Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary for primates.

chimpanzee

Structural Enrichment

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I have occasionally heard the word “enrichment” defined as items that are given to animals once their basic needs have been met.

In contrast, I think of enrichment as an entire philosophy, not just something extra that we do when our other work is done. For these chimpanzees and all other captive animals, enrichment is a basic need. Although survival would be possible without enrichment, thriving would not. Here at the sanctuary, every aspect of our daily routine, from meal preparation to cleaning, is done with the ultimate goal of keeping the chimpanzees happy and healthy. There is no easy way to group items or activities into “enrichment” or “not enrichment.” We just enrich everything.

In addition to distributing troll dolls, cowboy boots and slinkies, our team designs and builds new structures for the chimpanzees. The way in which we design and furnish the facility is considerate of the chimpanzee’s physical and emotional needs, and we often add or change components of the enclosures to keep the surroundings interesting and functional for the chimps. A great example is the network of firehose “vines” that transects the Playroom, Greenhouse, Hill, and new wing of enclosures. The video posted above shows how Jamie gets to use the firehose however she wants, giving her a greater degree of choice in addition to the obvious security and stability that such additions provide.

We’re also excited to share a photo of a new firehose hammock, modeled by Level III volunteer and CWU graduate student Chad. Several volunteers and interns helped staff and contractors to furnish the chimpanzee areas of the Phase 1 expansion with benches, firehose, hammocks, and ladders. The new hammock is hanging in the upstairs mezzanine enclosure, and will hopefully be enjoyed by the sanctuary’s newest residents once they arrive!

Happy Birthday, Ben!

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Laura Bradshaw sponsored a day of sanctuary for the chimpanzees in honor of her son, Ben Bradshaw! Laura shared this message about her gift:

“August 15th is my son’s birthday and he’s a huge fan of CSNW. He is an animal lover who is partial to primates. When Ben found the Sanctuary online and saw your approach to the seven (soon to be ten) chimpanzees he was intrigued. When he followed the blogs and got to know each of the seven individually, he was smitten. Now Chimp Blogs are a regular part of our day. When I asked Ben which chimpanzee he liked best, he really had a hard time because there is so much to admire about each one. He finally said Negra but that is most likely because she was so adorable enjoying her peanut butter laced birthday waffles this year. It’s heart-warming to see these lovely animals thriving and exhibiting their own special personalities in a place where they are valued and respected. Thank you staff, volunteers, supporters and Missy, Annie, Jody, Foxie, Jamie, Burrito, and Negra for sharing your celebrations, ordinary days, and adventures with all of us.”

Laura, what a wonderful gift for the chimpanzees and Ben! Thank you so much for including the chimps in your celebration!

Happy Birthday, Ben! All of us at the sanctuary wish you the best of days! We love hearing how much you enjoy following the chimps and we’re so grateful for the difference you’ve helped make in their lives. I am pretty sure Negra would say she hopes you get waffles. 🙂

Golden days of summer

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Even with recent thunderstorms (thankfully full of rain) and cooler temperatures again, we’re officially into the dry, golden days of summer. Everything and everyone is shimmering in the summer sunlight.

Burrito exploring Young’s Hill this morning:

Stopping to finish off his chow from breakfast:

Annie still modeling the height of summer fashion:

Each spring we’re so fortunate to see at least a couple pair of fawns grow up on the property. This tiny being is full of sass and was stomping a warning when she saw Jamie sitting at the gate to Young’s Hill:

There is a Ponderosa pine that seems particularly favored by our avian neighbors and it’s been a training ground of sorts to many bird families. Parents bring their fledglings here to learn to hunt for their own food in between continuing to beg their parents to feed them. I was so excited to see the white-headed woodpeckers have a family and along with the nuthatch family the tree is a cacophony of bird chatter throughout the day.

The cattle continue to enjoy their summer pasture and with all the exercise they’ve been getting traipsing between pastures they definitely have their swimsuit bodies. 😉 Nutmeg smooching his mama, Betsy. It’s so special to watch the incredibly close bond shared between cow mamas and their children. Even when the children reach adulthood, their bond remains lifelong. And it’s even more endearing when those adult children are twice as big as their mothers:

Beautiful Meredith. (Meredith’s mother, Honey, declined having her photo taken today, but she occasionally poked her head around from behind Meredith):

Missy in a blur, speeding through the grass. Summer’s going to good use here at the sanctuary. We hope it’s equally so for you, wherever you may be (or a warm and cozy winter, as the case may be):

Pitter-Patter

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Today was all about hustle.

It began with few solid hours of continuous serving, shifting, checking, cleaning, and enriching. The morning team of volunteers (Keri, Jon and Miranda) made sure that tasks got done swiftly and thoroughly. The Playroom was scrubbed and disinfected, the meals were prepared and served, and the laundry was washed and dried. The vibe was contagious. Enthusiasm was in the air.

Level III Volunteer Erin J.

People went back and forth like worker bees droning around a hive. It was honestly a bit difficult to keep track of all the humans going from place to place, carrying out tasks and coordinating with each other. The staff spent the day furnishing the new chimp areas and attending meetings, Dr. Erin swung by for a visit, volunteer Lizz stopped by to serve the chimps’ lunch, volunteer Erin came in to prepare dinner and enrichment, and the whole team even found time to prepare some firehose for enrichment projects. Everyone was on a mission.

The new wing of enclosures, currently nearing completion!

The bustle around the Chimp House continued through the afternoon and well past the chimps’ dinner, so I felt relieved when the chimpanzees allowed me to close off Young’s Hill, turn off the lights in the Playroom, and begin locking the Chimp House doors for the night.

My relief was short-lived, however, because Jamie wanted something. There she was, an ape silhouette behind the Playroom caging, gesturing at me to bring her something. I checked to see if she wanted boots, then books, then books about boots. She insisted on having something else.

I sat down near the caging and gave her a long plastic tool which she used to groom my shoelaces, inspect my tattoos, and poke at my freckles. She was entertained for a couple of minutes, but the diversion subsided and she began to demand something else. I took off one of my Timberlane hiking boots and managed to wiggle my foot halfway into a woman’s leather cowboy boot, which she seemed to find unimpressive. I even reached for a children’s book about monkeys jumping on a bed and read it aloud, showing Jamie the pictures as I went. I altered the story to make it about Jamie going to bed while I locked up the building and went home. She was not amused.

Jamie using a tool to groom my boot.

We caregivers always work in teams, and I soon had to ask caregiver Katelyn for help with appeasing Jamie. We rummaged around the kitchen and enrichment bins, trying to see the Chimp House from Jamie’s perspective and identify the object of her desire. Boots? Nope. Dolls? Meh. Another grooming tool? (-_-). Troll scarves? Closer. A raspberry? Close enough.

Katelyn drops enrichment into the chute for Jamie.

With Jamie (temporarily) satisfied by the tiny red raspberry, we quickly said “goodnight” and retreated from view.

There aren’t many captive chimps who demand as much from their caregivers as Jamie does. This weekend was fast-paced and full of activity, so it’s only fitting that Jamie gave us a little extra work on Sunday evening. We’ll see what she has on the itinerary for tomorrow.

Jamie grooming another chimp this morning.

In memory of Patin Crowley

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Shauna and Jake Holliday sponsored this day of sanctuary with this lovely message:

“Patin was our beloved English Bulldog who left us a few years ago at almost 11 years old. He never had a day where he wasn’t pampered and loved like a little prince. We would like to remember his birthday by sharing with the chimpanzees. He would have been so curious to meet them! Jake and Shauna”

Shauna and Jake, thank you so much for including the chimpanzees in your celebration of dear Patin! We love hearing how loved he is and what a wonderful life he must have had with you. We hope your hearts are full of comfort and happy memories of Patin today.

The incomparable Burrito:

A little extra Jamie

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It’s no revelation to say that Jamie is a unique individual. Each of the chimpanzees are, of course. Jamie makes her wants and needs known each and every day in no uncertain terms. She isn’t always an easy person to be around, but she is a delight, a surprise and a mystery all at once. And some days, a little extra so.

I’m sure in no small part due to Jamie’s early childhood history of having been raised living in a human home with a trainer until the age of nine, her extreme intelligence, curiosity, willpower and general “Jamie-ness” were set on a path to blossom in ways they wouldn’t have otherwise. And through no fault of her own, the natural consequence of an unnatural situation, many of those ways tend to be very human oriented. We certainly wish for her that this hadn’t been the case. That she’d been born allowed to live her life as her wild-living brethren. But one thing I know for certain about Jamie is that regardless of the path her life took and the lack of choices she had in the matter, she is herself through and through. And I couldn’t admire or love her more for it.

Our volunteer caregiver, Miranda, went out to serve the chimps lunch in the greenhouse and a few minutes later she radioed to ask, “Do you know where Jamie is? She’s not here for lunch.” Well, that’s something that makes you stop what you’re doing and go to find Jamie. Immediately. I assumed she was involved in a DIY project or perhaps, supervising the construction from Young’s Hill. As I quickly strolled down the human hallway on my way outside I stopped short upon finding her in the front rooms on top of her beloved barrel, cowboy boot nestled in her hip pocket, looking sleepy and showing zero interest in heading out to lunch. Now if you know chimps, you know that they do not want to miss mealtime. So I sat with her a few minutes trying to determine if she wasn’t feeling well, or if perhaps she’d gotten overheated having just made staff caregiver, Anna, walk around Young’s Hill on this extra hot summer day and needed time to cool off.

After checking in with her, I decided to go and collect her lunch and bring it back inside and drop it in the food chute for her in the hopes she’d eat. Well! She spun around on her barrel, began hooting and breathy panting with me in excitement. I could barely breathe by the time we were done with all the breathy panting. Finally, continuing to recline on her barrel, she dug into her private lunch service, low moaning, food grunting and occasionally hooting, the entire meal. She wanted to dine in the privacy of the cooler front rooms at her leisure. As she should.

After lunch, I passed out a few plain ol’ ice cubes for everyone to enjoy, along with an offer of a small breeze from the handheld mister fan. Jody and Annie lowered their heads and then spun around and presented their backs for a quick misting. Foxie was, as I knew she would be, incensed that I would even offer to do such a thing and declined the offer. But Jamie in particular loves the fan and couldn’t get enough of it. She spent several minutes having me mist and fan her while she cooled off with her ice cubes.

Once everyone dozed off for their routine after lunch nap, I strolled through to check on them. And there was Jamie. Wrapped in a cool sheet, foot on her shopping basket, nestled in with her favorite boot du jour and magazines. At once, and always, her own person. As she was born to be. As it always should have been. And just as we love her.

Watching from a Distance

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Hanging out with chimps is fun. Watching them hang out with each other is even better.

Chimpanzees grooming each other. From left to right: Foxie, Annie, Jody, Missy and Burrito

For sanctuary personnel who are trained to engage in protected contact with the chimpanzees, developing close relationships with the individual chimps is undoubtedly one of the most rewarding aspects of the job. I cannot think of another experience that comes close to having Missy approach the caging and ask to be massaged, or being prodded with a wooden tool by Jamie as she inspects your freckles, or stomping around the hallways with Burrito to begin the day. There is something surreal about greeting, grooming, and playing with beings who are not quite human but are definitely something similar. To call these exchanges “perks” would be an understatement.

These aren’t my favorite moments, though.

What brings me the most joy is to see the chimpanzees being independent and going about their activities as if I didn’t exist. A true sanctuary allows chimpanzees to do this, if and when they choose to do so. There are times when I see the chimps foraging way up on the hill, far from the bustle of the Chimp House, and I think that this is how our relationship with chimpanzees would be in a perfect world. Our interactions would be limited to fleeting glimpses in a forest, and chimps would not be kept in captivity or subjected to exploitation. They could go wherever they wanted to go and be whatever they wanted to be.

Missy

Today, Level II volunteer Dusty prepared a mixture of chopped vegetables and chow and we spread these items outside for the chimps to forage. As the chimpanzees fanned out across the grassy landscape and climbed over the maze of wooden structures, keeping them in our line of sight became a challenge. The chimps didn’t seem to notice the group of human visitors sitting at the bottom of the hill, and I felt irrelevant as I tried to observe them with binoculars and capture them with the camera lens.

Jody
Annie
Negra (left) and Missy (right)
Jody

Negra was more interested in exchanging an open-mouthed chimp kiss with her friend Missy, Annie was busy searching for food in the prairie grass, and Jody was determined to collect the rest of the cat-tails and bring them back to the Greenhouse. Missy eventually disappeared in the bamboo, only to reappear minutes later as a fuzzy speck perched high on a shaded platform. Dr. Jane Goodall’s first sightings of free-ranging chimpanzees in Tanzania came to mind. Missy, far off in the distance, didn’t seem too different from the wild apes that Dr. Goodall watched through binoculars from a distant hillside. In many ways, I think that’s the main point.

Missy
Missy (far away)

Even if these seven chimpanzees can never experience life in the wild as their ancestors did, at least they still get to be chimpanzees.