Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Considering that for most of their lives, the chimpanzees were so confined that they weren’t able to move more than a couple of feet in any direction, it’s incredible how confidently they use their space these days. Seeing them high up on the climbing structures on Young’s Hill never gets old.
Jamie:
Foxie:
Missy:
Jody:
Annie:
Chimpanzees naturally are very territorial. This is something universal for both wild and captive chimpanzees. When we see territorial displays in the Cle Elum Seven, it’s really wonderful because it means that they are not only exhibiting what we call species-typical behavior, but it also means that they see this is their home and it is worth protecting.
In the wild, individuals within a group will split off from the main group and go on a patrol to check the boundaries of their territory. They move silently through the forest to make sure there are no intruders. In most cases, these patrols are exclusively males. Watch this video from the Jane Goodall Institute to learn about male patrols:
Burrito is the only male at CSNW, so we don’t see a lot of the typical social organization of chimpanzees groups that we learn about in school. In captivity, the same rules don’t apply, especially when the group is comprised of an unusually large percentage of females compared to males. It’s one reason why in the wild, males are always the dominant figures within a group, but in captivity many times females are dominant (which is the case at CSNW with our boss lady, Jamie). So even though we see natural territorial behaviors from all of the Cle Elum Seven, we don’t really see patrols.
Today however, we saw a troop of chimps band together and defend their territory against the neighbor elk, who decided to pay us another visit today.
You’ll never believe who was leading the gang.
OK, maybe you will. It was Burrito. In the wild this would seem obvious—dominant male chimps would definitely be front and center in a patrol. But Burrito is not a typical male chimp. He never had older males to learn from and was never in a typical social group. After being in the lab for over 20 years, it’s really not surprising that he never developed the same way wild male chimps do. So this is why it was especially exciting to not only see the chimps on a patrol this morning, but for Burrito to be in the lead. The chimps continue to surprise us as they develop into their sanctuary life.
First, Jody started to follow Burrito (with a cattail in tow of course!)
Jamie joined in, followed by Annie, and eventually Foxie as well:
Today the chimpanzees enjoyed a party sponsored by Felicity Wood and Redfin! The chimpanzees enjoyed lots of new enrichment to include a giant Lego castle and a fabulous red and white themed food forage. While the chimps are always up for a party, Jamie in particular seemed to enjoy today and much to our delight she found countless projects to engage in throughout the afternoon. And if you aren’t already aware, finding something to enrich Jamie is no small feat.
Here Debbie realizes her dream of adult size Legos as Jamie helps her with the directions to building the castle:
The finished result of Jamie and Debbie’s hard work and two amazing house pinatas:
Here’s Jamie investigating the castle:
Annie checking out a giant red crayon:
Jody as her beautiful self:
Jamie enjoying a cranberry raspberry “cocktail”:
Annie investigating a new bowling set:
Thank you so much for your time and effort in giving the chimpanzees a fun and interesting day, Redfin!
All of the chimps have nick-names that have caught on over the years and almost all of the caregivers use with them. Annie is “Annie Bo-Bannie,” Burrito is just “Mr. B,” Foxie is “Foxie Fox!” Jody is “Jo-Jo,” Jamie is “James,” Missy is “Miss” and Negra is “Neggie.”
Missy has a tendency to sometimes lie in the “Neggie spot” which is in front of the catwalk window, where Negra likes to sit and gaze out onto the valley below. Sometimes Missy even covers herself in a blanket, in perfect Negra style. When we go to say hi to the chimps, sometimes Missy trips us up and we mistake her for Negra at first, because of her perfect impersonation. This is what we call “Fake Neggie.”
Today, Fake Neggie was in the greenhouse on the top platform, soaking in the sun…
and Real Neggie was in her spot on the catwalk in the playroom.
We’re continuing our series of blog posts on chimpanzee identification today with Jamie. (Did you miss the posts about Annie, Burrito, or Foxie? Click on their names.)
Jamie is the boss of Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, and she takes her job seriously. One of the first things you notice about Jamie is her strut. She walks around like she’s invincible. She has a solid, muscular body and such perfect posture that she often looks like a table: `
Her size is also somewhat imposing. She’s one of the larger chimps in the group. Here she is with Jody on the left and Missy on the right:
and with Foxie:
Jamie’s face is a lighter brown overall than some of the other chimps’ faces (compare the color of her face to the color of Foxie’s in the photo above), and she has a little bit of white pigmentation around her mouth and chin:
And of course, she is often carrying or wearing one of her beloved cowgirl boots:
Maureen McCarthy, PhD candidate at the University of Southern California, was our very first guest blogger. She is doing field research in Uganda, and while there she has been featured as a regular on Scientific American’s blog. The entry that follows is particularly moving. WARNING: some disturbing images are included in this entry.
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This is our last week of data collection. It was supposed to be a laid-back week to collect a few more samples and enjoy a few final days tracking chimpanzees, a fieldwork victory lap of sorts. It didn’t turn out as I’d hoped, though. Instead, things went very, very wrong.
On Tuesday, we ventured back to a forest reserve south of the Budongo Forest. It’s one we’ve visited numerous times before…a much larger forest than most we visit, one which helps functionally connect the fragmented forests of this corridor region to the much larger Budongo Forest to the north. On the surface, chimpanzees here have a good habitat compared to our friends to the south in most forest fragments I’ve been studying. A closer look, however, reveals an abundance of illegal logging and snare hunting sites within the forest. Though snare hunting is illegal, it is a leading cause of injury and death among chimpanzees in Uganda. Up to one third of chimpanzees in forests of Western Uganda have sustained snare injuries (Reynolds, 2005; Wrangham and Goldberg, 1997; Wrangham and Mugume, 2000).
We received news that chimpanzees had been heard far inside the forest early that morning. Jack and I, along with a field assistant and a guide from the National Forestry Authority, began traveling through the forest en route to the area where they were heard. Around mid-morning, we too began hearing pant hoot vocalizations from the chimpanzees, as well as occasional whimpers and screams, which are not unusual, especially among larger parties. We projected waypoints for their location and followed trails in that direction until we knew we were close. It sounded like a large party was present, with a second party approximately 200 meters away.
We decided to leave the nearby party so as not to disturb them, instead backtracking along their trail in the hopes of finding nests from the previous night. After successfully locating numerous nests and dung samples, we followed their trail back to where they’d been calling in the hopes of finding that they’d gone, leaving some dung samples behind. Instead, we saw a number of chimpanzees, which, along with their earlier vocalizations, suggested a large party was still present. We watched as a subadult male climbed a tree. He produced a dung sample, and we noted its location so we could find it there after they had moved. When it seemed that the chimpanzees may be preparing to leave, we decided to slowly and carefully move closer to the tree where we saw the male, in an attempt to collect the dung. As we approached, we found that a young chimpanzee was watching us from deep within the dense vegetation. The youngster was about three years old. He watched us fearfully and whimpered from a limb about one meter off the ground, then became more fearful and began to scream. We wondered why he didn’t simply leave his leafy perch. Was he injured or trapped? One of our field assistants, who led in the front of our party, assured us confidently that he could see both hands and feet, and that all limbs were free. Despite these assurances, I was left with an uneasy feeling. However, a large party of chimpanzees was still nearby. An adult started to climb down from his position in a tree. I decided that it would be too risky to move closer through the dense vegetation. Given the thickness of the undergrowth, we would have to approach very closely to see the young chimp well enough to assess the situation thoroughly. If he then became very upset, others in the party could come to his defense and we could risk being seriously attacked. I would have to rely on my field assistant’s assessment that the youngster was fine despite what seemed to be unusual behavior. At least, we noted hopefully, there was no distressed mother visible. We left the possibility of sample collection behind and went home for the day.
The next morning, we came back in the hopes that the chimpanzees had all left and the dung samples remained. As we approached, we heard and saw no sign of chimpanzee presence. However, we soon heard the unmistakable whimpers of the same young chimpanzee. Jack and I looked at each other with sinking, awful dread. The infant chimpanzee was indeed trapped there. I approached, passing through the vegetation to get a close look at the chimpanzee. He had a wire snare around his left foot. He still seemed strong and relatively healthy despite being trapped. We suspected that he had been ensnared there sometime after the party arrived on Tuesday morning. We left the area immediately to get phone reception and called our colleagues at the Budongo Conservation Field Station for assistance. We hoped their veterinary staff could provide the necessary help to free the chimp from his snare.
The ensnared chimpanzee. Note the trapped left foot, with the snare wire visible on the branch above. Photo © Maureen McCarthy.
Phone signals were poor and transportation was challenging between Budongo and our location. We spent hours waiting but eventually received word that help was on the way. Finally, two veterinarians from Budongo met us in a nearby village. I was relieved that help had finally arrived and that this chimpanzee could be given a chance to be free again and to go on with his young life. We trekked through the forest until we finally arrived again at the location of our little friend. As we pushed through the dense vegetation, I couldn’t see the chimp at his usual post. For a brief moment, my heart leapt as I thought he may have escaped his snare. A moment later, however, I was devastated by reality—he was not visible because he had died and was now hanging below the branch where we found him earlier.
My mind was reeling. How could he have died so soon? Sure, it took hours for help to arrive, but he looked so strong earlier. Dozens of “what ifs” flooded my thoughts. What if we had ignored the risks and pushed in further yesterday to assess the situation fully and see that he was truly ensnared? What if we had stayed by his side today? What if we had just tried to release him on our own before help arrived? If we did release him, could we have helped him find the other chimpanzees in his community? I was heartbroken and guilt-ridden with thoughts that I should have done more.
Thankfully, the veterinary staff from Budongo could not have been more calming and professional. Their assessment was that the chimpanzee was likely an orphan since there was no sign of his mother in the vicinity. We should expect a chimpanzee mother to remain nearby if her infant is trapped in a snare. They also assessed the cause of the infant’s death. The infant was found hanging upside down by the trapped leg. It seems that he had fallen from the leafy cushion of branches on which he was seated and was unable to right himself. Perhaps he was simply too tired after all the trauma he’d experienced since the previous day. As he hung upside down, the oxygen-poor blood accumulated in his head as the heart was unable to pump it back up to his chest and replenish his brain with oxygen-rich blood. The wound, along with our account of where the chimpanzees traveled, corroborated the notion that the injury had occurred the previous day. Perhaps most tragically, he had only just died. If we had been able to intervene only an hour sooner, the outcome could have been very different. This particular detail is staggeringly difficult for me…
The snare injury, post-mortem. Photo © Maureen McCarthy.
The vets also assessed the reason for his injury. It was caused by what is known as a landmine snare, a particularly complex snare devised to catch a large animal such as a bushbuck. The complex construction made it clear that it would have been difficult if not impossible for the chimpanzee to free himself, at least not without losing his foot in the process. This snare was likely set by an illegal logger in one of the nearby camps within the forest, perhaps one of the men who went crashing through the forest to avoid being seen by us just earlier that morning.
The veterinarians freed the chimpanzee’s body from the snare and carefully collected it for post-mortem analysis and a respectful burial. He was so small, so vulnerable, and so beautiful. Life had only just left him, and I was simultaneously so sorry for him and so grateful that he no longer had to suffer the fear and pain he had been feeling.
What can we make of this tragedy? I feel distraught and helpless over the loss of this young innocent life. I can find comfort in a couple of thoughts, though. First, I am grateful that none of our team members was injured in what potentially could have been a very dangerous situation. If I had insisted that we push in to get a closer look when other chimps surrounded us, I could instead be writing an account of one of our team members being attacked by a chimpanzee. Second, I am grateful that, if he had to die, at least the loss of consciousness he experienced was relatively painless compared to a week or more of suffering slow starvation, a fate endured by some chimpanzees similarly caught in snares.
Max, a snare injury survivor in Kibale National Park, Uganda. Photo courtesy of Ronan Donovan.
I can take one more comfort. That is, I can hope we learn something from this awful situation and create some sort of positive outcome. I hope the plight of this innocent chimpanzee can help shed light on the gravity of snare hunting as a threat to our closest living relatives. There are committed individuals in Uganda trying to ensure that this won’t happen to another chimpanzee. For example, please consider supporting a snare removal program such as the Jane Goodall Institute Snare Removal Program or the Kibale Snare Removal Program. Here’s hoping snare hunting becomes a thing of the past.
This post was originally published at Scientific American.
Works cited:
Reynolds, V. (2005). Chimpanzees of the Budongo Forest. New York: Oxford University Press.
Wrangham, R.W., Goldberg, T. (1997). An overview of chimpanzee conservation and management strategies. In Conserving the chimpanzees of Uganda: a population and habitat viability assessment for Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii (ed. E. Edroma, N. Rosen and P.S. Miller). IUCN/SSC, Apple Valley, MN.
Wrangham, R.W., Mugume, S. (2000). Snare removal program in Kibale National Park: a preliminary report. Pan Africa News 7: 18-20.
If you are familiar with Jane Goodall then you might also be familiar with the idea that chimpanzees use tools. In fact, you may remember that just last month J.B. posted an excellent blog about this subject. (If you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, you should!) This tool use, exhibited by chimpanzees across Africa, is a skill acquired by social learning. Social learning, in simple terms, refers to the idea that we can learn by observing the example of someone else and applying this model to our own behavior. There have been many studies done with varying results that indicate that chimpanzees are competent social learners. This morning I snapped a series of photos of the observation stage between Burrito and Jamie on the treat mound. I’m excited to see Burrito put his knowledge into action although sometimes social pressure can influence decisions too and, today, neither Burrito nor I appeared to think that Jamie was interested in sharing!
Jamie using bamboo stalks to fish for applesauce in the treat mound while Burrito looks on:
and on:
and on:
and on:
Until giving up and moving on:
