Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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chimpanzee

Burrito on the hill

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Like Foxie, Burrito hasn’t spent much time out on the hill since the first few days out. Although we don’t want to push anyone out there and want the chimps to go out in their own time and on their own terms, I found myself on a mission the last few days to encourage him out there… and what did the trick? Lettuce? no. Peanuts? nope. Dried Apples? nope, try again. It was chow (biscuits that are often given to captive primates to ensure proper nutrients. It’s a lot like dog food, but for whatever reason, the chimps really like it). Mr. B is pretty predictable sometimes.

Happy Birthday Pam Lehnert!

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Today is Pam Lehnert’s birthday and her friend Jill honored Pam with a Sponsor-a-Day as a birthday gift. Since Pam bought this chair for Jamie (and the other chimps, of course), I’m bring back the first photo we got of Jamie sitting in her hand chair.

I really don’t know what I would do without Pam’s help with our event fundraisers, so I try to celebrate Pam Lehnert everyday, particularly leading up to the auction.

Happy day to you Pam! And thank you Jill for sponsoring this day!

jamie in the hand chair

Greeting

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Chimpanzees give each other really sweet greetings after they’ve been separated for some amount of time. Jody spent all afternoon on the hill yesterday by herself, and when she started heading back Annie was getting pretty excited. I didn’t catch a very long video, but I did get a quick snippet of Annie’s sweet greeting with Jody. I wanted to include some explanations of Annie’s greeting behaviors, so you may have to watch the video twice!

Typically less-dominant individuals greet more-dominant members of a group. Although Jody isn’t the leader, she is more dominant than Annie (although Annie is definitely asserting herself and has much more confidence these days than she did when they first arrived). In the video, you’ll see Annie bipedally (up on her feet) swagger with her hair standing on end (pilo erect). These behaviors are indicative of a high arousal state, basically meaning she’s excited. Then you’ll see her crouch down and run toward Jody. The crouching down is a sign of submission, and it shows Annie’s respect for Jody. When she contacts Jody she gives her a hug and simultaneously offers an open mouth kiss (it’s hard to see, but that is what she’s doing!) And finally as they head back into the greenhouse together, Annie dabs Jody’s back.

Even though this all occurred in just 15 seconds or so, there’s a lot of communication going on! Chimpanzees are really amazing and complex beings.

Just because she can

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Jamie is someone to be admired for a few different reasons. She has, in many ways, overcome her terrible past, and she has established herself as the leader of the Cle Elum Seven chimpanzees. She is strong and knows what she wants. She seems to have a pretty good grasp of both chimpanzee and human behavior and uses this knowledge to her advantage whenever she can. And she doesn’t back down from a challenge, whether it comes from outside or it’s a personal challenge of her own inspiration.

Today, for example, Jamie had one of her favorite boots in the world, given to her practically off of his own feet by the Gallagher Fence representative. She carried the boot with her all day, even when she went out for her adventures on Young’s Hill. At one point, she spotted a piece of kale harvested from the garden (she’s been loving this kale!) that we had put on the treat rock. She got the piece of kale, but decided she wanted to climb the treat rock while holding the kale and her boot. A challenge!

She started on the south side of the rock

Jamie climbing treat rock

Jamie climbing treat rock 2

That proved difficult, so she scaled the rock from the front

Jamie climbing treat rock with boot in hand

She made it to the top and ate her kale

Then went right back down again

Jamie climb down treat rock

 

 

Calling for backup

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Yesterday, Jamie was sitting in the greenhouse when she saw a squirrel running across the hill. The squirrel made it back safely to its den before Jamie could catch up, but unfortunately for the squirrel, Jamie now knows the location of its den. So of course she went to work trying to flush him out with a couple of bamboo canes. Here’s what we found when we went into the enclosure today:

This afternoon, Missy was returning from a trip she made to collect grass from the hill when she heard a strange noise coming from the same area. In this video, you can see her calling Jamie for backup. When the noise ceased, Missy and Jamie gave up and returned to eat their grass in the greenhouse.

 

Hill grass

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Grass has always been a favorite treat for the Cle Elum Seven, so it’s been interesting to watch their reactions to the grass on Young’s Hill.

Annie loves to eat grass, but seems very uncomfortable walking on it. I’ve been referring to her as our resident gibbon- she walks bipedally and holds her hands out a bit from her sides and her gait is almost more of a waddle than a walk. I can’t say exactly why she does this, but I’m sure it feels strange to walk barefoot on grass after years and years of nothing but concrete.

Jamie, on the other hand, is a natural out there.

And how fun is it to harvest your own treat!?

Missy and Jody:

Missy:

Jamie: