The video says it all. It was a relief to see Honey B with Rayne and Lucky today and with Dora yesterday. She was different with each one of them, and of course it wasn’t non-stop play, but the play was definitely the highlight!
chimpanzee
Ups and Downs
We did a number of dyadic intros today – some great, some disappointing. Honey B and Terry did not hit it off despite Terry’s best efforts, so that relationship will take some time to develop. Neither was injured but Honey B did end up with a souvenir from their encounter – a mouthful of Terry’s hair. And much to our dismay, Willy B would not even give Dora the time of day! She was heartbroken. But there were some promising signs near the end of their meeting and they will certainly meet again, perhaps when Willy B is less distracted. Thankfully, Mave – as she always does! – put on a masterclass in chimp introductions when she met an anxious Dora and tailored her behavior perfectly so as to engage Dora without upsetting her.
But the greatest story of the day by far was when Honey B met Dora. These two had lived together in the past. As we saw with Terry, this doesn’t guarantee a happy reunion. This, however, was the happiest of reunions and it took us completely by surprise.
They met at the mesh and instantly started breathy panting and grooming. When the door opened, they hugged and then launched into a game of chase. We’ve never seen Dora smile so much! Honey B doesn’t know how to dial it back like Mave does and we were afraid that Honey B would overwhelm Dora with her rambunctiousness but Dora loved every minute of it. They wrestled, tickled, ran, and laughed, and then did it all again. Here you can see Honey B playfully dragging Dora across the floor by the feet.
And here’s a still from a short video I took. The look on Dora’s face says it all. There’s nothing like reuniting with an old friend.
I spy, an I.D. challenge
We took a timeout from intros today and enjoyed a relatively ordinary day at the sanctuary. This afternoon I went to take some photos of Cy’s group who were mostly all posted up in the higher levels of Greenhouse 2. I took a few photos of them hanging out on the platforms:
Then I spotted a mysterious dark silhouette through the caging…. This chimpanzee spy was posted at the bottom of Young’s Hill and was ogling the greenhouse residents…I snapped a photo that I’m about to show you. Can you identify this person, just from a blurry outline? I’ll post the answer to my pop quiz at the bottom of this blog.
Bonus photos! While you think about the answer to my ID test.
Ok! Drumroll please…… The spy’s identity is:
Exhilarating Day
Today was a pretty exhilarating day. Burrito is doing really well, so well he got to go back with this group! Burrito is truly inspiring, he never gives up and through his struggles he somehow finds a way to be more positive and goofy through it all.
Foxie greeted Burrito by giving him a hug.
Dr. Missy checking Burrito out.
This other amazing thing happened today! Willy B got to hang out with Terry and then later Willy B met Lucky! Terry and Willy B did so well! Willy B was having so much fun he almost didn’t want to leave. There was a moment when they were grooming so intensely I felt a little emotional watching because they seemed so happy and were breathy panting so loudly! Willy B and Lucky had great interactions too! They had a really nice grooming session. I mean who wouldn’t have a good time with Lucky!
Willy B and Terry!
Lucky and Willy B!
Bonus photos!
Negra looking out the window in the portrait studio.
Lucky in her new favorite spot.
Willy B looking at himself through the camera.
I love this picture. Jamie is playing keep away with Foxie’s France Dora. Foxie just peaking out behind Jamie.
Today’s Forecast: Rayne
So there wasn’t any rain in today’s forecast, though I think everyone would appreciate some in the state, but there is Rayne!
There are so many aspects about Rayne that remind us of Honey B. The stare she gives you. Her confidence in knowing what she wants and likes. And catch her at the right angle and you would be fooled on who is who. Let’s not forget they are biological sisters.
Though Rayne and her group have been here over a month and they have shown us a great deal of their personalities, we really are still finding new things out about them. One thing we are learning about Rayne, she seems to love food puzzles. Just like Honey B.
As Anthony has mentioned before, Rayne and Friends are a little bit more destructive than we had anticipated when it comes to their enrichment. So we have been slowly been introducing them to new things, one-by-one. Boomer Balls have been the latest.
Speaking of new things, we recently found one Burrito seems to absolutely love now: KONG Zoo! A gigantic Kong!
With Burrito still recovering from his recent incident, we decided to give him two of his favorite new thing he was introduced to before the incident. When he has these, he can be found dragging them along with him, throwing them up in the air, rolling them along, and bouncing on them like a hopper ball.
Here are some of the photos I took when he first got a hold of the gigantoids before the incident:
Jamie also seemed to really like them when they were first introduced.
As posted yesterday, the introduction process between Rayne and her group, and Mave and hers has begun. And please bear with us through this process as they can make for a long day. As mentioned in yesterday’s post, we will most likely just be sharing some highlights of the process. We try to get photos and video if we can, but it’s important to give them the space they need to try to form a relationship without our interference or distraction.
The highlight for today was Mave met Rayne today.
They spent a lot of time grooming one another and reassuring each other when the neighbors were rowdy. Similar to yesterday’s meeting with Terry, Rayne didn’t seem to want to leave Mave, and Mave didn’t seem to want to leave Rayne when we thought they were ready to move on, so we gave them some more time until we knew they were ready. Overall it was a very positive meeting between the two.
Mave also met Cy today as well. Cy spent a lot of time grooming Mave and trying to get her to play with him. Just as with Terry, Mave was a tad hesitant to play with the big guy at first, though she did. But her preference was grooming, which Cy obliged. Overall a positive meeting between them as well.
After their meeting, Cy went back to perusing through his magazines.
It was an eventful day for all, so I hope you all have a great night!
Some bonus photos:
An Introduction to Introductions
We’re happy to announce that our team has begun the process of integrating the six newest arrivals with the three individuals in who arrived in 2019.
This development means that, if all goes according to plan, we’ll be forging a new social group consisting of nine chimps: Cy, Dora, Gordo, Honey B, Lucky, Mave, Rayne, Terry and Willy B.
This will not be easy. As others have explained here in the past, chimpanzees are not biologically predisposed to accept strangers into their group. Although free-living chimpanzees have fluid social dynamics with other members of their community, they can be brutally xenophobic towards outsiders. Males stay with cohorts of related males who frequently wage war on rival communities. Meanwhile, females can only transfer between communities during the brief window of young adulthood when they are sexually mature but have not yet conceived their first infant. Therefore, asking a chimp to become friends with an unfamiliar neighbor is challenging, and asking entire groups to do so is nearly impossible.
With all that being said, merging two groups of chimpanzees is possible in captivity, and it’s often worth the effort; Large, mixed-sex living arrangements give chimps more social partners to choose from, thereby giving each individual more freedom to regulate their social relationships as they wish.
Although it would never occur in the wild, most captive chimpanzees have undergone some sort of social integration at least once in their lives and are somewhat familiar with the process. Because of this, chimps who were raised in labs, zoos and sanctuaries are often more welcoming of new partners than their free-living relatives tend to be. Even so, they’re still generally skeptical and nervous about interacting with chimps outside of their usual configurations and even the best integration methods can go awry.
Many of you probably remember that, in late 2019, we unsuccessfully attempted to integrate Honey B, Mave and Willy B with the group of seven long-time residents that now live on the other side of the building. At that time, we employed an approach that has been successful at several other facilities: we opened the doors, let some chimps into a big room, and hoped for the best. Merging two groups in this manner allows for them to have lots of space during the initial meeting and keeps each chimp close to their established social partners. When this method works, it works well and it works quickly. However, this also creates situations where multiple chimps can form coalitions against their rivals, occasionally leading to chaos and injury for the chimps involved. Unfortunately, that’s what happened here, so we abandoned those integration efforts until circumstances changed.
This time around, we’re going to utilize a slower approach that will likely involve dozens of short, controlled introductions between pairs of chimps while they are separated from their respective groups. First, the participants must be separated from their current partners and shifted into a quiet, restricted space (e.g., the new front rooms). Then, they can have a supervised “howdy” at the caging. If this goes well, caregivers can open the doors and let them interact for a short amount of time before they return to their existing groups.
In these situations, individuals are more likely to behave in a friendly manner because options for forming coalitions and inciting conflicts are both limited. Over time, the chimps will become familiar with each other’s tendencies through these regulated meetings, thus facilitating a smoother transition to a mixed, cohabitating social group when the time is right. Doing these quick introductions is a repetitive and tedious process, but we believe that such a gradual transition will be better for these individuals given their unique personalities and backgrounds.
To coordinate the integration of the two groups, we’ve brought in our friend and colleague Jen Feuerstein as a consultant. Jen is a biologist with twenty years of experience caring for and socializing captive primates, so she’s exactly the person we want to guide us through ambitious endeavors like this one. This week, Jen traveled to Washington from her Florida home to help us with the first round of introductions (which began this afternoon).
Both introductions that occurred today went smoothly!
For the initial icebreaker, we isolated Mave and Lucky in the new wing of the building and then let them meet in new front rooms. These two “hit it off” relatively quickly and spent a good chunk of time hugging, grooming, and playing with each other. Mave was clearly the best chimpanzee to pilot the introduction strategy as she exhibited patience and tenderness at each moment. Lucky was also her usual sweet and goofy self.
When Mave and Lucky appeared done with the initial meeting, we rotated Lucky out and allowed Terry to come in. Terry is a testosterone-driven bruiser of a male chimp, and we weren’t shocked when he immediately barreled around the room and drummed on the caging. Even so, Terry simmered down and showed his gentler side by inviting Mave to meet him at the barrier. She approached and they inquisitively touched each other through the mesh before Mave grew anxious and retreated.
At this point, Jen gave us the signal to open the hydraulic door between the chimps and let them interact freely. Terry charged in and displayed again before settling. Mave kept squealing and jumping back but the two gradually calmed down enough to investigate each other. after a few minutes, Terry began to playfully stomp and skip around, beckoning for Mave to chase him. She hesitantly joined in, and it was only moments before they were laying on the floor grooming each other. This session went on for another thirty minutes or so before we broke it up; Terry didn’t want to leave her side but Mave seemed ready to meet the next chimp in the queue.
These two meetings went well, but we have an arduous road ahead. We expect to do more introduction sessions over the next few days and not all of them will be this easy. Even by conservative estimates, we’ll continue introducing pairs and trios for several weeks before we begin assembling these individuals into larger subgroups. Given the sheer amount work that we have to do, it’s unlikely that we’ll be posting comprehensive updates on a daily basis. Of course, we’ll continue to share the highlights when time allows, but it may be some time before we can share a definitive progress report.
Thank you all for caring about the chimps and for being as invested in their emotional well-being as we are! Feel free to leave comments and ask questions below. 🙂
Nothing’s Wrong
Burrito was trying to convince us in earnest today that we was completely fine and ready to get back into the mix of things, despite his very recent ordeal.
Dr. Erin gave the okay for him to spend some quiet time with Jody, who was eager to check out his recovery digs and see if there were any uneaten treats lying around. They greeted each other with enthusiasm, did their own thing for a while, groomed a bit, and then had a tickle session.
No one bounces back like Burrito. He is a man with more than seven lives. A being whose love of life will not be quashed or tarnished. Every adversity he faces, he comes back with more energy. He is the inspiration we all need. I don’t know why he is the way he is, but aren’t we all so lucky to know him.
Be sure to catch tomorrow’s blog post about Foxie’s 45th birthday celebration!
