Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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chimpanzee

Late Winter on the Hill and A Day in the Clinic

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The weather has been beautiful lately and the chimps have been taking full advantage of this false spring before the inevitable second winter strikes back. Enjoy a few scenes from The Bray and Young’s Hill from the past couple of days.

I also want to share with you that yesterday, Honey B took what we hope will be her last trip to the clinic for a while. Here’s more on that from Dr. Erin:

Yesterday, Honey B had her 3rd clinic trip to manage a bite wound on her left hand. She’s had 2 regional limb perfusions to concentrate antibiotics, including deep flushing of the infected wound. Despite twice daily laser treatments, x-rays, and antibiotics, the swelling and drainage have persisted. A team of medical professionals, including Dr. Jeffrey Friedrich, a board certified hand surgeon, and surgery residents Dr. Thais Calderon and Dr. Emma Dwyer, performed a deeper exploratory surgery, which, unfortunately, resulted in the amputation of the affected finger to prevent arthritis and chronic pain. As sad as we are that we couldn’t defeat the bone infection in Honey B’s finger, we are looking forward to her being more comfortable and regaining better use of her hand. We’re grateful for the expertise of Dan Low MD (chimp anesthesiologist extraordinaire) who introduced us to Dr. Friedrich, CRNA Kate Uselman (anesthesia), Dr. Rachelle Chavez, DC, OB/GYN, and sonographer Huong Johnston who performed ultrasound and a complete pelvic exam. Honey B recovered well and was awake and hungry by dinnertime. Even though she was ready to join a brief fray yesterday afternoon, she will need to be isolated for a few days to monitor her healing. A huge thank you goes out to the entire medical team for their care and expertise!

And a huge thank you to Dr. Erin, too!

One team performs the ultrasound while another begins a regional limb perfusion:

The anesthesia team monitors Honey B’s vitals:

The surgical team at work, while CSNW Vet Assistant, Krissy, and visiting veterinary student extern, Eden, observe and help coordinate:

Honey B in recovery:

And Honey B the next day, ready to explore and rejoin her friends (but not until the doc gives the OK):

Front Room Fun

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At CSNW, the chimps typically have the freedom to be in whichever space they choose, so long as we aren’t cleaning it. And while their favorite places are the large playrooms and greenhouses or, for some, the multi-acre outdoor habitats, they tend to have the most fun together when they congregate in the smaller indoor rooms. Laughter is a typical soundtrack to our morning cleaning routine!

Itching to Go

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Chimpanzee gestures often have multiple meanings depending on the context. One gesture, known as exaggerated self-scratching or the Big Loud Scratch, can be either a request for grooming or a way to initiate group travel.

Missy, having finished her breakfast, was eager to take a walk up the hill and was seeking traveling companions.

But her friends were still working on their chow.

She waited for them to finish.

And soon she grew impatient.

Time for Quiet Little Missy to do a Big Loud Scratch.

“Let’s GO!”

The Big Loud Scratch is a clear and concise form of communication, but not always a compelling one. Sometimes, your friends will insist on eating before setting off on an adventure.

Surrounded by Liars

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Next time you wander around the woods, take a moment to appreciate the fact that you are surrounded by liars.

The natural world is filled with examples of deception: Opossums that play dead when cornered. Butterflies that mimic a predator’s gaze.  Bugs that look like sticks. Flowers that look like bugs. Bugs that look like flowers. I swear, you can’t trust anyone out there.

Chimpanzees are not above such trickery and, given their social intelligence, may be among the most advanced practitioners of the art, at least when it comes to their behavior. In fact, there’s a considerable amount of evidence for chimpanzees’ abilities to consciously deceive other apes. But lately I’ve been obsessed with another form of deception that is almost certainly not under conscious control but which is nonetheless quite interesting and surprisingly understudied, and that is the female chimpanzee’s ability to falsely advertise her own ovulation.

It’s well known that female chimpanzees in the wild tend to time their emigration from their natal communities with the onset of their first sexual swellings. These swellings, in which the skin around the anogenital region becomes pink and engorged with fluid, are generally thought to be an honest signal of fertility. Peak swelling, or tumescence, tends to coincide with the maximum probability of ovulation, which occurs every 35 days or so. So a swelling is essentially a big billboard that says Mate with Me Now if You Want the Best Chance at Having Offspring. And the boys certainly take notice.

There are a number of theories to explain the benefits of such advertisements to the females’ own reproductive success. But one prominent theory holds that females use these swellings to their advantage in another way entirely—for their own protection. By delaying emigration until they are tumescent, the swellings can act as a “social passport” to facilitate their acceptance into the new group. It’s dangerous for chimpanzees to enter different communities—after all, they are largely unrelated to the locals but end up competing for precious resources, including food and mating opportunities. But the males just can’t say no to a young female with a big backside so they will personally welcome the newcomer and protect them from resident females that may feel less generous. How thoughtful of them!

The fact that female chimpanzees time their journeys so as to manipulate the boys in this way, consciously or not, is pretty cool in and of itself. But those of us who care for chimpanzees in captivity have noticed that social dynamics can actually cause changes in tumescence. Specifically, when there’s a sudden influx of unknown males and the risks of conflict increase, which is rare in the wild but happens regularly during social introductions in captivity, females have been seen becoming swollen spontaneously, regardless of where they are in their reproductive cycles. We’ve seen this in CSNW’s own females when new groups are formed during intros—the girls begin the day with flat butts and go to bed with big, bulbous backsides. Why would this happen? We don’t know for sure, and I can’t believe that no one has studied it in detail (ahem…incoming graduate students looking for a thesis topic!). But it’s not difficult to imagine these swellings serving a role similar to the social passport and building off the same two facts of chimpanzee life: First, males are easily manipulated. And second, at times of great peril, it pays to have a big butt—even if you have to lie.

Cy’s Ultrasound

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Cy’s last exam showed some testicular edema, which is not uncommon in chimpanzees like Cy with congestive heart disease. His veterinary team and caregivers began training him so that we could gather diagnostic images using ultrasound and share them with specialists. This will help us monitor the amount of fluid around his testicles more frequently than we could with a full exam under anesthesia and thus keep better track of his overall health.

Kudos to our vet and PRT teams for another success in cooperative medical care!

Two Awkward Guys

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As Diana mentioned, we swapped Gordo and Terry in the reintro group yesterday to try to get a better idea of what might trigger Willy B’s antisocial behavior. The reunion between Terry and Honey B was easy – after a brief, half-hearted display, Terry approached the mesh and the two began to play, at which point we simply opened the door between them.

We knew that Gordo would be nervous reentering a group with Willy B so we tried to ensure that Cy, the group’s alpha, would be the first to greet him when the door was opened. We could have introduced Gordo to a subset of the reintro group initially but since they all know each other so well we thought we’d just get right to it.

There are several interesting things to watch here. First, you can see how Cy polices the behavior of his subordinates and protects the vulnerable—you can see his “feets of fury” (thank you, Sabrina) in action in the playroom scene as he tells Willy B to step down. He’s a good guy. Second, you can see how the females attempt to modulate the behaviors of the males through distractions and grooming. Rayne is particularly adept at this and very in tune with the needs of her group, always watching for moments when the boys might need a little help getting along. And finally, you can see clearly how chimpanzees express trust in one another—which is, of course, by putting sensitive body parts in each other’s mouths.

This interaction between Gordo and Willy B may seem at first glance like two best friends rejoicing in being reunited but this is actually what is looks like when chimps don’t trust each other. These lengthy, exaggerated displays of vulnerability (e.g., putting your fingers, backside, or scrotum in between another chimps’ gigantic canine teeth) are more common when there isn’t already a solid basis of trust. It’s also common for males to display erections in these circumstances, which may be another evolved display of vulnerability (chimp penises are usually fully retracted into the body for protection). I imagine some of our own greeting gestures such as shaking hands and bowing aren’t that far removed from these same behaviors, though obviously a bit more PG-rated according to our sensibilities.

It will be interesting to see how Gordo’s presence (and Terry’s absence) in the group changes Willy’s behavior, if at all.