Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary for primates.

chimpanzees

They Know

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The Cle Elum Seven Chimpanzees spent decades in biomedical research laboratories and holding facilities in the 70s, 80s, 90s, and early 2000s.

The minimum space requirements for housing chimpanzees under the Animal Welfare Act remain shockingly, well, minimal. It’s still legal to keep a chimpanzee in a 5’x5’x7′ cage. These days, however, most laboratories that are still housing chimpanzees allow them to live in social groups and give them some sort of outside access. The National Institutes of Health recommends (though doesn’t require) enclosures that provide at least 250 square feet of space per chimpanzee. As a point of reference, for our group of seven, that’s a total of 1,750 square feet. Think about the size of your apartment or house as a comparison. Now think of yourself having only that amount of space for the rest of your life. Still, 250 square feet is way beyond the twenty-five square-foot cages that the Cle Elum Seven spent much of their lives.

The changes in how labs house chimpanzees came about in part due to pressure from a public that had gained insight into the deep intelligence and social lives of these beings that are so closely related to us.

Beyond just amount of space, providing an enriching, stimulating, interesting environment for chimpanzees is about giving them lots and lots of choices. Even if they only use some of their space a fraction of the time or only pick up a certain object one out of every five times it’s available, simply living in an environment that provides a large amount of variety is a huge part of giving intelligent primates at least some of what they need.

After spending decades in small spaces without access to the outside, I wonder if the Cle Elum Seven could have imagined a place like CSNW with 85,000 square feet of space.

Once they were at the sanctuary, their bodies and their minds knew what to do.

They followed their instincts, put their muscles to work, and got down to the business of exploring.

They reached into their imaginations and indulged in private games and adventures.

They broadened their palate and relished opportunities to search for and gather food.

No one had to teach them to be chimpanzees.

(Just a note about these photos – they were all taken today! The photos include Foxie, Jamie, Annie, and Missy.)

They Need Each Other

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Nothing makes me happier than when I go out to see what the chimpanzees are up to and they are happily engaged in their own activities, sometimes gracing me with a cursory glance or friendly head nod, then getting back to what they were doing. This happiness is tenfold when it’s Jamie who is hanging out with the other chimpanzees and simply doesn’t want or need my attention.

I’m not going to lie, it is pretty fantastic to be greeted enthusiastically by a chimpanzee. I’m a (mostly) social primate too, and it feels good when someone is happy to see me and wants to spend time with me. However, part of our job at the sanctuary is to create an environment where the humans are available but not essential to the social lives of the chimpanzees in our care.

J.B. explained in this blog post at the beginning of the year that Jamie is often not involved in grooming parties with the other chimpanzees because she tends to exist on the fringes of the chimpanzees social group, often preferring to receive attention from the humans. This makes a lot of sense – she spent the first nine years of her life very likely thinking she was a human, then she was put into biomedical research for a couple of decades before coming to the sanctuary. To say that her relationship with humans is complicated is an understatement.

We do grant her the time that she desires with the humans. We want to provide all of the chimpanzees with the things and experiences that make them feel secure, content, and joyful, and that’s different for each of them. We respect who they are as chimpanzees, however, and we limit the contact that we have with them. Even their best human friends are never with them without steel caging, chimp-proof glass, or electric fence between us (aside from medical procedures when they are fully sedated). This is for our safety. And it’s also to let them have their own space where they can be chimpanzees.

The humans are just a part of their lives. We come and we go. Their most important social relationships are with one another.

So, you can imagine my happiness when I came upon a grooming session between Jamie and Foxie today and they ignored me.

They can be physical with each other in ways that the humans cannot, and that’s the way it should be. They don’t need us for this. They need each other.

June is for Negra

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If you have the CSNW 2019 calendar, you get to look at this beautiful photo of Negra all month long:

You’ll also notice (or may already know) that we celebrate Negra’s honorary birthday on June 13th, the anniversary of the chimpanzees’ arrival to Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest.

Negra remains the eldest of the group of seven chimpanzees. She dominated our thoughts as we were preparing the sanctuary for the group’s arrival. She had spent the most time in biomedical research and had suffered perhaps more than any of the other chimpanzees, showing the signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder upon her arrival.

We were excited to see all of the chimpanzees fully realize their new sanctuary life, but I for one could not stop thinking about being able to witness Negra experience all of the new comforts, choices, and space at the sanctuary. This video of her in the playroom for the first time captured what will forever be one of my most cherished moments.

The expression on her face today in this photo reminded me of the video:

Which of course led me to think of the most iconic image of Negra that we have: Negra in the Sun

This is the original photo I took in 2008:

Then artist Margaret H. Parkinson created this breathtaking painting based on the photo:

Margaret’s painting then inspired other artists, most recently mosaic artist Lisa Whatne.

Here is a close-up of Lisa’s truly stunning piece:

And guess what!? The Negra in the Sun mosaic is available for bidding in the HOOT! 2019 gala auction on June 15th! Even those who are not able to make it to the event can place an absentee bid on this mosaic as well as most of the other items in the auction! Absentee bidding begins Monday, June 10th at 8:00 a.m. See all items on the auction preview site now (items are still being added).

I can’t wait to find out who the lucky winner of the mosaic is going to be!

What’s Your Strategy?

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Today, while observing the chimpanzees forage on Young’s Hill, volunteer Patti said she likes how Negra goes about things.

While Missy is running from one structure to another, finding all of the food that was placed or hidden high up on the structures or the treat rock:

And Jody is busy running around collecting as much as she can, mostly from the ground (low hanging fruit, you might say):

Negra wanders about until she finds some food:

And then she plops herself down and simply enjoys what is at hand (in this case, a beet that she seems to have splayed open and a prized pineapple top):

After finishing, she’ll sit for a bit and look around before moving on to the next station:

J.B. described this as a lack of a strategy, but I think it’s still a strategy to have a laid back, “see what happens” way of approaching the forage.

Either way, she looked very happy out there. ❤️

Cautiously Carefree

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The chimpanzees still don’t do much lounging on Young’s Hill. They spend quiet moments outside, to be sure, but it’s rare to see any of them just fully relax like they do when they’re indoors. Even when we’ve put out blankets, we haven’t seen them really nest.

Perhaps because they spent decades living indoors in laboratories without access to big open spaces, the outdoors seem to require more vigilance. I guess I feel the same way, come to think of it.

This morning, I did catch Foxie lying down way up high on the structure donors named “Jamie’s Lookout”.

You might notice that she’s still holding onto the ladder.

Even with this tether to security, you can tell that she is happy because she’s rubbing her big toe and second toe together – a classic and unique sign of happiness for Foxie.

Missy noticed Foxie in repose, and came over with a big playface. Then ensued a very short tickle/wrestle game (so short I didn’t capture a decent photo).

Missy then spied on J.B. who was with the cattle on the other property,

took a moment to sit next to the now upright Foxie,

and resumed her position on the other side of the lookout.

Foxie did some careful inspecting of the structural integrity of the platform before making her way back down.

Two Small Words

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I’ve been writing these two small words over and over lately: Thank you.

Donors to the sanctuary made our year-end fundraising soar to new and unexpected heights, and we have been quite busy sending out thank you letters and donation receipts.

I love to write those words, and I love thinking about each person as they made their donation. Some donors I know very well, and I can picture them as I write. Others are new and mysterious, and I wonder how they came to know about the chimpanzee sanctuary in Cle Elum.

Sometimes (often) those two words don’t feel nearly big enough to contain all of the gratefulness that I’m feeling. I hope the actual depth of my appreciation is somehow transferred into the ink as I write.

It really is incredible that people support the sanctuary and take the time and effort to back up that support with often hard-earned money. Knowing that we have this shared concern and mission is powerful.

I feel lucky to have a job where I not only get to be around amazing and unique non-humans, but I also have the opportunity to see the generosity and hope that our own species is capable of demonstrating.

So, reflecting on all of this today, I started to think about how the chimpanzees show gratitude. Thankfulness is a pretty complicated emotion that is probably an amalgam of different feelings, and maybe something that carries a bit of cultural individuality.

We don’t claim to be able to be inside the heads of the chimpanzees, even those we know very well, so I can’t say for sure that they experience thankfulness like I do.

That’s the conundrum about perception, though – I only know what I experience. I can guess that other people/beings experience the same or similar feelings as I do based on imagining how I would feel in a given situation and observing their outward behaviors, but it’s really just a guess.

Given my limitations of knowing much of anything about what’s outside of myself, I do think that the chimpanzees show and maybe feel something akin to gratitude.

When we serve food, we bring it through the chimp area first, as illustrated in the popular “pasta cam” that J.B. created on Burrito’s birthday. The excitement that the chimpanzees exhibit and the satisfying groans they make when we provide them with food is, I think, at least tinged with gratefulness.

Among themselves, when one of the chimpanzees reaches out for reassurance (like Negra here):

and then receives the reassurance they are seeking (from Jamie in this case):

I imagine there’s some thankfulness that’s part of what the reassurance-seeker experiences.

There was a more dramatic experience last fall when we had to suture Jody’s eyelid that I couldn’t help but believe that Jody was thankful for the humans, even though we had to do something that she otherwise would not have appreciated.

And then there are just the little everyday moments when the chimpanzees do a little something that makes me wonder if they are feeling grateful, like when old friends visit and walk with Jamie or today when I caught Missy’s gaze as she turned from the window she was looking out, and she proceeded to walk over and let me groom her back through the fencing.

I can’t say for sure if Missy was thankful that I was there to share the moment with her, but I can say definitively that I felt a whole lot of gratitude.

Tis the Season

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One frequently asked question we’re asked, well, frequently, is how the chimpanzees cope with snow. Snow is not a part of wild chimpanzees’ environment, to be clear.

However, save for maybe a few months as infants for Negra, Annie, and perhaps Jody, the seven chimpanzees here know nothing about the life and environment of wild chimpanzees. They grew up, for the most part, indoors. And for the last decade (at least) before coming to the sanctuary, they didn’t even have a window to look out.

So, to answer the question about how they cope with snow, I’d say they’ve adapted very well! As a rule, chimpanzees generally don’t like to get their feet wet. However, if the snow is not deep, the chimpanzees at CSNW go right outside, explore, and often collect some of the wintry treat to enjoy back in the greenhouse.

The visual of chimpanzees in snow is still sometimes strange; but they are, after all, honorary citizens of Cle Elum: Heart of the Cascades.

After ten years, a trek in the snow is probably just as normal as walking through the tall pasture grass and planted bamboo in the spring and summer.

And they look darn good against a backdrop of white.

Burrito

 

Annie & Burrito

 

Jody

Speaking of snow season, thank you to everyone who has donated so far in our year-end fundraising! I’ll have some more updates about that soon. I’ve been overwhelmed by all of the generosity from so many people. It really does a heart good to have the support of inspiring, amazing, and caring folks who are rooting for the Bring Them Home Expansion to continue as quickly as possible so we can provide a home for more chimpanzees!

Did you know that artist and friend of the chimpanzees Maragaret H. Parkinson has a special offer of a painting to a lucky person who donates $1,000?! Check out the original 12×12″ oil painting “Rainbow Ele” ©️ 2018 below and get in touch (diana@ChimpsNW.org) if you would like to take advantage of this truly amazing gift!