chimpanzee rescue

A Delicacy Worth the Risk

July 13, 2018 by Diana

Today we set out a breakfast forage on Young’s Hill. Here’s a photo of the morning sun glinting off of Negra’s beautiful head:

As we were watching Jody forage near the cabin, she screamed a little and batted at the air. We all collectively thought she had been stung by a wasp. When Jody started to walk towards the greenhouse, we noticed she was carrying a wasp nest!

A few years ago, much to our surprise, Jamie and Missy discovered the delicacy of wasp larvae.

Chimpanzees in the wild have also been known to brave a sting or a bite to get an insect meal.

Apparently Jody has also found out about this delicacy.

She did pay a price for her prize, today, though. At lunch, Dr. Erin noticed her right eye was swollen. She’ll probably sleep well tonight with a little benadryl and some ibuprofen. We hope the snack was worth it!

Farmer Jo

July 7, 2018 by Elizabeth

Jody has earned the nickname “Farmer Jo” due to her endearing habit during forages of collecting as much food as she can possibly hold and then hobbling bipedally down to the greenhouse to enjoy her spoils. She was very happy with the carrots, beets, and corn that volunteer Patti brought for lunch today.

Ceremonial Groundbreaking

July 1, 2018 by Diana

Yesterday was awesome. At our 2016 HOOT! gala, we had an exciting auction item – the “Golden Shovel Groundbreaking” with the opportunity to “fling the first shovel of dirt at the groundbreaking for the expansion.”

Yesterday, we were able to finally have that ceremonial groundbreaking!

There were two separate donors who won the item at the auction – Chris Gossard (and his wife Lee Ann) and Pat Cattolico. Chris and Pat donned some (also-ceremonial) protective gear and indulged us in a photo shoot.

Chris, Pat, Pat’s sister, former board member Sharon Burke, current board member Jessica Mayhew and her partner Chad then helped to put out a watermelon, cherry, and carrot forage on Young’s Hill for the chimpanzees’ dinner.

Negra was the first out the raceway as she has been for almost all hill forages so far this summer! As a stationary photographer, it was hard to keep up with her as 45+ year-old Negra climbed structures (including the new structure we are informally calling Escher for M.C. Esher), waded through the tall grass, and generally acted with her newfound adventurous spirit.

Burrito found the stash hidden in the treat rock:

as Annie hung around:

It was a great day. Every day that Annie, Burrito, Foxie, Jamie, Jody, Missy, and Negra spend at the sanctuary is great.

The staff and board of directors feel so fortunate to have such generous, fun, and loyal donors that choose to support the chimpanzees and the future plans for the sanctuary, and yesterday we were reminded again of just how wonderful CSNW supporters are.

Countdown to the start of construction: 15 days!

Females in Charge

June 30, 2018 by Diana

We’re getting ready for the small groundbreaking ceremony this afternoon! The actual construction on Phase 1 of the expansion will start in a little over two weeks, but today we’re having a ceremonial start to this huge project. I can’t even express how happy we are to have arrived at this day and how incredibly grateful I am for every single person who has donated these last two years as we fundraised to begin this project.

We have a lot of work ahead of us, but it’s amazing to be finally at the first step towards bringing more chimpanzees home.

In the meantime, I bring you my thoughts this morning as I walked around Young’s Hill with Jamie, Missy, Jody, and Foxie walking together on the inside of their habitat…

In the wild, chimpanzees societies are patriarchal. With their might, size, and testosterone, even low-ranking adult males are said to outrank all of the adult females in any given group. In captivity, things are often quite different. Every group of chimpanzees that I have worked with for an extended period of time has had a strong female that clearly called many of the shots and at least occasionally put their foot down with males in the group.

Maybe it’s because the chimpanzees I’ve known have not been socialized into a normal chimpanzee society – they were raised in human environments or spent much of their time living alone or in pairs within laboratory settings. Or maybe part of it is that chimpanzees are flexible and adaptable, figuring their relationships out as they go rather than having a rigid, strictly biologically-driven social order. Most likely it’s a bit of this and a bit of that.

Even though it’s not what they would be doing in the wild, and it would likely be much better if they were living in a more balanced male-to-female group, I can’t help but admire the female power that exists at the sanctuary.

Like today, when this all-female patrol walked around the perimeter of their territory.

Give and Take

June 28, 2018 by Elizabeth

Today volunteer Amanda captured some interesting chimp behavior on her phone while watching volunteer Kailie serve lunch to the chimpanzees. Kailie had set a couple of pieces of yam within Jamie’s reach. As boss, Jamie has the unique privilege of being able to leave her food unattended and be reasonably sure that no one else will have the nerve to take it. Today Jamie wasn’t showing much interest in her yams, so Annie (who is at the very bottom of the dominance hierarchy) must have done some quick mental calculations and decided that Jamie might not be too upset if Annie took her yams. As you’ll see in the video, it turns out that Annie was right, but it was still a gutsy move, and it demonstrates just how much confidence Annie has developed since her early days at the sanctuary when she wouldn’t have dared risk upsetting the boss.

Incidentally, later in the meal Jamie got her own form of payback when she distracted Annie with a kiss to the forehead while she swiped some of her primate chow.