Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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chimpanzee sanctuary

Nobody Puts Bubba in a Corner!

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Today was a chilly autumn Sunday. Many parts of the Inland Northwest received their first snowfall last night, and much of the Cascades was covered in a dusting of white powder. Down here in the canyon, the weather was damp and cool and the skies were gray.

The chimps were slow to perk up this morning and seemed a bit groggy, making me think that they might spend the whole day napping and grooming in the Playroom. I watched Burrito for a bit before breakfast; he had a difficult time keeping his eyes open as he sat on one of the benches, and it made me smile. He lazily rolled over and drifted off several times, only regaining his alertness each time he heard promising sounds from the kitchen. It felt oddly familiar.

Negra even stopped by to participate in a quick session of grooming, but Burrito only gave her a few minutes of attention before redirecting his gaze out the window and returning to his solitude.

Everything changed when we walked around the building to open the door to Young’s Hill. Burrito and the others immediately got excited. His sideburns stood on end and his demeanor changed completely.

Lately, the seasonal shift has not deterred the Seven from enjoying Young’s Hill. Instead, they seem to relish the outdoors even more now that the weather is gloomy and wet. After being here for over a decade, the Seven are true residents of the Pacific Northwest and seem to embrace the mild temperatures of spring and fall. As I recently overheard one Washingtonian say, “I’ll pass on snow and heat, but I’ll hike in the rain all day.”

In true Northwest fashion, the Seven set out into the wilderness of Young’s Hill. Burrito led the way.

We have been excited to let the chimps go outside for the past few days because we just completed a modest expansion of the Young’s Hill enclosure. J.B. led the extension of the electric fencing downhill so that the perimeter now links up to the end of the shiny new chute (and the recently-constructed wing that houses Willy B, Mave and Honey B). We will soon be updating our followers about the new three and their gradual introduction to the outdoors, but for now the Seven long-time residents are exploring the additional space and using it to get a better view of their new surroundings

Today, Missy and Burrito each spent some time in front of the steel gateway leading into the chute. Burrito displayed and Missy even attempted to open the hydraulic door to crawl inside. Both seemed to be eager to get inside the building and come face-to-face with their new neighbors. (Fortunately for us, the doors are sturdy and didn’t budge in either scenario.)

Back in the Chimp House, the new arrivals (“The Californians”?) spent most of the day playing and lounging but immediately peered out of their bedrooms each time that one of the seven walked by. Willy B seemed most interested in Jamie and her foraging skills, while Mave tried to pant at Burrito through the sealed window. Honey B was more focused on the caregivers and kept nodding at us and soliciting attention as we completed tasks nearby.

It’s always interesting to see how quickly chimpanzees can alter their mood, thereby exhibiting a completely different set of behaviors. It still amazes me to see all ten of them snoozing in various corners of the Chimp House then suddenly hear a thunderstorm of pant-hoots, drumming and screams resonating throughout the building.

Even as the mornings get colder and the chimps spend more time in their overnight nests, it’s reassuring to see that they can still make a little excitement for themselves on a gloomy autumn day.

 

Beautiful Jamie

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The seven chimpanzees are pretty busy these days trying to keep up with/spy on/display toward/get excited over the happenings of the new neighbors. And when nothing much seems to be happening with the new neighbors, the seven are quick to stir the pot, if you will, anxious for responses from Mave, Honey B and Willy B. They haven’t been as interested in spending their usual amount of time with the humans or other typical activities.

Lately, Jamie has even been forgetting to collect her boots from the chute at night! So when I saw her sitting in the front rooms in an as of late, rare, quiet moment I had to scurry down the hall with the camera. (I am laughing and shaking my head as I type this because while everyone else is in bed for the night, Jamie is at this very second, repeatedly kicking the “howdy door” and hooting and screaming at the top of her lungs attempting to elicit a sign of life from her neighbors who are all quietly tucked into their nests for the evening and choosing to ignore their loud and unruly neighbor).

They are who they are. And we love them all the more for it.

Happy autumn everyone!

For Carrie and the chimps

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This magical day was sponsored by Sylvia Gandolfo in honor of Carrie Miller:

“Happy Autumnal Equinox to Carrie (Miller) and the chimps as the beauty of fall surrounds all of you.”

Many thanks to you, Sylvia and Carrie, for helping us celebrate this most wonderful time of year! Happy autumn hoots from your Pals, Burrito and Annie. 😉

Have a beautiful day!

Silly B:

Annie:

Honey B’s Style

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As highlighted in a recent post, Honey B is already known for her intelligence, energy and creativity. Not only is she an engineer and a philanthropist, but she is also a fashion enthusiast.

Yesterday, she decided that the cloth headbands we provide as enrichment are better suited as waistbands. Interestingly, she isn’t the first chimp to have this innovative idea! As caregiver Kelsi showed us last month, Annie has been wearing headbands around her waist for years.

It would be tempting to suspect that Honey B learned the behavior from Annie, which would be great evidence of cultural transmission between groups of chimpanzees. In the wild, chimpanzee communities across Africa have cultural traditions (i.e., their own ways of doing things) that spread among individuals via social learning. Chimpanzee cultures are rich and fascinating, but may be disappearing. This year, scientists published a paper about the negative effects that human activity may have on the cultural diversity of wild chimpanzees. As chimpanzee numbers dwindle and we degrade and fragment their forested habitats, their capacity for culture catastrophically decreases.

Although the process of cultural transmission certainly exists among groups of captive chimpanzees, it has been difficult to document and is seldom reported. In the case of Honey B and the waistband, it seems unlikely that she learned it from Annie. Annie only wears the improvised belt for a few days or weeks and then ignores them for the rest of the year, and she had already stopped wearing this summer’s edition before Honey B and her friends arrived from Wildlife Waystation last month. It is possible that one of the many videos we showed to the new trio features a scene of Annie sporting the headband-waistband look, but it’s more likely that they both just have similar taste in enrichment and utilize what we give them in novel ways.

With that being said, it will be interesting to see if any behaviors do cross over from one group to the next! Chimpanzees are brilliant and creative, and never stop surprising us.

 

Summer’s End Begins

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The rain today did not feel like a passing summer shower. It felt like summer’s end.

Besides the rain, many smaller changes have become evident this weekend. As the temperature dipped, the mountains shrouded themselves in chilly fog and gray drizzle. The larches are abandoning their greenish hue in favor of warmer tones. The bucks that inhabit the woods around the sanctuary are showing off their new antlers, while this spring’s fawns are losing their spots and grow more independent by the day. The tourists in nearby Roslyn are sporting flannels and hoodies, not sunglasses and flip flops (and our staff and volunteers had to say a sad goodbye to this year’s edition of the Roslyn Farmer’s Market). In neighboring Ellensburg, new students are flocking to campus to begin classes next week; a handful of them will compose our next cohort of interns starting at the end of this month. The air itself seems to call for coffeehouse folk music and pumpkin spice everything. Autumn has made its first appearance of its three-month residency.

Meanwhile, the chimps are embracing the cooler surroundings in their own way.

Jamie spent this morning huddled under a makeshift tent of blankets, taking in the crisp morning air and watching the caregivers go about their morning rounds. She even snoozed for a bit before breakfast (as did Annie, in the background).

Over in the new wing, things went similarly. Lately, the new three have been chilling out in the new archway tunnel almost constantly. However, today’s weather made the uncovered chute less appealing and the trio spent more time grooming and nesting in their sheltered indoor spaces. From her secluded corner in one of the bedrooms, Mave made sure to keep looking out the window at the surrounding pastures, passing rail cars and two-lane highway far below.

Because of the drizzle and dew, we only scattered a small portion of their lunch on Young’s Hill. Even so, the seven long-term residents made the best of the conditions and found all of the carrots and walnuts that Level II volunteer Dusty placed among the tall grass and wooden structures. Of all the chimpanzees, Annie seemed to enjoy foraging in the damp prairie grass, always watching her surroundings for potential competitors and new opportunities to obtain more food.

Today’s only drama was centered around corn. Erin and Miranda, two of our dedicated Level III volunteers, served breakfast and lunch, respectively. All went smoothly until Jamie decided to get upset every time one of the lower-ranking females received an ear of corn-on-the-cob. Either she was being possessive (likely) or she’s terrified of things on cobs (slightly less likely). She kept her eyes on everyone else while she munched on her own corn, as well as poor Foxie’s.

Annie, Foxie, and Missy all processed their remaining corn and potatoes with trepidation, frequently pausing to monitor Jamie’s expression.

Missy even had a swollen eye this morning. It was not a grievous wound by any means, but served as a potential artifact of recent conflict within their social group (Note: Missy didn’t seem to care and even made J.B. playfully chase her around the Hill in the rain).

Only Negra and Burrito were left out of the corn fiasco. Negra opted to sift through her chow bags from the safety of her fleece blankets, while Burrito spent more time gazing over at the adjacent tunnel and neighboring chimps.

 

Getting to Know the Three

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Honey B, Mave, and Willy B arrived less than 30 days ago. If you’ve ever moved somewhere new, you know there’s an adjustment period where it takes some time to settle in and figure out how you fit with your new surroundings.

I would have expected this adjustment to be a pretty extended one for these three, given that they lived at Wildlife Waystation for 25 years.

I don’t think I’d be going out on a limb to say that Honey B is still gradually revealing herself to us. She was fairly reserved the first couple of weeks, seeming to just take it all in at her own pace.

She certainly is showing her curious side more. Today J.B. was working on the fence that will attach to the tunnel. He left some insulators hanging and walked away. Honey B immediately rushed over to see if she could reach them (she couldn’t).

Like Jamie, she is observant, smart, and can definitely be intense.

But today she was also incredibly playful with her new human friends, having them run from the inside to the outside. She also clapped vigorously to get my attention so I would come over for some grooming.

Mave is just that person that you want to be your best friend. She’s solid. She’s attentive to her chimpanzee friends and remains very chill about pretty much everything.

She’s also really different looking with her very freckled face and more square head. Her beautiful freckles contribute to her face having a triangular look.

And just look at those eyelashes. Sigh.

Willy B is classically handsome and proving himself to be a playful goof. He doesn’t appear as relaxed as Mave, but he also has not been too disturbed by Jamie displaying today; he just looked on with curiosity.

At breakfast, he was at the end of the tunnel eating primate chow watching Burrito who was in the greenhouse sitting down watching Willy B, also while eating chow. It was like they were having a friendly little bite together at a bit of a distance.

One of my favorite things about Willy B’s appearance is his long white beard.

It’s going to be such a joy to watch more pieces of their personalities reveal themselves over time. I think that having more friends will allow them to find out more about themselves too.

In memory of Carlene

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This day of sanctuary was sponsored by Joseph Garza in memory of his beautiful late wife, Carlene. Joseph shared this lovely message about Carlene:

“Today would have been Carlene’s 62nd birthday and she would have been overjoyed to have this as a gift. Carlene K. Olsen-Garza, a lover of all things wild and beloved follower of the Seven. She would be overjoyed to hear of the reunion of Missy and Honey B, just as I when I heard the news. I’ve not been able to attend HOOT these past few years, but the Seven are never far from my thoughts and wells wishes. My late wife Carlene would be thrilled with all that’s been done for these magnificent creatures and the hope that the Board of Directors, Staff and supporters have shown through their hard work and generous contributions. BRING THEM HOME!”

Joseph, thank you for continuing to hold the chimpanzees in your heart and allowing us to celebrate Carlene and her loving heart and legacy with you. Her legacy continues to grow here, now making a difference in the lives of Honey B, Willy B and Mave, as well as all who may follow them here to this sanctuary home. We think of you both always and are wishing you and your family a day filled with comfort, love and treasured memories.

Annie and Missy enjoying “Carlene’s Tower”, the structure which Carlene’s family won the naming rights to in an auction:

Jamie: