind us of Honey B. The stare she gives you. Her confidence in knowing what she wants and likes. And catch her at the right angle and you would be fooled on who is who. Let’s not forget they are biological sisters.

Though Rayne and her group have been here over a month and they have shown us a great deal of their personalities, we really are still finding new things out about them. One thing we are learning about Rayne, she seems to love food puzzles. Just like Honey B.

Rayne with three Boomer Balls

As Anthony has mentioned before, Rayne and Friends are a little bit more destructive than we had anticipated when it comes to their enrichment. So we have been slowly been introducing them to new things, one-by-one. Boomer Balls have been the latest.

Speaking of new things, we recently found one Burrito seems to absolutely love now: KONG Zoo! A gigantic Kong!

With Burrito still recovering from his recent incident, we decided to give him two of his favorite new thing he was introduced to before the incident. When he has these, he can be found dragging them along with him, throwing them up in the air, rolling them along, and bouncing on them like a hopper ball.

Here are some of the photos I took when he first got a hold of the gigantoids before the incident:

Jamie also seemed to really like them when they were first introduced.

As posted yesterday, the introduction process between Rayne and her group, and Mave and hers has begun. And please bear with us through this process as they can make for a long day. As mentioned in yesterday’s post, we will most likely just be sharing some highlights of the process. We try to get photos and video if we can, but it’s important to give them the space they need to try to form a relationship without our interference or distraction.

The highlight for today was Mave met Rayne today.

They spent a lot of time grooming one another and reassuring each other when the neighbors were rowdy. Similar to yesterday’s meeting with Terry, Rayne didn’t seem to want to leave Mave, and Mave didn’t seem to want to leave Rayne when we thought they were ready to move on, so we gave them some more time until we knew they were ready. Overall it was a very positive meeting between the two.

Mave also met Cy today as well. Cy spent a lot of time grooming Mave and trying to get her to play with him. Just as with Terry, Mave was a tad hesitant to play with the big guy at first, though she did. But her preference was grooming, which Cy obliged. Overall a positive meeting between them as well.

After their meeting, Cy went back to perusing through his magazines.

It was an eventful day for all, so I hope you all have a great night!

Some bonus photos:

Missy trying to spy on the new neighbors
Foxie during her morning patrol of Young’s hill
Lucky sitting on the firehose in one of the front rooms