Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

chimpanzee

Missy’s birthday

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Today is Missy’s birthday, and we decided to set up a whole frozen fruit forage in the greenhouse this morning. Volunteer Patti brought some awesome ’80s-style headbands, leg warmers, and socks in honor of Missy’s goofy and kooky athleticism. After decking ourselves out in the gear (and of course putting most of it in with the party enrichment for the chimps) we let the chimps into the party area and listened as they food squeaked with excitement over the whole frozen fruit. I have been around chimps for 7 years, and this group for nearly the whole time they’ve been at CSNW, and I have never heard so many food squeaks at once. They loved it, and it is just what we needed after the last week and a half of recovering from the Taylor Bridge wildfire. All of the staff were present as well as volunteers Patti and Jennifer. Watching the chimps happily enjoy their forage was definitely just what the doctor ordered—both for staff and for the chimps, too! They have certainly been through a lot in their lives, and getting to see them enjoying their time here so much brought such a huge smile to my face. All I could think about was that we are all so fortunate to be here with them.

Enough of that sappy stuff — here’s some pictures from the party!

Negra enjoying some fun forage boxes (that look like Rubix cubes) made by Patti, and filled with pieces of chow:

Foxie:

Annie:

Jamie, looking very regal as the boss should:

Jody, taking a huge mouthful of watermelon:

Burrito, mid-food squeak:

The birthday girl herself, Missy:

And lastly, some of the ’80s gear on us humans (Diana was taking the picture, but she was also decked out, and somehow J.B. stayed out of the photo even though he was wearing an awesome pink headband)

From left to right: Jackie, volunteers Jennifer and Patti, Elizabeth, Sarah, and myself (Debbie)

Thank you so much to Robbi & Dick Brown and Patti for the fun enrichment, to all that have been so supportive and donated the amazing amounts of produce we were able to freeze for the party, and everyone that has been so willing to offer their help as we cope with the effects of the fire. And of course, to all of Missy’s pals!

Fun ways to help

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In addition to making direct donations to the sanctuary and sending us gift cards to Safeway, Lowes, Costco, and Home Depot, there are a few other ways that you can help the sanctuary.

 

1) Cruise Lake Washington, September 15 at noon. We have just a handful of spaces still available for this exclusive cruise.  Spend a few hours seeing the sights and celebrity homes on Lake Washington, enjoy yummy food and drink, and meet some of the staff and board of the sanctuary. It’s a $250 donation per person, and 100% of that goes straight to the chimps because our supporter Denny Green is donating all the costs. Please contact [email protected] if you’d like to attend or need more information.

lake washington cruise for Chimpanzee Sanctuary NW

 

2) Buy prints of watercolors of Missy and Negra painted by Margaret Parkinson. Margaret is selling a select number of matted 8×10″prints of the two paintings below for $100 each, with ALL of the money going to the sanctuary. She is also offering the original of the Negra watercolor. It is 11×14″ on paper and is matted and framed for $400. You can email Margaret at [email protected] if you’re interested in owning one of these beautiful prints. It is Missy’s birthday today, so you can help us celebrate her day by buying a print of her!

Missy watercolor by Margaret Parkinson

Negra watercolor by Margaret Parkinson

 

3) Donate to the Sanctuary Century Bike Ride. The Sanctuary Century is a 100 mile (century) bike ride fundraiser in Portland, Oregon to benefit Out To Pasture Farm Sanctuary, Hope Animal Sanctuary, and us – Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. Like the Sanctuary Century page on Facebook and donate directly on their Firstgiving page.

 

Thanks for all of your support!

The story of the fire, part 4

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See the Story of the Fire Part 1 here

As the fire overtook the sanctuary grounds, we closed the doors and windows of the chimp house and waited. There was nothing more we could do.

Inside the building, you could hear a pin drop. Normally, when chimpanzees sense danger, they are anything but quiet. Alarm calls erupt to alert other chimpanzees of the threat. Males try to demonstrate their power in the face of danger by banging on the enclosures and pant-hooting. As the level of fear rises, the alarms calls evolve into screams. But during the fire, the Cle Elum Seven were completely silent.

We’ve noticed in the past that chimpanzees react differently to threats that they don’t quite understand. Chimps know what to do when they see a snake – either kill it or get out of its way. But how could they understand a fire like this? They acted similarly when they first arrived at the sanctuary. Chimpanzee caregivers jokingly refer to the brief period following a chimp’s arrival as the “honeymoon period.” Until they are comfortable in their new home, these normally loud and boisterous animals lay low and keep quiet. Perhaps the best thing you can do when you have no control is to try not to stand out.

The scene outside of the chimp house was surreal and most of the chimps crowded around the windows to watch. Foxie stayed near me. She didn’t look frightened, but she seemed to want a little bit of reassurance amidst the uncertainty. I was certainly frightened, but the firefighters were a reassuring presence, and not just because of their ability to protect us. From what I could see, they looked at ease in their position around the facility. I figured that if they felt safe, so should I. Familiar faces helped too – one of the firefighters was Calvin Beedle, our friend and excavator who did the digging for the chimp house and Young’s Hill.

After a couple of hours, the main fire made its way to the north and east of us and continued to burn out of control. A smaller, less intense grass fire slowly made its way around the chimp house, circling back to the driveway. By this time the sanctuary and our neighbors’ properties were a green island in the midst of thousands of acres of black. The air immediately around the chimp house had mostly cleared and it was safe to emerge and assess the damage. The rest of the staff returned to the sanctuary with water and food, and the chimps were able to have their dinner. It’s an odd feeling to serve dinner while the sanctuary is on fire.

The fires around the sanctuary burned until 2 a.m., with the occasional tree “torching” and providing a brief glimpse of the firefighters that continued to work in the dark. That night, with the sanctuary residence damaged and the threat of flare-ups all around us, Diana and I slept in the chimp house…or at least tried to. The sound of the fire engines idling just outside gave us some peace of mind.

In the morning, the chimps were intrigued by the makeshift camp set up in their kitchen, but more than anything, they seemed to wonder why we hadn’t started making their smoothies yet.

Business as usual?

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Today, for the first time in a week, has been pretty calm around here. No fires, no firefighters, no smoke, clear skies, and cooler weather. It’s far from over in our minds and flare ups can happen any time, but so far so good. We’ll take it!

As tough as the Taylor Bridge Fire has been for us humans to process, the chimps have been champions. They have been eerily quiet at times over the last week and have occasionally been caught just staring out the window watching helicopters and firefighters– especially Annie, Jody, and Foxie. I have had several moments similar to the one Sarah described last week between her and Jody, where as soon as the chimps get the “okay” from us, they go right back to business as usual– which is usually play! Late last week, I watched Missy go around to every single person in the greenhouse engaging them in play, including Jody, who is not usually all that playful. Missy is always playful, but I have been thinking of her behavior this week as her own personal coping mechanism- keep everyone happy so you don’t have to think about the craziness going on outside.

I’ve been watching her employ this “tactic” since the day after the fire. As Sarah mentioned, the fire incinerated the water lines to our well, so because of possible chemical contamination, we have turned off the water to the chimp areas and have been giving the chimps lots of water bottles and Gatorade instead. They have been loving it! We’ve given the chimps water bottles before, but because it’s not the most sustainable practice, we haven’t done it all that often and certainly not in this quantity. But they have been so enriched by it! And thanks to so many of you out there- we have plenty to keep them happy and hydrated for a long time. Here’s a video of Missy being goofy with her water bottle the day after the fire broke out (August 14th). If you listen closely you can hear helicopters flying overhead as Missy just keeps on playing– it’s a good coping mechanism!

So, as things settle down outside, things get more relaxed, but also rowdier and goofier, inside! Jamie has been crazy playful all day. This morning, she and Foxie got into a thunderous game of chase and were tickling each other and laughing so loud it was hard for us humans to hear each other speak. Burrito was spotted walking in between the Front Rooms with a box on his head and Annie has been lounging in the greenhouse clapping her feet- a sure sign she’s relaxed. Jody and Negra have been kicked back in their nests sipping on water bottles all day. And every time I make eye contact with Missy, she springs off in a full speed run, engaging me in a game of chase. It’s business as usual around here. Chimps are such an inspiration.

Why we stayed

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Since the fire on Monday, many people have asked why we didn’t evacuate the chimpanzees. It’s a good question, and instead of answering everyone individually I thought I’d share an answer that I gave in the comments section of a previous blog post.

To preface, I should say that we certainly took this fire seriously. As the fire approached the sanctuary, firefighters parked their engines around our property and prepared to protect our buildings and those of our neighbors. At that time we were encouraged to evacuate. Diana and I packed up our dog and two cats and Diana drove them to safety. But evacuating chimpanzees is much different than evacuating dogs and cats, or even livestock. Hopefully this post will shed a little light on our decision to ride out the fire as best we could:

Let me start by saying that we are fortunate, as a relatively small sanctuary, to even be able to consider evacuating the chimps. For some of the larger sanctuaries, rapid evacuation would be out of the question for all but a handful of the residents.

Still, evacuating chimpanzees safely is something that takes time, no matter what your situation is. The chimps must first be moved to an area of the building that would allow you to connect a transfer cage or, alternatively, an area that would provide a safe environment for anesthesia. At CSNW, this area is a series of four smaller interconnected rooms that we call the Front Rooms. After the chimps are shifted, transfer cages must be moved from our storage area behind the barn to the chimp facility. The chimps that are cooperative may be loaded into transfer cages one at a time without anesthesia. Those who are not cooperative (most if not all of them) must be manually injected or darted with an anesthetic. Chemical anesthetics take up to ten minutes to take effect and the chimps must be isolated and darted individually so that one chimpanzee is not waking up while you are going in to remove another. After all the chimps are loaded into transfer cages, the cages must be loaded into a trailer and secured (if the chimps are anesthetized the cages can be loaded and secured beforehand). Typically, the transport truck would not leave until all the chimpanzees on board have recovered from anesthesia, so that a medical emergency (like respiratory depression) does not occur on the road, but in the face of a dire emergency this protocol could be ignored.

While doing all of this you would need to weigh the risk of transporting them against the risks of staying. If the fire overtook the sanctuary while the trailer was still in the driveway, the chimps would be at even greater risk. Considering that we had less than an hour’s notice before the fire overtook the property, there is no way that I would have attempted to move them.

Some emergencies cannot be avoided. In these cases, proper planning, construction, and maintenance are the only things that will help. Sanctuaries in the southeast must be prepared for hurricanes, those in the plains states must be prepared for tornadoes, and those on the west coast must be built to withstand earthquakes. For CSNW, wildfires were part of the planning process when Keith and the original Board of Directors were designing the facility. In addition, the county requires a plan for “defensible space”, which is the area around the building that slows or impedes the fire and provides a safe space for firefighters to work in.

The chimp facility is built mostly of concrete, with cementitious siding and a metal roof above the chimps. The exterior is designed to withstand brush fires and stray sparks. Inside the chimp areas there is very little in the way of combustible material. Still, nothing is 100% fire proof, so our fire plan includes a scenario where the interior of the building would be overtaken by smoke or flames. In this case, we couldn’t let the chimps run free because it would endanger the lives of the men and women working to protect the sanctuary. However, we would let them back out into the greenhouse, which would allow them some movement away from an interior fire and some chance to avoid the smoke that would accumulate inside the closed building.

This was the day that we hoped would never happen, but given where we are located, we knew it could. The chimp facility survived due to the firefighters’ efforts, smart planning, good building codes, and a little bit of good fortune. Relocating the chimps to a safe location would have been great, but it would not have been possible in such a short amount of time.

In the coming weeks we will be analyzing our response and determining what went well and what we could have done better. We will undoubtedly be exploring new protocols and equipment based on what we experienced in our real life trial by fire that could help us be even better prepared for future emergencies.

 

Fun on the hill

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The chimps seem to be spending a little bit more time on the hill lately, despite the super hot weather we’ve been having. Today, when I opened the door for Young’s Hill, everyone went right out. It’s still awesome to see all seven chimps out there at once. Here are a few random good photos from the last couple of days.

Burrito chomping on some grass by the treat rock:

I am completely in love with the new bouncy bridge! We haven’t seen any wild games of chase on it yet, but the chimps seem to like it.

Foxie:

Jamie:

Loving Negra & Shopping for Sanctuaries

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First – there’s still time to shop until your heart’s content at many fabulous businesses that are giving 10% of their proceeds to the Sanctuary Century 100-mile charity bike ride in Portland that will benefit Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, Hope Animal Sanctuary and Out to Pasture Sanctuary. Lots of the participating businesses are online, so there’s no excuse not to blow some money on chocolate, vegan food-stuffs, clothes, jewelry and more. If you’re on Facebook, go to the Sanctuary Century 10% Fundraiser Day event page and hit “more” to see the list of participating businesses. If you’re not on Facebook, you can see a not-quite-complete list of businesses on this announcement from Herbivore Clothing Company. You can also just make a straight-up donation here: http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/TheSanctuaryCentury/thesanctuarycentury2012

Now that you’ve shopped or are getting ready to shop or donate, below are some precious photos from today of J.B. interacting with Negra. It’s a very special occurrence to have these tender moments with Negra because she is the least interactive with her caregivers and often does not like to be touched.

We respect Negra’s wishes and only touch her when she asks to be groomed, which the chimpanzees do by pushing their bodies against the caging. We are big fans of safety at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, and we only do physical interactions with the chimps that do not put ourselves in a position to be bitten or grabbed, so that means that our fingers (or anything else attached to us, for that matter) never enter the fencing when the chimps have access to the other side.

JB grooming Negra's back

 

Negra was really enjoying this attention from J.B., as you’ll see from the three photos below. The chimps know the rules as well as we do, so they know what to expect when a human (only trained caregivers!) touches them, and they choose which parts of their body to present. They have each other for the big hugs and intense grooming sessions that help keep them a cohesive group of chimpanzees – they don’t rely on or need us for that.

JB groom Negra's neck

JB grooms Negra's belly

JB grooms Negra's belly 2

 

We’ve mentioned “getting kisses” from the chimps before. You can see what we mean by this in these two photos. You’ll notice that the only parts of J.B.’s body that he is letting Negra kiss are his elbow and the the back of his hand, and Negra sticks her lips out of the fencing in order to touch J.B., making things safe. This also allows Negra to invite J.B. to be kissed by putting her lips outside of the fencing, so we know when she’s looking for that kind of interaction and when she isn’t. Negra was giving J.B. some pretty long kisses today. Eventually, I felt like I might be intruding on a personal moment between them, so I decided to take the camera and let them have their privacy.

Negra kisses JB's elbow

Negra kises JB's hand