Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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chimpanzee

The tell

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Chimpanzee communication involves many overt and unmistakable expressions, from eardrum-piercing pant hoots to boisterous dominance displays, but much of what they convey is far more subtle. This morning, as the chimps were being invited to shift enclosures for breakfast, the routine ground to a halt. Negra would not come inside from the greenhouse, even when presented with bowl of peanuts. Jody kept glancing over her shoulder. And Annie sat in the doorway from the playroom, clearly interested in breakfast but unwilling to commit.

I looked towards Burrito. Sitting quietly on a bench with his hands folded in his lap, he was the picture of calm.

Or was he?

Here’s why chimpanzees would be terrible at poker. As soon as they had a good hand, their hair would stand on end and their skin would be riddled with goosebumps, betraying their excitement. Piloerection, as it is known, is the ultimate tell, a dead giveaway for a chimps’ internal state.

Behind Burrito’s otherwise calm demeanor was a simmering cauldron of testosterone, adrenaline, and pent up frustration (due in large part to Jody’s tumescent backside). The chimps could read this from a mile away. The fuse had been lit and everyone was waiting for the bomb to go off.

They were, of course, correct in their assessment, and we soon took a five-minute break from serving breakfast while Burrito rattled the cage doors and occasionally lunged at anyone nearby. Once he got it out of his system, everyone finished shifting and we got on with the day.

Ice Queens

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Our heaps and mounds of snow have largely turned to heaps and mounds of ice with our recent windows of blue sky and sun, but we still have many spots of powder and icy crystals. With the humans’ persistent belief that each snow storm will be the last, we decided the chimps’ should continue to eat as much snow as possible since it’s going to be spring any day now. Fortunately, the chimps’ seem to agree.

Annie:

Foxie:

The Intensity of Being a Chimpanzee

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This afternoon, the chimp house was the epitome of peacefulness.

If you had walked in the door at 3:00, you would have had to strain to hear the soft lip-smacking and gentle raspberry sounds that accompanied their grooming.

If you had climbed the ladder to get a view of the chimpanzees in a fluid huddle in the loft, you might have marveled at what a close-knit and affectionate group they are.

This peaceful scene erased the ear-piercing screams and general mayhem that constitute chimpanzee quarreling that had occurred throughout the morning.

But that’s the nature of chimpanzees.

One minute they seem intensely angry at each other and the next they are engaged in the most intimate grooming session.

 

Different tastes

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We humans sometimes have to rethink the traditional way we look at food when we are considering it for the chimpanzees. The chimps might see something we cut off and compost as more of a snacking challenge.
A great example of this is the pineapple top.

So just because it might seem slightly weird and fibrous to a caregiver, doesn’t mean it’s not delicious to a chimpanzee.

Chimpanzees enjoy alfalfa cubes

And fruit peels

Cattails and corn cobs

Fresh picked weeds

Green grass

Pine needles

And that tough part on the top of a leek.

Winter shenanigans

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The chimpanzees have been a particular delight today as they’ve gone about their business. It was something like 4 degrees this morning so I wasn’t anticipating that the chimps would be in any rush to venture outside after breakfast. But as they often do, the chimps let me know they had other intentions for their day and wouldn’t be deterred by some extra chilly temperatures. Jody sat with chow bags in hand (small bags filled with primate chow that the chimps receive after their breakfast and lunch) and watched me intently from the bench in the front room as I finished moving doors seemingly waiting for me to go out and open the door to Young’s Hill. I still didn’t expect anyone to go outside, but sure enough, as soon as the door was open Jody walked out bipedally, doing her classic Jody dinosaur groans (a low moan) as she headed for the fire hose where she typically sits and takes in the view of the hill first thing in the morning and then proceeded to eat several handfuls of snow:

Annie and Missy were right behind her, but not wanting to walk in the snow and ice, they walked along the edges of the raceway and joined Jody on the fire hose, up off the snow. This is where the comedy began. Jody completely ignored their presence and made no effort to help them out, give them space on the fire hose, or share her snow. So Annie and Missy were bending and contorting this way and that, trying to get around and over Jody, all the while doing a crazy balancing act to avoid touching the snow. I couldn’t get close enough to the fence through the pile of snow in time to capture any good photos, and maybe you had to be there, but I could not stop laughing (Missy, Jody, Annie):

**Guffaw!**

Here, Missy just tries to crawl over Jody’s head:

After everyone’s burst of energy they settled down in cozy nests while we cleaned the play room. You may have read in J.B.’s blog post the other day about Jamie receiving a gift in the mail from a gracious visitor of literally, the boots off her feet that Jamie had fallen in love with during her visit. Jamie is still completely smitten with these. After having me model them for awhile she asked to have them, along with some toasty blankets to build a nest. It wasn’t long before I glanced in to see her in utter joy and contentment. Of course what makes these photos so heartwarming and endearing is not the fact that Jamie is donning adorable footwear you would normally see on a human. We’d never advocate for that. It’s the fact that for reasons unknown to us, boots bring Jamie unfathomable joy and the fact that she gets to choose to wear them (or choose which human she wants to wear them), which ones and when, and to see the joy that comes from her exercising agency over her own life – that’s the true gift:

Bonus photo of bath time for tiny troll: