Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
There’s nothing we at CSNW love more than a nice, peaceful day in the Chimp House. And lucky for us the group of nine blessed us with one this week. In today’s video enjoy breakfast, mid-morning grooming sessions and pre-dinner play time with Cy’s group.
We love forage season! It’s the best time of the year, when the weather is warm enough for chimps to hangout outside! Personally, it’s my favorite time of the year to take pictures of the chimps! I love seeing the grass contrast in the background. Please enjoy these photos of the chimps having a great day!
Burrito getting a bird’s-eye view of his neighbors while eating his kohlrabi:
Later he snagged some sweet potato:
Jamie did very well for herself (the green onion in foot is the best):
Annie bird:
Negra was the first one out this morning and the first one out for the forage:
Foxie eating a carrot:
Foxie in the green grass:
We even got a glimpse of Rayne from Young’s Hill:
Rayne really enjoyed the forage:
Bonus photos of Mave working on a Giant Kong:
*Event coming up* if anyone is in the Washington or Seattle area, we will be tabling at the Planted Expo at the Seattle Convention Center this Saturday, April 20th and Sunday, April 21st from 10 to 5. This will be our first time at Planted and we are really looking forward to it, so come say hi!
Something we’ve been working on lately is using positive reinforcement training to try and help alleviate tension in the Jamie’s group during meals. Jamie, on occasion, tries to prevent a couple of the low ranking girls in her group from getting high value food items, like fruit. Because of this, we have been working on cooperative feeding with the group by stationing Jamie during meals. Stationing means we put an item in front of Jamie, in this case a frisbee hung on the mesh, and ask her to stay at this station during meals while others in the group receive their food. This allows caregivers to move around to serve others, especially low-ranking ladies Annie and Foxie, while Jamie remains at her station and allows them to receive their servings of food. Jamie receives her food throughout the meal, as well as sugar free juice that is just for her as a reward for a job well done.
Today’s video follows the process!
Jamie at her station:
Receiving juice for stationing so well!
Happy National Siblings Day, everyone! As the youngest sister to two older brothers, I confess that I didn’t know it was national siblings day until Chad told me today during our morning huddle. I feel like that tracks for my experience as the youngest sibling, though, and my brothers wouldn’t expect anything different. Now that I know, happy siblings day to my own brothers and to all who have siblings they wish to celebrate today!
One of my passions about sanctuary work is connecting the dots of the chimps’ family trees. While there’s information we don’t know, and details that we are learning as the years go by, what we do know is pretty special! We have quite a few siblings (both full and half) here at CSNW, so let’s take some time to celebrate them.
First up: Lucky and Cy are full siblings! They share the same parents (Herbie and Sally). They also look quite similar, especially when Lucky is worked up and her hair is pilo-erect (or standing on end). While Cy is more outgoing, when he’s not busy with his magazines, Lucky likes to hang back a bit. When I was in the interactions portion of my training, Cy immediately wanted to play chase while Lucky was more reserved and enjoyed hazing me a bit (her ability to jump on the caging in front of you when you don’t see her coming is uncanny). Over time we’ve built a special friendship with lots of grooming and some of the sweetest morning greetings. They both have a way of looking at you that makes you just stop and stare into their eyes for a while, while all your worries fall away.
Lucky (back) with full-brother, Cy (front)
While Lucky and Cy are full-siblings, they are also half-siblings to Rayne and Honey B since they share the same father, Herbie! What a group! Rayne is reliable and socially savvy, but with a spunky streak. Which makes sense, since she’s related to Honey B. As we creep up on the two-year anniversary of the integration of the six and the three, it’s really wonderful to see how Honey B’s relationships have grown- especially with Rayne!
Cy (left) with full sibling Lucky (middle) and half-sibling Rayne (right)
Honey B (Left) with half-sibling Rayne (right)
That’s not all! Gordo and Dora are also half-siblings, as they share the same father Les. Gordo can be aloof with the humans, but when he warms up to you he’ll engage you in a game of chase with his signature ‘bunny hop’! He also loves smoothies. Like, LOVES. Dora, while she can take or leave her breakfast smoothie, is known for her little head bobble. She has made a best friend in Mave, but her and Gordo enjoy fun games of chase.
Gordo (left) with half-sibling Dora (right)
Oh! And, speaking of learning family connections as we go, we can’t forget that we learned last year that Terry and Mave are also half siblings! They share a father, Conrad. We had wondered for a while, because they share a heightened level of floof and similar face speckling. I often think that they really do act like siblings- Mave will come up to Terry with one of her exaggerated, bouncing, loud greetings to which Terry often greets her quickly before turning away and moving on.
Mave (left) with half-sibling Terry (right)
While there aren’t any siblings in the Cle Elum 7, Burrito shares a father (Mack) with Clay, Jody‘s son, and with Noah, Negra‘s son. Both Clay and Noah live a life of sanctuary at Save the Chimps in Florida.
Handsome Burrito
And, of course, Missy is Honey B’s mom. Not a sibling-thing, but a family-thing.
Missy
Honey B
To add to the excitement, today has been a beautiful day and both groups got to enjoy a lunch forage in their outdoor habitats! Let’s start with photos of Cy’s group.
Who’s hand is that????
It’s MAVE!! While she’s been getting more comfortable on the Bray, today she participated in her first forage on the Bray. 🙂 Happy day!
She was anxious at first (she came out with a bit of a fear grimace and pilo-erect hair)…
But she got some reassurance from Lucky and began enjoying the forage.
Now, to Jamie’s group!
Sweet Annie-bird
Annie got a good stash of mini peppers…
But Jamie took the gold.
One thing we know about Cy is he loves to look at his books and magazines. He also tends to alarm bark when he see’s certain animals, especially cows, rhinos, etc. Even when he alarm barks at things in his reading material he tends to continue looking at them. My theory is that he likes to get a little scared, like people who love horror movies. Well, in today’s video Gordo came to Cy’s aid when he started to alarm call at his new book of African wildlife.
As a bonus I’ve included photos of Cy the other evening while he relaxed in his nest to enjoy a movie.
 
The thing about Burrito is… everyone loves him, chimps and humans alike. Burrito’s light-hearted nature and playful energy is hard not to be contagious. Though at times his group does need him to settle down, they all love to play and interact with him. I mean who wouldn’t, just look at him!
A bonus photo of Jamie the fashionista:
Chimpanzees have many different facial expressions. From play faces to fear grimaces (often mistaken for a smile, but it’s not), their expressions vary depending on a variety of factors. One of my favorites, though, is affectionately (and scientifically, I’m pretty sure) known as ‘smush face’.
There are many different iterations of smush face, but one thing is consistent- once it’s been noticed, you will hear a caregiver give a little squeal. Smush face is one of the small, amazing part of our days here, but it can be elusive since it can be tricky to capture on camera. You have to be quick and nimble, so you catch it before they move, while also not giving them (or any sneaky bystanders) the opportunity to poke your phone out of your hand.
One version of smush face is when a chimp smushes their lips into the caging to give their caregiver a kiss (safely, of course, on the back of our hands). Here, we see Lucky with a 10/10 smush face:
Another version of smush face is when a chimp reaches maximum comfort by laying down and resting their face on something that causes their capacious lower lip to smush out. This is one of the best versions of smush face, in my opinion, because they just look so darn cozy. Here we have Cy and Terry showing us how it’s done.
To wrap up this ode to smush face, here’s some previous blog photos that show us the best of smush faces. Enjoy. 🙂
