Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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chimpanzee

Out of the Fog

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When I set out on my perimeter walk this morning, the sanctuary was blanketed in a dense fog.

Climbing the 80 or so feet in elevation to the top of Young’s Hill was all it took to escape into the first rays of morning sunlight.

This morning’s walk was particularly enjoyable because I got to imagine myself walking through the expanded outdoor habitats, which are just now beginning to take shape. The first of the massive steel corner posts were set this week by our friends at Sage Mechanical.

When we started building Young’s Hill back in 2010, we were working under a number of constraints, the most significant of which being that we didn’t own any of the vacant land beyond the pasture above the chimp house. In order to avoid any problems with future neighbors, we kept the fence line far away from the property boundaries. Since then, however, we’ve bought up all of the adjoining land and that has allowed us to push the fence line out as far as topography and underground utility easements will permit.

While most of the area we’re expanding into is also pasture, we were able to cut a little slice into the woods so that the chimps can enjoy the shade of a few tall pines, in addition to the less mature trees that we will be planting.

Those trees that had to be cleared for the fence line will become part of the numerous climbing structures we plan to build next spring.

Plans are also moving ahead for the large, fully-enclosed outdoor area on the west side of the building, which should get underway as soon as weather allows early next year. Meanwhile, the chimps continue to enjoy the greenhouses. Honey B actually let me close off the mezzanine for cleaning so that she could spend time out there (after only a short protest).

Mave was keen on getting Willy B to groom with her. Her invitation? Looking his way and shaking a large bamboo plant vigorously.

He finally obliged.

Rayne was keeping an eye on things from across the hall.

When you hear someone blowing raspberries in her group, it’s usually Terry. But this morning it was Cy, telling me to put the stupid camera down and play chase.

Throughout the morning, we have to shift the chimps around their various enclosures so that we can clean, and each time we do so we have to perform a series of safety checks that involves finding each of the chimpanzees. This morning, Cy was making that difficult. When this happens, we check the security cameras. He was just above us and out of view, engaged in his favorite activity – reading magazines.

Each time the chimps shifted to a new area, Cy would bring his reading material and find a new place to camp out.

By mid-morning, the fog had lifted completely and Jamie and Burrito set out to survey the upcoming changes to their sanctuary home.

I keep trying to tell Jamie that those trees will be hers. So far, she seems far more interested in the equipment. Which reminds of the time she wanted me to chase her with a chainsaw. Not safe, Jamie. Not safe.

Let’s taco about Tuesday

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Tuesday has been a normal day consisting of cleaning, preparing meals and enrichment, a one-on-one introduction, and also about getting ready for Thanksgiving day. As usual the chimps will get an entire feast just for them with their favorite food items and Fall themed enrichment. On the other hand, the humans will be getting together for an early thanksgiving pot luck tomorrow night. This will consist of homemade traditional Thanksgiving meals, or what we each consider to be traditional. In my case, I’ll bring a vegan sweet potato and marshmallow casserole and although it is not a dish commonly made back home in Puerto Rico on this occasion, I like it so much that I would always require my family to make it just for me. I’ve been told that caregiver Chad makes a mean Nasi Goreng fried rice that is very famous in the chimp house so there is a lot to look forward to.

Enough about food, let’s taco about today’s introductions. I know we have said it before, but even though we plan ahead for possible introduction pairings, the chimps get the final say and that is exactly what happened today. Honey B and Willy B conspired together to not allow us to access the Mezzanine for cleaning, which directly dictated the fate of today’s pairing options for introductions. During lunch time, Willy B shifted out and Honey B remained up there meaning she was the one that was going to hang out with one of the California Six. On the six’s group, Cy was the one that wanted to stay in the front rooms so that made the decision easy for us. This introduction ended up being very low-key, with an on edge Honey B and only a few direct interactions but all in all positive.

Cy reading a magazine. Not pictured here are Cy’s happy sounds while reading.

Dora hanging out in the green house.

Lucky in her favorite spot of the front rooms with a slinky.

BONUS: A beautiful rainbow over Young’s Hill taken by caregiver Chad.

Honey B’s “Blue Steel”

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“Have you ever wondered if there was more to life, other than being really, really, ridiculously good looking?” — Derek Zoolander

 

Here’s a serious portrait of Honey B sitting in one of the front rooms. I hope it brightens all of your respective Mondays!

 

 

 

Greenhouse Days

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Running a chimpanzee sanctuary in snow country does have its downsides but you can’t beat the cost- and calorie-free enrichment that snow provides. This was the first snowfall for Lucky’s group and they certainly enjoyed their tub of the white stuff in the recently buttoned up greenhouse. It was great to see them peacefully enjoying their warm, sunny space.

The Buddy System

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As an atmospheric river flows over the Pacific Northwest and hammers the Cascades with wind, rain and snow, our sheltered valley has experienced an odd mix of beautiful and horrible weather this week. That hasn’t stopped one group of chimps from making use of their expansive outdoor habitat: Young’s Hill.

“The Hill” was completed in 2011 and serves as the primary outdoor enclosure for the original group of seven chimps. Over the years, J.B. et al. have furnished the habitat with groves of bamboo, a network of firehose vines, elevated wooden platforms, hanging tire swings and hammocks, and even an artificial termite mound. Since the enclosure contains an open pasture without any large trees, the crew has also added numerous pine logs for the chimps to climb on. While we monitor the larger structures for safety and stability, there’s not much we can do about the untreated timber decomposing at a natural rate. These need to be replaced every few years.

When we let the chimps have access to Young’s Hill yesterday morning, we were already aware that one of the logs (which had been sunk vertically into the ground) had blown over and was leaning on some firehose vines. Assessing the situation from afar, we agreed it still looked safe enough for the chimps to go on their morning patrol while we coordinated with J.B. to get it repaired.

After caregiver Chad did his routine race around the boundary with Burrito, Jamie demanded that someone accompany her on another patrol of the perimeter fence. I put the telephoto zoom lens on the camera and trudged up the hill while wearing her preferred Xtratuf boots. Burrito soon joined us, sprinting and laughing, and effectively replaced me as Jamie’s walking buddy.

I was resigned to finishing the patrol as the “third wheel” when I noticed Missy sitting on the aforementioned wonky post. Missy is an intrepid adventurer when outdoors, and she didn’t seem to care that the log was tilted askew and wobbled quite a bit. In fact, she seemed to even find the new perch to be comfortable.

As I continued to trek around the perimeter of the enclosure, I saw Missy again from a different perspective. This time, I could see that she also had “brought” a buddy with her: Annie. The two were sitting like gargoyles on adjacent structures, partially hidden in the maze of pine trunks and bamboo.

I saw the dark silhouette of another chimpanzee in the periphery of my vision, and turned the camera lens towards Foxie as she climbed up onto a closer platform.

Foxie seems to enjoy moments of solitude in the outdoors, but I remembered that she probably considers her dolls to be her adventure companions. Perhaps she doesn’t think of herself as being alone even though no other chimps are close by. Either way, it wasn’t long before Foxie also had a chimpanzee buddy: Jody. Together, they surveyed the valley and seemed most intrigued by a distant plume of smoke swirling upward from a prescribed burn.

Foxie and Jody resumed their journey as a duo, making their way through the tall grass to one of their favorite installations: the Lookout Tower. Foxie preferred to sit on the highest deck with her doll while Jody ventured out on the Shaky Bridge towards Carlene’s Tower.

 

After the chimps went back inside, Chad closed off the Hill and we did safety checks to unlock the enclosure for maintenance. J.B. was ready to go with a buddy of his own: a brand new Kubota L4060 tractor.

There are certain pieces of equipment that the sanctuary cannot do without, and a functioning tractor is one. J.B. has been planning to upgrade the sanctuary’s tractor for years and excitedly worked out the financing. With all of the maintenance and renovations to be done in the upcoming months, the time was right to welcome a new Kubota to the family.

To quote J.B. directly, “You can tell everyone that, second to my wedding day, the day the tractor arrived was the happiest day of my life.”

Importantly, the new tractor has a closed cab which will save us from freezing our eyeballs off while driving it in the winter. I’m excited that it came with cup holders so I can sip on cold brew while I plow the driveway in the winter, and J.B. personally added a Bluetooth music player so he can blast Van Halen (probably) while he moves things around with the forks.

Someday in the near future, even Young’s Hill will get a “buddy.” In addition to expanding the Young’s Hill perimeter to include more adjacent pasture and parts of the nearby woodland, we plan to build a second outdoor enclosure called The Bray. The new tractor will be invaluable as we tear down and build entire sections of electrified fence, plant more trees and bamboo, and furnish the two areas with new enrichment structures. (You can all read about our past, present and future plans for the facility in this blog post: The King of the Courtyard and His Growing Kingdom.)

Hopefully, the new layout will make things even better for the chimpanzees who call this place “home.”

 

You Can Never Have a Case of the Mondays with this Bunch

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Today was a somewhat busy day. While we humans were making progress cleaning enclosures in the morning, we were thwarted by two holdouts by the time the afternoon rolled around. Now I won’t mention names, but…

*ahem*

*ahem*

While it’s pretty easy to work around when certain somebodies holdout, it just adds a little more time to the day. We don’t necessarily get upset about their choice to remain in certain areas we want to clean when we want to clean them because it is just that. Their choice.

During some periodic breaks during cleaning as we tried to develop our next plan of action on the fly, I was able to get these photos.

Jamie during her mid-morning walk around Young’s Hill. Annie is on top of the Twister with Missy right below her.
Foxie and Orange Blossom during her group’s afternoon patrol around Young’s Hill.
And last, but not least, Honey B in her greenhouse after lunch was served.

Hopefully these photos will bring some joy to you on your Monday.