Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

chimpanzee

One Queendom Two Queens

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Here in Chimpanzee Sanctuary, we have a member of true chimpanzee royalty. Negra, first of her name, Queen of the Chimp House. The first 30 years of Negra’s life, after being captured in the wild, were filled with laboratory procedures, an unjustified prolonged period of isolation time, and general despair. Since 2008 Negra has been ruling the Chimp House with an iron fist, determination and self assurance. That said, in this Queendom, there is room for two queens. In the past, Jody was crowned Queen of Nest Building and Relaxation for her love of building amazingly intricate nests to rest in, and then carrying them around the Chimp House. But today, I want to officially add another tittle.

Humans, I here present unto you Queen Jody, your undoubted Queen of Nest Building, Relaxation, and BUBBLES.

There is enough space for these two queens. Negra in the back, Jody in the front.

Queen Negra herself.

Brrrrrrrrrr, it’s cold out here!

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Brrrrrrrrrrrr… it is cold today in central Washington! It is 47 degrees (according to my phone’s weather app) as I type this. Despite the sudden cooler temperatures, the chimpanzees have been enjoying their day outside. Jamie’s group has been on/off their new and improved Young’s Hill all day and Cy’s group has spent lots of time in their two greenhouses.

This morning during cleaning, I heard chimpanzee laughter coming from one of the front rooms. It’s normal for Burrito to be playing in the morning but it is always a guess as to who his play buddy is! Today, it was Negra. In my personal opinion, Negra play sessions are the best! So enjoy today’s video featuring a nice play session between Burrito and Negra, with Foxie in the background for moral support!

Now let’s play a game!

Here are two photos… can you guess whose lips these belong to?! Comment your guesses below and I will reveal the answers on Sunday’s blog!

Mystery Lips #1:

Mystery Lips #2:

Video: The Chimps are Back on the Hill

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As you may have seen in yesterday’s blog post, the Seven are back on the hill! Here’s the video, as promised.

In case it’s not clear, we had to take down the original fence so that we could expand the overall habitat area and split it into two enclosures. The Young’s Hill side, which belongs to the Cle Elum Seven, was pushed further up the hill and to the north and grew by an additional half acre to 2.4 acres. This was only possible because we purchased the surrounding lots and no longer have to worry about encroaching development (after closing on another parcel yesterday, the sanctuary now owns approximately 110 acres). More space means more room for climbing structures, irrigation, and plantings, and we still have a lot of work ahead of us in that department, but we wanted to get the Seven back out as soon as the fence was complete. Perhaps more important than the expansion in habitat size, Young’s Hill now includes a stand of pine and fir trees, which Missy has already conquered. Who will be next?

One thing to note: Negra is not in the video as she did not go outside on the first day. Too many people and too much excitement, perhaps. But she just went out for a lunch forage this afternoon, so the Queen is also back on the hill.

Now that they are back out, we can turn our attention to completing the Bray. The Sage Mechanical crew is welding the remaining gates and post assemblies now and it will be at least a few weeks before we can complete the fencing on that side. We were fortunate from a construction standpoint to have a prolonged summer but fall weather arrives this weekend and winter won’t be far behind. So the timing for Cy’s group to learn about electric fencing and explore their new enclosure is somewhat up in the air. Whatever happens, we’ll work as fast as we can to keep our options open.

Our thanks go out to all of the donors that made this project possible. I also want to thank Dustin and East Slope Earthworks, Katie, Sean, Dusty, Ben, Karen, Richard, Elizabeth, Tom, Gordy, Steve, Debbie, Donna, Laurie, Kurt, Kristin, Jeremy, Liz, Michael, Lisa, Jesse, Adam, Kyle, Grace, Ryan, Jacob, Nolan, Karen, Claus, Logan, Kyle, Jan, Chet, Sabrina, Brenda, and Chelsey for volunteering their time and energy to help build the habitats. My apologies to anyone I accidentally left off the list. And of course we are grateful to Gary, Aaron, and Jose of Sage Mechanical for all of their hard work on this project. There’s something about the fact that these habitats are built by a community of supporters that makes them even more special.

Let Tree-dom Ring

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Well, we have some exciting news! I am not sure if anyone picked up on Anthony or Chad’s very subtle hints, but today Jamie’s group received access back to the new and improved Young’s Hill! For those who might be wondering about Cy’s group, the Bray Hill isn’t quite ready yet.

This afternoon, watching the seven go back out into their outdoor enclosure was a spectacular event to witness! I will share a few highlights of the day and tomorrow JB will have a video with more details to share!

Annie trying out new structures:

Burrito exploring:

Fearless little Foxie:

Missy and Annie inspecting:

Jody:

Jody and Foxie checking out their new structure:

Chad took this photo of Jamie. To me, this photo is the epitome of sanctuary:

Also this photo of Jamie, she looks so happy:

Maybe one of the best highlights of the day is Missy being the first to climb the trees! We humans and probably Jo were all holding our breath, but also so excited to watch Missy agilely climb a tree for the first time EVER!!!

Jody watching Missy climb a tree:

Jody and Annie monitoring Missy closely from the ground:

“Here I sit beneath a tree. Heartbeat calm. Soul hums free.”

– Angie Weiland-Crosby

Go Nuts For Coconuts

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When caregivers get done cleaning the playrooms, we usually put a forage inside to convince the chimpanzees to take up our invitation to go into the newly cleaned area and leave the one we want to close off to clean. These forages are smaller than the lunch forages and more often than not made of greens like lettuce, cabbage, kale, etc. But every so often we like to surprise them with something a little more exciting. Today, their invitation was made for them to go nuts! It was coconuts!

The chimpanzees seemed to really love it. Especially Burrito! As you can see in the video, sometimes the anticipation is the best part of the of the excitment of things to come!

Here are some photos of Negra with the pieces of coconut she got during the forage:

And Jody and Jamie enjoying a browse of cornstalks in their Greenhouse:

And this guy (Burrito!) playing with caregiver Kelsi!

And as a reminder, the Countdown to Jamieween has begun! There are still some items on the wish list we think she and her family would like!

Spectators

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The chimps in Jamie’s group have been supervising the expansion and renovation of their outdoor enclosure, Young’s Hill.

It’s been a few months since J.B. gave this detailed progress report on the project, and it’s been several weeks since Chad posted this update that the chimps would be temporarily without access to The Hill. J.B., volunteers, and the team from Sage Mechanical have been working around the clock since then to quickly make the necessary additions and improvements (including moving the lookout tower to a new home). Staff have tagged in this week to help put up the last few sections of fencing and clean up the area in preparation for chimpanzees.

The chimps remain interested in all the work, but they seem to be less anxious and more curious now that Young’s Hill appears ready. We still need to conduct a comprehensive safety and security check, but it won’t be long before we let them go out and explore their new backyard.

Jamie viewing the new enclosure:

A new path leading to the Young’s Hill perimeter:

Ponderosa pines next to the new fences:

The new access gates:

Annie watching Chad and J.B. working:

The shady new location of Carlene’s Tower:

New vegetation planted in an irrigated section of Young’s Hill:

The driveway up to the new Young’s Hill gate:

The view from the new perimeter:

Foxie watching curiously:

You may have noticed the construction materials scattered around outside the enclosure. There is still much work to be done on the other side of the hill, and we’re not really “cleaning up” as much as we are migrating to the other side. From their south-facing greenhouse enclosures, the chimps in Cy’s group monitored the construction of the sanctuary’s second open-top enclosure, lovingly named The Bray.

The Sage Mechanical crew shifted their focus to The Bray as soon as they finished their work on Young’s Hill, so they were working right in front of the chimpanzees today. The chimps acted like spectators, bringing their breakfast chow up to the platforms in order to get the best view. Some of them even asked their caregivers to serve them their meals out there instead of in the interior hallway.

Katelyn serving Terry outside:

The unfinished Bray containing a few familiar structures:

Jose from Sage Mechanical working within view of the chimps:

J.B. working with Chad to install the final section of snake exclusion fence:

Gary’s arsenal of power tools:

The crew transporting fence posts with the telehandler:

Gordo watching Gary’s telehandler go by:

Ryan’s Lookout, a new installation that will be a keystone structure in The Bray:

Keep a close eye on the blog this week for further updates!

Lucky Us

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There are chimpanzees in captivity who are front-and-center as soon as you meet them and every day thereafter. Burrito and Jamie, for example.

Then there are chimpanzees who allow others in their group to take the human-liaison role and more often hang out in the background.

Sometimes, this is because they just aren’t that interested in the humans (think Missy). More power to those confident types who just don’t need us bipedal apes (unless there are tomatoes to gather from the garden, of course).

Sometimes, chimpanzees are just shy or apprehensive. I can relate! It might take them more time to warm up to caregivers (think Gordo).

Sometimes, there are chimpanzees who choose certain humans they connect with, while they are pretty ambivalent about other people in their orbit (the best example of this with the chimpanzees I’ve known over the years was Washoe – she had her favorite people, and was SO EXCITED to see them. Everyone else was simply there to wait on her, and the rare occasions when she decided to pay attention to you, if you were not on her favorite list, were thrilling. And she knew this.)

Personally, I’m just not sure about Lucky and where she fits on this spectrum I just made up. She does greet her caregivers with enthusiasm, and seems to be more enthusiastic with certain humans (Jenna may be her human BFF right now).  She’s not front and center like others in her group. She is often at a bit of a distance, observing.

The other day, I felt very privileged to sit down with Lucky for a somewhat extended period of time while she was in the Oakwood Greenhouse.

She quietly sat, wanting to groom my hand, and looked into my eyes. Towards the end of our interaction, she started to look around, like she was searching for something but not finding it.

After a few seconds, she reached over to the bamboo plant next to her and pulled off a leaf. Then, she handed it to me through the caging.

I don’t know what she was thinking when she did this, but it seemed to be a gesture of friendship, and it made my day.

Bonus photos of one of the more gregarious chimpanzees in Lucky’s group. The ever-present Terry: