Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Plans? What Plans?!

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I can’t speak for all the caregivers at CSNW, but for me lead days require mental preparation ahead of time. Some of it is getting on the shifting mentality, thinking of material for the daily blog, planning the individuals that will be involved during introductions, etc. Today was one of those days that from the moment I woke up, all of that preparation went out the window. It turns out that as caregivers there are two things we can’t control: the weather and a group of riled up chimps.

Kittitas County woke up to a significant ongoing snow shower with more than 3 inches of snow already on the ground by 7AM in Ellensburg. Cle Elum did not get the same amount of snow, but the inch or so is half melted by now. The gloominess remains. Being inside was definitely the popular choice for the chimpanzees. This meant plenty of napping in the green houses and a lot of grooming.

For introductions, my wish was to have Gordo and Terry involved with Willy B and Mave. But Gordo and his 5 friends had other plans. While trying to sort them out, a fight broke out and although everyone was OK, it derailed the sorting. The final combination ended up being Cy and Terry with Willy B and Honey B. After many displays between the guys, the introduction remained through the mesh. At the time of separating the groups, Willy B and Honey B refused to go back into the Mezzanine. It wasn’t until dinner was offered that they decided it was the right time to go back to their enclosure and reunite with Mave.

View of our Spring snowy day

Jamie in the process of drifting into a nap in the green house

Terry grooming my boots

Cy and Terry grooming each other

Rayne, Cy, Lucky and Terry grooming

Rayne, Dora, Cy and Lucky grooming

The Mondays

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Do you all know that bit from Office Space about “The Mondays”?

(Here’s a link for those of you who have never seen the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AB9zPfXqQQ.)

I’ve been thinking of that scene a lot today.

To be clear, I have a neutral opinion on Mondays. For that matter, I don’t hold grudges against any arbitrarily-named days of the week. Still, I can’t help but feel like the chimps have been grappling with a case of “The Mondays” for a few days now. This morning began with more of the chimpanzee drama that J.B. recently described in Friday’s blog post: Grooming. Although everyone seemed to be contributing to the chaos in one way or another, Terry remained at the center of the maelstrom which continued to churn up the social waters throughout the day.

To paraphrase one of J.B.’s passages: chimps simply cannot keep going “full throttle” for long before someone calms down and starts putting the pieces back together again. In today’s case, the chimps eventually stopped screaming long enough to catch their breath. Within minutes, they had begun to groom each other in a collective act of reconciliation that lasted for quite some time. Chimps may have physical altercations more frequently than free-living humans do, but their ability to put that animosity behind them and quickly reach a bipartisan solution makes up for it.

I didn’t manage to record much of the action with a camera, but I did take some photos during the peaceful moments between the storms.

Cy looking down at caregivers through the overhead caging
J.B. adding to the wall murals in the new front rooms
Rayne grooming Cy
Rayne
Terry reaching through the caging to inquisitively touch a caregiver’s boots.

 

Siblings and the Sounds of Sanctuary

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Today is National Siblings Day! A day in which we honor our siblings! So today we are going to celebrate the siblings who who live here at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest!

The siblings here are Honey B, Cy, Lucky, and Rayne, as well as Gordo and Dora!

Cy and Lucky share the same mother and father, Sally and Herbie (respectively).

It is almost apparent they are full siblings since they look very identical to each other:

Along with being full siblings, Cy and Lucky are also related to Rayne and Honey B. They all share the same father: Herbie.

Cy, Rayne, and Lucky:

Honey B:

At certain angles and in the right lighting, you can somewhat see the resemblance between them all. As we know, Honey B’s mother is Missy, and Rayne’s mother was named Thelma.

The other half sibling pair who reside here are Gordo and Dora:

Both of them have the same father: Les. Gordo’s mother was named Andrea and Dora’s mother was Stella. Though these two do not share many physical traits, this pair love to play with each other and be around each other.

Gordo:

Dora:

We wish all the siblings out there a Happy Siblings Day!

As a bonus, attached to this blog are sounds from around the sanctuary. These sounds can be heard on any given day. On the days I am not in the Chimp House, I miss them dearly. It’s almost like an autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) to me. That is when a stimuli (sound or visual) triggers the brain to produce low-grade euphoria, or good feeling. It’s why some of us get goosebumps when we hear a particular song that is associated to happy event, or when we see an old photo of good times. To me it’s currently the sounds of the Chimp House.

I hope you enjoy.

And one final bonus photo of Lucky!

National Burrito Day!

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Today is National Burrito day!!! I wanted to shower everyone today with Burrito photos but he had other ideas. I went on two walks around Youngs Hill with Burrito and Jamie before 11AM. Burrito was in from the get-go but Jamie had special requests. She required me to wear one size smaller boots, and also requested that I drive the Gator both times. During those walks Burrito took the opportunity to climb the Twister structure to try and get a better look at the construction happening outside the perimeter of the hill. Once he came back in, he spent most of the day asking caregivers to play chase with him and wanting to play through the mesh while actively running away from the camera. Totally understandable because it has been a beautiful day out, perfect to keep everyone very active and moving.

Burrito eating an avocado during lunch

Burrito climbing the Twister structure during one of our walks around the hill

A play and groom session between Burrito and Caregiver Chad

On the other side of the Chimp House, the chimps in both Honey B’s and Rayne’s group spent most of the day in their green houses enjoying the nice day.

Willy B

Honey B looking as flawless as always

Gordo

Lucky

Let’s Play!

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As I looked through my phone I realized I had so many small clips of the chimps playing. Some were too short to make into a full video, so with the help of some other caregivers we made a montage of the chimps playing over the last couple weeks.

I was also was able to snag a handle full of photos today!

Spring is here because Negra says it is:

The mischievous Miss Honey B:

Dora melting in the warm Oakwood greenhouse:

The handsome freckled-face Terry:

I felt like someone was spying on me while I tried to take photos of Terry. I was right!

It was Lucky spying on me:

Sam took this great photo of Burrito and was kind enough to share it with me. If you are thinking, geez Burrito looks intense you are right! He was ready to play! After he let Sam snap some photos he leaped up and insisted they start playing chase!

Alpha Cy-chology

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Within a chimpanzee community, the term used to describe the dominant chimpanzee is alpha. There seems to be an agreement there are different styles of dominance, with two being the main types: those who are political and those who use brute strength. There is a great TED Talk with Frans de Waal where he explains these two different styles. Those who are more political savvy navigate their way through their community to build trust and relationships with their community. These alphas, when they lose their top position, can still be a big influence on their community years after their term is up. The other type are those who use strength and fear to make their way to the top. By showing they are stronger than the rest, the rest submit to their displays. These alphas in the wild tend to be excommunicated from the community or killed when their term is up. There is a National Geographic documentary called Kingdom of the Apes, which showcases these two styles when brothers Freud and Frodo vie to become the alpha of their group. This all took place within the Kasakela community, the group Jane Goodall has studied over the decades.

The groups who reside here do have their alphas or perceived alphas. One of the alphas I want to talk about today is Cy.

We are coming up quickly on the 1 year anniversary since Cy and his group arrived here, and we have been in awe of Cy since. From what we’ve seen, Cy is very patient and very socially aware of the other chimpanzee’s emotional states.  He always seems to know when it’s the right time to show off his size and strength or to just let the others get what they need off their chest. During the introduction process, Cy has been great at making friends. I think we were all caught off guard when him and Willy B first met and how well it went. When two alphas get together during this process, there is a huge sense of anxiety that lingers in the air on what will happen between the two. Luckily for us, we have Cy. Throughout the entire process we have seen Cy time and time again place his own body between two who are getting nervous around each other and diffuse the situation. That’s not to say he doesn’t show off his strength when he needs to.

Of the two styles of dominant chimpanzees, I would place Cy on the political side. He seems to receive the respect from everyone not because he demands it, but because he earns it. I know he has earned mine.

Cy is the most patient, big-hearted, caring, playful, and handsome alpha.

Walks with a friend

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Today’s blog and video is all about my walks with Jamie (and others) over my time as a caregiver here. Walking around Young’s Hill with the chimpanzees has been one of my favorite parts and will always hold a special place in my heart. When I first started Jamie would ask me to walk around Young’s Hill multiple times a day. No matter how hot it was outside. Some days she would rest in the shade of a structure and I would wait it out in the sun. I loved every minute of it even if my skin said otherwise. I started to catch on and would sit behind the gator while I waited for Jamie to start walking again. There could be so many different combinations of ways Jamie requested to walk around the hill. It could be me running, driving the gator, or someone driving the gator and me running in front of it. Sometimes others would join us on our walks, but for the most part my time was spent with Jamie on the hill. Every so often if Chad was busy Burrito would want me to race him around the hill and remind me how out of shape I truly am. Recently, Jamie left during one of our walks to go back inside and Foxie joined me for the rest of the way! I’m glad we are finally past winter (although it’s snowing outside right now) so we can spend time on Young’s Hill with the chimpanzees again.

I’m sharing all of these good memories because sadly this will be my last blog post. It has been an honor to work here and be a part of this family and I know in my heart I will always be a part of it. The chimpanzees, cattle, and humans here will always be a part of me now. I’ve really enjoyed my time here and I am staying in the field, just moving to a different opportunity. I wanted to thank all of you for being so supportive and providing such nice feedback over my time here! I really enjoy reading your comments on the blog and getting to know you all.

A bonus photo!

Jamie and her amazing nest yesterday.