Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

chimpanzee

Foxie’s the best medicine

by

As you may have seen on the blog over the past couple of days, we’ve begun 1:1 “playdates” between Burrito and the girls. Burrito feels that he is absolutely ready to be out of his recovery rooms and back with the six girls. I absolutely do not blame him. He’s had a long, tough road and he’s handled it better than anyone could ask of him. His foot, however, says otherwise and we want to make sure the stubborn infection hanging on is resolved before he returns to the group. He’s oh so close. Other than that Burrito is more fully Burrito with each passing day and to say that is a profound and joyful relief is an understatement.

Burrito and Foxie are really close friends and they haven’t been together in a long time with the exception of meetings at the mesh. I’d hoped that Foxie would be interested in joining him for a visit today. She was, but Foxie is also leery of unfamiliar things and routines so she opted not to come in at first. Jamie though, ran right in, naturally. But after awhile Jamie decided she had more pressing business to attend to (Willy B was in the chute outside the playroom and all the girls were screaming like they’d seen a rock star). I figured that was it for visits for the day, but much to my surprise and delight, Foxie ran in to replace her!

When I opened the door separating her and Burrito, well, OH. MY. HEART! They both screamed, Burrito held his arms out and Foxie ran right into them. They were inseparable! Hugging, hanging onto one another, grooming, softly “hooing” to one another, holding hands. Two old friends together again. Foxie’s the best medicine.

A note on that hand. Yes, I imagine it looks pretty bad from where you’re sitting, but trust me, it looks absolutely fantastic compared to what it was and is healing beautifully so don’t let it alarm you.

And a couple of bonus Annie photos! We’ve had a particularly wintry season so far with a fair amount of snow and lots of freezing fog. But today was sunny, bright blue and coooollldd! But that didn’t stop the girls from ripping and running and climbing all over Young’s Hill. Checking tire swings for ice treats, eating snow and I suspect, just feeling the pure relief of sunshine. Annie is often the one we find braving the coldest of temperatures at the very top of a structure, just taking it all in in solitude. And today was no different.

And double bonus! I was scurrying in and out of Phase 1 where Mave, Honey B and Willy B reside trying to figure something out with the heating and had to rudely keep turning the lights on as they’d gone to bed for the night. I happened to glance over on my way out and saw Mave in her amazing nest!

Goodnight, folks. May you all be as warm, safe, and cozy this cold wintry night as beloved Mave.

Happy Birthday, Linda!

by

Today’s day of sanctuary was sponsored by Linda Crawford! Linda shared this lovely message about her generous gift:

“Today’s my birthday, and nothing would bring me greater joy than to have the chimps partying with me! But since they’re so far away, and sponsored parties aren’t an option any longer, I’ll sponsor a day, and hope that there is either pineapple or coconut involved, and to see the Tiny One busting open the troll dolls I sent! Something to make their Sunday a little special, the way they, and you, all make most of our days special by sharing a glimpse of your work and their lives in sanctuary!”

Linda, thank you so much for your heartfelt care for each of the chimpanzees and the unique individuals they are. We so appreciate you thinking of them today, your compassion and your gracious contributions toward their well-being and happiness. All of us here wish you the happiest of birthdays yet! May your big heart come back to you tenfold as you celebrate your special day, and all days. Happy Birthday!

Tiny, but fierce. Beloved Foxie:

Snow: Treat or Trick?

by

Burrito, Annie Jody, Foxie, Missy, Jamie, and Negra arrived in June of 2008. Their first experience of snow at the sanctuary (though they may have encountered it earlier in their lives) was almost exactly eleven years ago today. If you can believe it, we’ve been doing the blog this entire time, so you can take a look back at that post, which includes a video, right here.

That was before the greenhouse was a greenhouse with a roof and removable walls, so the chimps just leaned outside of their indoor rooms and grabbed handfuls and mouthfuls of snow. Seriously, watch the video.

It was such an exciting and endearing first at the sanctuary that Seattle’s King 5 television station shared the video on air.

Eleven years later, snow is still an exciting winter treat that produces anticipation and food grunts. There are many, many blog posts that feature snow. We often talk about how it’s the perfect food enrichment because it has zero calories, lasts a long time, and it’s both plentiful and free this time of year.

Here are some photos from today of Jody finding some ice and snow for snacking:

This one of her scurrying inside with her quickly diminishing treat is a little blurry:

Burrito was making raspberry noises at me this morning, and I thought he was trying to convince me to get him a banana–he knows I’m a big sucker and have been giving him pretty much whatever he wants as he recovers. Eventually, I realized what he actually wanted was some of the good stuff that had blanketed the outdoors.

He was pleased when I finally figured it out and gave him a special delivery:

Mave, Willy B, and Honey B’s reaction has not been the same. They do not know what the fuss is about at all.

Mave spent quite a bit of time in the chute today with the sun shining, but she didn’t go down to the area that still had snow:

I tried to convince Honey B that it was a a great treat by eating some myself and then placing some in the fencing for her.

This was her reaction:

Will they grow to love it, or will eating snow remain a strange custom that these three chimpanzees from California do not appreciate? We’ve got a couple more months to find out.

Laughter is the (second) best medicine

by

Over the last few days, we have been arranging play dates for Burrito.  He still has a stubborn, slow-healing injury on his toe that needs to resolve before he can rejoin the rowdy gang of girls (who are in the midst of a thunderous group display directed at their three neighbors as a write this). But we felt he could safely handle some one-on-one visits, and we knew it would do him a world of good.

Jamie (shown grooming Burrito in this series) and Jody have been tending to both his wounds and his spirits. They’ve groomed his injuries and engaged him in slow games of chase throughout the front rooms. Just minutes ago, Jody and Burrito were gently wrestling and laughing so hard I could hear them from the foyer.

They say that laughter is the best medicine but we’re not going to give up on the antibiotics just yet. Burrito will continue to get late-night yogurt cups, juice, and all other manner of goodies stuffed with meds until that toe heals. But visits from friends sure do help.

The Burrito barometer

by

Burrito still has a ways to go in his healing process, but more days than not we are beginning to see the return of all the little things that make Burrito, Burrito and endear him so to us. Tiny things, such as he loves to play a game I refer to as “up high, down low” (for lack of a more creative name) in which he sits at the caging with us and pokes his fingers out of the caging “up high” then “down low,” waiting for us to follow suit so he can tickle the back of our wrist.

Another Burrito “thing” is, of course, always having a small plastic or wooden toy to bite on, especially while he’s in a playful mood. Or making a play face while covering his face or play-biting his own hand from afar, a silly gesture he gives us even if he doesn’t feel like getting up and coming over. All of these seemingly insignificant gestures are the daily markers we grow accustomed to seeing on the Burrito barometer of wellness. I’ll be honest, we haven’t been seeing a lot of these small things from him for quite some time as he’s been busy with the work of healing, resting and regaining his strength. Even knowing this, from the humans’ perspectives, it’s difficult not seeing these behaviors from the chimps that we know indicate that they’re feeling happy, well and at ease. Small moments that translate to our own hearts feeling happy, well, and at ease.

Burrito’s coming back to himself, little by little each day. And our hearts couldn’t be more relieved, more happy.

Happy Anniversary, Via!

by

Long-time chimpanzee friends sponsored this day of sanctuary, Carrie Miller in honor of Sylvia Gandolfo! Carrie shared this message for Sylvia:

“Happy Anniversary to Via, who, like the CSNW team, gets to it every day to take care of caregiving business no matter how much crazy is going on in the wide world.”

Carrie and Sylvia, thank you both, for your loyal friendship to the chimpanzees and so generously making a difference in their lives countless times over. We so appreciate you both!

Wishing you a beautiful day, Sylvia!

Annie. Beloved, sweet, Annie:

Annie holding her bestie, Missy’s, foot:

AnnieMissy (one word, because, well, AnnieMissy! 🙂 ):

Eye Contact

by

When I’m about to introduce people to chimpanzees for the first time, I usually include something like, “Though this is not true for all nonhuman primate species, it’s okay to make eye contact with chimpanzees. It’s not seen as a direct threat, particularly with chimpanzees who have been raised in captivity around humans.”

And then I use an analogy that I borrowed from J.B. and continue with, “Of course, you don’t want to stare at them. Think of it as riding a bus with strangers – it would be creepy to stare down someone you don’t know, but making eye contact and acknowledging someone else’s gaze is perfectly fine and, in fact, the polite thing to do.”

Interestingly, chimpanzees vary in how much eye contact they choose to make with us.

Honey B does not subscribe to J.B.’s “strangers on a bus” eye contact rule. She stares. She stares deeply. She stares for a long time.

I very much appreciate this about her now, but it was actually a little unnerving at first. I wasn’t sure what kind of data she was gathering as she peered into my eyes, because it did feel like she was collecting information.

Her mom, Missy, however, does quite the opposite. When a human caregiver is lucky enough to be graced by Missy’s focused attention, we generally get her back to groom, with some furtive eye contact once in a while.

If we are super lucky, she sticks her toes out of the mesh for us to touch with the back of our hand, while she looks the other way.

I try to play it cool during these moments, but I am screaming with delight inside when Missy offers me her toes. Beyond it being a huge compliment for Missy to interact with me, her feet are just the best. They are incredibly petite and the nails on her toes are worn on one side from the wear they get as she runs.

I appreciate Missy’s aloofness as much as I do Honey B’s intensity. Despite sharing some DNA, they are each their own unique chimpanzee person with different backgrounds and different personalities. The many differences and personality quirks make working with chimpanzees such a joy.