Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

chimpanzees

Three More Sleeps

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This month has flown by! Can you believe there are only three days left until the chimps celebrate Christmas? The caregiver elves are working really hard to get everything ready for the highly anticipated day! Today Anna and Chad built Jamie and Honey B’s workbenches! Lucky’s group has not yet experienced a CSNW Christmas and we look forward to them opening the amazing presents everyone has donated! Every year we express our gratitude to you all for your generous donations and kind words and this year is no different! As the presents roll in, I am always in awe of how much support you all give to us! So thank you!

And as a thank you I thought I would share a little photo shoot with the ever so kind and beautiful Lucky!

And because it is the season of giving we have a few bonus photos ;).

Jamie savoring her icicle!

Gordo playing with one of his favorite enrichment items (a box!) and eating one of his favorite foods!

A Window to New Friendships

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Introductions between Cy and Willy B’s groups have been progressing along. Today we decided to do something new and different. There are panels between the two greenhouses that provide a visual barrier between the two groups. We removed one of the panels so the two groups can now see and safely interact with each through this portal.

When the groups were given access their greenhouses, Lucky and Rayne were the first ones to notice. Rayne waited around the portal for some time, but nobody showed up. It took a while for Willy B and Mave to realize there was a panel missing. As with new things, a lot of excitement can happen. Usually a lot of screaming and displaying. Surprisingly, there wasn’t as much as we expected. There was mostly positive interactions.

The paneling is located on the second story of the greenhouses, so getting photos up there is almost impossible especially in the winter when the outside paneling is up to keep the chimpanzees warm. I was able to catch a couple of photos from the ground floor of Willy B during one of his displays.

Willy B looks at his neighbors looking at him.
He begins to work up his display with hooting.
He stands bipedally and become piloerect.
Just a blur.

Here are some bonus photos of Gordo and Cy enjoying some snow snacks!

Gordo
Cy

 

It Flakes One to Snow One

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The Pacific Northwest is projected to experience a snowy La Niña winter, but I personally wasn’t expecting to have this much snowfall so early. Today’s local forecast predicted only a couple inches of precipitation yet we just shoveled at least triple that amount from the same sidewalks we just cleared yesterday evening.

The chimps are warm, cozy and entertained (hanging out in their heated indoor areas by choice), the cattle are fed and dry in their winter paddock and barn, and the other caregivers are busy finishing up the daily tasks. There’s also a formidable amount of shoveling and plowing to do outside so today’s blog is unapologetically brief!

As much as I love plowing the driveway with the new tractor, the brightest moment of my week actually occurred yesterday afternoon while doing farm chores. As I drove out to muck the cattle barn, I spotted a distinct trail of animal footprints crossing the pasture. The tracks had the telltale shape and gait of a coyote’s, registering four clawed digits from each paw. Of all the region’s native carnivores, coyotes are perhaps the best suited for living in proximity to humans; their adaptability makes them one of my favorite animals to observe and learn from. I followed the creature’s path across the driveway and stopped where its trail plunged into the brush, eventually crossing the nearby highway and descending towards the wooded riverbank below. As I tend to do, I took a photograph to share with you all.

A close-up of a coyote print

Here are a couple more shots from yesterday:

Meredith
Nearby mountains as seen from the winter barn

The Unlikely Meetup

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This week is an intro week and I spent a lot of the day trying to get Dora alone so she could spend time with Honey B’s group. However, Dora is really hard to get alone. To make Dora a little more comfortable we decided to try to do a quad with all girls. Rayne kindly stayed with Dora and I think Willy B had a good laugh when I thought I could get just the girls. With all my best efforts Willy B decided he could not be left out. So today’s meet up was Honey B, Willy B, Rayne, and Dora. This intro made us all a little nervous, Willy B isn’t always the best at giving the girls the reassurance they might need and Dora is still a wild card for us. We had decided that we would just stick to the mesh unless there were a lot of positive behaviors at the mesh. Well, right off the bat they were breathy panting, grooming, reassuring each other, giving kisses, and playing through the mesh. We had to open the door, so we held our breath and we let them in together. Overall, it went really well! Near the end Dora and Willy B had a miscommunication, which led us to separating them. As you will see in the video Willy B was having a blast with Rayne and Dora! What you all might not know is that Willy B and Dora have met a few times and they were non-eventual, but today Willy B really learned how Dora wanted to play! At first he was overwhelming her, so he backed off and waited for her to come to him. To see how far Dora and Willy B have come is really spectacular. Though it didn’t end on the highest note there was a lot to take away from this intro!

Also Rayne is the best at introductions! She is so good at making the other chimps feel at ease, she gives reassurance when needed, and distracts others by instigating play instead of screaming when they are nervous. She is one of a kind.

Chimp ID: Terry

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It seems to have been a while since the last time we did a Chimp ID from the new group. So who better to pickup where we left off than with Terry!

Terry is by far the “floofiest” of the bunch. It’s took the point where sometimes we have difficulty in determining if he is piloerect, or if he’s just that fuzzy.

Cy, Gordo, and Terry. You can see the comparison here.

Terry always tries to get caregivers’ attention. You can hear Terry pretty much anywhere blowing raspberries to get some attention from caregivers. When Terry is interested in your footwear, he will blow raspberries then spit water at your boots and only your boots, which he loves to groom.

Terry grooming Sofia’s boots.

He also has a peculiar way of greeting caregivers: licking the back of our hands.

Caregiver Kelsi allows Terry to “kiss” the back of her gloved hand.

Terry is also a big fan of food!

Usually, we can often find Terry with something in his mouth. Whether that is a wadge made from the paper bags his primate chow come in or wooden blocks.

Terry is also a fan of food puzzles, especially Boomer Balls.

Terry carrying three Boomer Balls with Rayne right behind him.

Terry is just a big, lovable goofball who is extremely difficult not to love when you meet him.

We all love Terry!

Their Side of the Mountain

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The mosaic landscape in which the sanctuary exists is truly breathtaking.

Even so, it’s difficult to assess the value that such a backdrop provides to four cattle and sixteen chimps who reside here.

For their part, the bovines appear most excited about their environment when it is carpeted with fresh green grass. They’re not particularly expressive otherwise.

As for the chimps, it’s evident that they at least take the time to observe their immediate and distant surroundings. The degree to which they value the aesthetic quality of their environment and the effect that this has on their wellbeing are much less clear. Given that chimpanzee cognition is a lot like ours, I find it logical to assume that they appreciate a good view. Sometimes, it even seems like they go outside just to soak up the weather and enjoy the panoramic perspectives of the surrounding hills.

This older photo by J.B. shows Foxie having one of those moments.

It’s not surprising that the chimps spend so much time exploring their own backyard. These chimpanzees live on some prime real estate.

The sanctuary occupies a grassy patch of land on the western flank of Lookout Mountain (which is not to be confused with any of the the state’s eight other landforms with the same name). Behind the sanctuary’s upper boundary, there is a network of dirt roads that wind their way up the slope to a few private cabins. Last week, I decided to “take the long way home,” pushing my old SUV up the ridge to get an eagle’s view of the sanctuary. As always, the view from up there was incredible.

From the side of the mountain, one can get a sweeping vista of the rust-colored hills and wooded rangeland of the Teanaway River valley to the north, the growing mountain towns of Cle Elum and Roslyn to the northwest, and the rushing waters of the Yakima River and its basalt canyon to the southwest. This entire patchwork is nestled below the mighty peaks of the Central Cascades.

Even with all these features visible from our backyard, the sanctuary itself might still be the strangest artifact on the landscape. It’s not too conspicuous; From a plane, it might be mistaken for a ranch or even some sort of outdoor sports complex. (I’ve joked that Young’s Hill could also double as an interesting paintball course.) From the ridge, however, it’s clear that the wooden climbing platforms and electrified fences are designed for another purpose entirely. If you didn’t already know the sanctuary was here and had never been to a similar facility, you’d probably never guess that sixteen chimps lived in one of the barn-like structures situated at the mouth of the canyon.