Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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chimpanzees

The Honey B Chonk

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Chimpanzees are intelligent, emotional, and complex. They deserve the utmost respect.

This is their home and their retirement, and it’s their right to be however they want to be. This fact makes me appreciate how chimpanzees can be not only relaxed but also downright goofy. When they group is in a playful mood, even the most stoic of chimps can be a total dork. For us caregivers, stopping to appreciate these weird moments helps to keeps things lighthearted and reminds us what this sanctuary thing is all about. It’s perfectly okay to laugh along with them.

In the past, we’ve highlighted some of the comical new behaviors that the chimpanzees invent in their spare time (e.g., Annie’s and Honey B’s waistbands, Willy B’s slinky moves, Missy’s choice of grooming tools, Mave’s toe socks and Jamie’s flamboyant scarves). Of course, none of these creations are purely spontaneous and random. Even the most innovative aspects of their behavior are influenced by both their current surroundings and past experiences.

Honey B’s behavior seems to be especially shaped by her previous and ongoing interactions with humans. As one of the more inquisitive and interactive chimpanzees at the sanctuary, she likes to be involved in whatever her caregivers are doing and seems to enjoy making us happy. It’s in her nature to be helpful. We try not to bother the chimps with unnecessary requests, but we do have to ask them for certain favors that help us caregivers to do our jobs. On a daily basis, for example, we ask the chimpanzees to shift from one enclosure to another so that we can safely go inside and clean up. They usually do this without any coaxing because there is something more interesting to do elsewhere. Sometimes, however, there are objects or materials blocking the hydraulic doors that prevent us from remotely operating them and therefore delay shifting. In those moments, we can usually ask a passing chimpanzee to kindly remove the obstruction. Honey B, however, exceeds the expectations.

A few weeks ago, the three chimps who live in the new wing were shifting out of the upstairs Mezzanine and into the new front rooms and chute on the ground floor. There was a tangled slinky that was preventing Kelsi from remotely shutting the door behind them. We asked Honey B to remove the toy, which by then resembled a bird’s nest, and she eagerly scrambled to disentangle the entire thing before tossing it through the open doorway. Then, for safe measure, Honey B collected nearby slinkies (which weren’t tangled and weren’t blocking the door) and chucked them downstairs as well.

In the following weeks, she has surprised us all by continuing to throw available enrichment items through doorways before they we close them. Every morning she flips the previous night’s blankets and night bags through the lower-level doors before heading up to the Mezzanine for breakfast, and she has even started to hurl larger toys down the incline of the chute and out into her group’s alcove of Young’s Hill (now known as “The Courtyard”). With the input of a few enthusiastic and amused volunteers, I have unofficially named this behavior The Chonk. I’m not sure how well this name fits the behavior since the term chonk is usually applied to overweight cats on the internet, but the sound of the word makes me chuckle. (Thanks, Elizabeth C!)

I would love to know exactly what Honey B is thinking as she yeets enrichment out onto the Hill, but I can only speculate. I sincerely hope that, whatever her motivation may be, that she’s having as much fun as I am.

Keep on chonkin’, Honey B.

The Gator Tour of CSNW

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I had a bit of writer’s block today. It happens sometimes.

The weather was nice, though, and we finished the daily cleaning on time (sometime around 1pm when we regularly serve the chimpanzees their lunch). Some chimps were walking around the perimeter of Young’s Hill with Katelyn (on the outside of the fence, of course) and Chad had just returned from feeding the cattle and mucking their barn. With things settled and quiet around the Chimp House, I decided to drive around the property to capture some photographs of the scenic landscape. The pastures and woods that surround the facility have started to turn emerald green and are even speckled with the first yellow and purple wildflowers of the season.

One thing that is missing from the sanctuary right now is the extended team of people who would normally be enjoying the onset of spring along with us. We typically have fifty volunteers and interns who show up for rotating shifts, and many of them are like family to us. We are following a strict quarantine protocol and are operating with just the core staff, leaving us with just a fraction of the usual personnel. In terms of caregiving, we’re doing just fine– the meals and meds are always served, the enclosures are always cleaned and the chimps are always engaged in one activity or another- but the facility still feels somewhat empty without the all the familiar individuals who help us to care for the chimps and their sanctuary home.

We’ve been working on other ways to keep our community informed and active. Although we aren’t open to the public and we don’t exhibit the chimps (or even the cattle, for that matter), sharing our work is a huge part of this sanctuary’s culture. While that certainly includes communicating special updates and highlighting noteworthy milestones, it also means illustrating the most simple and mundane aspects of life at CSNW. I thought you all might enjoy seeing this little piece of my day: an afternoon cruise around the sanctuary on the John Deere Gator.

Noisy Neighbors and Sock Puppets

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It’s a beautiful day here at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. The sun is out, there is a light breeze, and the chimpanzees are spending their time with each other both inside and outside.

When they were given access to Young’s Hill, Missy raced outside with Annie close on her metaphorical tail.

Jody was actually the first one out on Young’s Hill today, and also the first one back. What she really wanted was to spy on her neighbors. Once she realized her neighbors were not in the Chute at that moment, she headed back inside.

With Missy coming in right behind her.

Burrito, on the other hand, knows that he can just wait by the window for his neighbors to make an appearance without having to go outside to check.

And when their neighbors do make an appearance, be prepared for a lot of hooting and hollering.

Jody and Foxie caught a glimpse of Willy B as he made his way into the Chute and immediately began hooting.

Though Willy B, Mave, and Honey B spent a considerable amount of time in the Chute today, they also spent a lot of time keeping busy indoors, as well.

Mave decided she wanted to make a sock puppet.

She was actually pretty happy and satisfied with her sock puppet.

Willy B spent a lot of time napping and requesting his caregivers to play chase with him. When we wasn’t doing that, he made sure his neighbors knew of his presence by displaying in the Mezzanine.

It usually starts out with him dragging his yellow bucket around to make as much noise as possible as a buildup, before it crescendos into a scream and him boxing himself in the mirror.

When the mirror wasn’t used for Willy B’s shadowing boxing practice, Honey B used it to look at herself and her caregivers through the reflection.

Jojo Rabbit

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Jody has three nicknames that we frequently use when referring to her. “Jo” is the simplest and most common, but “JoJo” is the fun equivalent.

Every time I hear someone say the nickname Jojo, I think of two things. The first association is a song by Blind Pilot (a Portland-based folk band) that tells the story of a homeless man named Jojo. The song is called “The Story I Heard” and has a catchy melody that loops in my head whenever I see Jody’s kind, sweet face. It fits her perfectly.

The second thing that comes to mind, of course, is the Oscar-winning film Jojo Rabbit. (If you haven’t seen it yet, what are you waiting for?) Jody, with her gentle demeanor and love of all things that grow, would make a very fine rabbit. In fact, Jody’s appropriate third nickname is “Farmer Jo” because of how eagerly she harvests food from the chimps’ outdoor habitat. Chimps are not strictly vegetarian by any means, but Jody would be quite happy if all we ever gave her were heaps of green vegetables to munch on.

That brings us to today’s holiday celebration: a feast and forage to celebrate Easter Sunday and the arrival of spring.

The day (which was lovingly sponsored by two amazing and generous supporters) began with the usual breakfast chaos and subsequent socialization. As Diana mentioned in yesterday’s blog, Foxie and Jody were just reunited with the group after receiving some medical attention and are getting back to their normal routines. Meanwhile, Jamie is dealing with a draining abscess but is otherwise acting like her usual self. She seemed to feel a bit better after Missy (“Dr. Missy”) gave her backside some much-needed grooming. After her appointment with Jamie, Missy proceeded to engage Burrito in a playful session of wrestling. Jamie “payed it forward” by giving Jody some T.L.C.

Jamie allows Missy (not shown) to groom her backside
Missy (right) plays with Burrito (left)
Jamie (right) and Jody (left) groom each other

Meanwhile, CSNW co-directors J.B. and Diana spent some time planting this past holiday season’s evergreen trees. They were previously kept in pots after being featured in the Christmas Day celebration and are now taking root amid the bamboo on Young’s Hill. Maybe they’ll survive, and perhaps even grow, if Farmer Jo doesn’t prune off too many of their branches.

Back in the Greenhouse, the chimps could see us scattering food in their outdoor enclosure and got really excited.

Negra (below) excitedly greets Annie (above)

Once all of the caregivers, vehicles and tools were safely out of the enclosure, we were finally able to let the chimpanzees go out and forage for their Easter lunch. Negra led the charge out of the Greenhouse and up the hillside, followed by her six companions. The chimps were ecstatic to find caches of carrots, beets, watermelon slices, chow biscuits, and brand new troll dolls.

Missy (front left), Jamie (right) and Negra (rear left) search for food on the hill
Burrito eats watermelon in the cabin as Jamie approaches
Annie surveys the landscape for more food
Missy tries to out-compete the others (and successfully evades the camera’s auto-focus) by using the firehose vines to get around
Annie climbs to the top of “The Escher” to find the cache of food on top

Chimpanzees have a strong sense of fairness and, without interfering with their social hierarchy, we make sure there is enough food to go around at each meal. Even so, each celebratory forage usually has one chimp who “wins” by collecting the largest amount of the most prized item. As you all may have guessed by now, Jojo Rabbit won today’s Easter forage.

Jody carries her prized carrots as Burrito trails behind

Farmer Jo decided immediately that carrots were the most valuable of all the foods. She sprinted past her companions and began filling her arms with the enormous orange carrots as if she was scooping up rolls of toilet paper at Fred Meyer. Before the others could even figure out what was hidden out there, Jody was making her way back to the Greenhouse with an armful of crunchy loot. The other chimps each found a carrot or two, but Jody had a whole bushel.

Jojo munches on a carrot and gazes out at the other chimps

It’s hard to believe that Jody was the star of the show today after she just had a toe amputated last week. If my description doesn’t quite do it for you and you would prefer to watch today’s Easter forage for yourself, J.B. spontaneously streamed it live on our Facebook page so that all of our supporters could share the experience with us and the chimps. I highly recommend checking it out!

You may also be wondering how things went on the other side of the building. Mave, Willy B and Honey B had an exciting morning. For a short period of time, we opened the chute to their section of Young’s Hill so that they could have the opportunity to go outside. Per usual, they cautiously inspected their outdoor enclosure from the relative safety of the chute, although Honey B did roll a tire down the ramp and out onto the grass. She has developed a weird habit of noisily throwing large enrichment items through doorways, but that’s a story for another day…

Once the chute was closed back up, the three chimps enjoyed a hearty lunch and delicious dinner coupled with quick sessions of positive reinforcement training that allowed caregiver Chad to record their temperatures. It also marked the first time that they appeared interested in eating hard-boiled eggs (collected from locally-raised chickens, of course). Honey B and Willy B are now Easter eggs fanatics, although Mave doesn’t buy into the hype just yet.

Mave presents her forehead so Chad can take her temperature
Honey B devours a hard-boiled Easter egg

Jody may have won the day, but Jamie won the evening. It’s currently after 8pm and Jamie just finished scouring Young’s Hill for the remaining produce. Just a half hour ago, she found a whole beet that was still hidden in the foliage. She finally allowed us to close the door and is settling in for a good night’s sleep, so I’m closing up the Chimp House and heading home.

Jamie searches for food on the hill

Whether you celebrated today’s holiday or not, we hope that you had a great day. Stay healthy, everyone!

Super Lunar Vibes

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Some days, you just have a very good day. Other days seem to be good because of cosmic forces at play. Tonight is a Pink Supermoon. Meaning, the moon will be the closest to Earth than any other time this year (supermoon), and it also coincides with the Pink Moon, the name given to the full moon of April.

Today was a suspiciously quiet day here at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. All the chimpanzees spent most of their time resting or napping.

Negra spent most of her day napping in front of her favorite windows, covered in blankets
That is until a certain Willy B walks into the Chute and causes her roommates to go into an uproar, waking her up.
Burrito even spent most of his day laying back and watching his neighbors.

It was even a quiet day for Willy B, Honey B, and Mave.

Willy spent most of his day napping and lounging around.
While Honey B spent most of her day building forts and playing with/on the mirror.
Mave looked as thoughtful as ever.

Today, we also determined Jody is recovering tremendously and should have a play date. And what better friend to have visit you than Foxie?

When I first opened the door that separated them, they flew into each other’s embrace. They then engaged in a small game of chase before spending nearly all day grooming and napping with each other.

Whether today was just a good day, or the Pink Supermoon was emitting super lunar vibes, it’ hard to say. I’m just glad it was a magnificent day for the chimpanzees.

How to Speak CSNW

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A few months ago, a behaviorist at Chimp Haven wrote an enlightening blog post about the terminology that their staff uses when communicating with each other. They titled their post “How to Speak Caregiver” and used it to explain some of the stranger aspects of their shared vocabulary.

In general, the sanctuary community is full of variation that could be referred to as culture (if you subscribe to those kinds of labels, ha ha ha ha..). Just as chimpanzees exchange learned behaviors with others in their social network, so do sanctuary caregivers. This leads to distinct cultural differences between organizations. As existing personnel teach valuable skills to newcomers, for example, quirky behaviors and traditions often tag along. Some of these variants have become ubiquitous in the animal care industry, while other newer traditions are more common among sanctuaries than they are in other institutions. Due to decades of gradual exchange among facilities, the terminology at CSNW is largely consistent with that used elsewhere (e.g., “shifting”) despite some minor differences (e.g., Chimp Haven’s “wad” vs. our “wadge“).

The most fun and interesting of our vocabulary terms, in my opinion, are those that refer to novel innovations and are therefore unique to CSNW. The following post highlights some of my favorite items in our local “dialect” of the caregiver “language” (accompanied by photographs taken by our staff). Some of our regular blog readers may be familiar with these terms, while others may not. It is my pleasure to enlighten you all.

Troll Scarf

A collection of several plastic dolls (usually Troll Dolls but sometimes Dora the Explorer ones, too) that are tied into a wearable cloth item for enrichment purposes. The chimpanzees sometimes adorn themselves by throwing the scarves over their shoulder. This behavior, called draping, is also practiced by chimpanzees living in the wild. Without caregivers to provision them with troll scarves, free-ranging chimpanzees tend to use animal pelts (sometimes from monkeys that they’ve hunted) or leafy vines that they gather in the forest. Honey B, meanwhile, hasn’t caught onto the scarf phenomenon and prefers to wear unusual donated items such as sweaters and aprons.

Jamie drapes a troll scarf around her shoulders

Young’s Hill

The chimpanzees’ expansive outdoor habitat. Often referred to as The Hill, the 2-acre enclosure is named after supporters Don and Karen Young (who generously sponsored its construction). It was completed in 2011, although there have been numerous upgrades over the years. The perimeter of the enclosure consists of two rows of tall wooden posts lined with electrified wires to securely contain the chimpanzees. The fencing surrounds a hillside meadow that now features numerous man-made structures for the chimpanzees to climb on. Many of these landmarks each have their own names and stories (e.g., The Treat Rock, The Twister, The Escher, Negra’s Cabin, The Shaky Bridge, The Courtyard, and more). My favorite aspect of Young’s Hill is the panoramic view of the surrounding pastures, riparian wetlands and evergreen forests.

The vista from the middle of Young’s Hill

Gator Race

An exhilarating activity in which a human drives the John Deere Gator (our small farm vehicle) around the outside perimeter of Young’s Hill while one or more chimpanzees sprint around the interior boundary, seemingly trying to compete against us in a race. Missy is the fastest of the chimpanzees and has a habit of sprinting way ahead of the Gator (and the other chimps), leaving everyone in the proverbial dust. Jamie likes to hype herself up while the engine idles by standing bipedally and clapping before charging forward for short bursts. Gator Races are generally more interesting when the caregiver is wearing some rad footwear.

Missy races the Gator (from the Gator’s point of view)

Night Bag

A brown paper bag filled with small amounts of dry foods served to the chimpanzees at the end of the day. These are not only nutritious and tasty; they also stimulate the chimps’ natural tendency to selectively process foods and keep them occupied while we caregivers do evening chores. The most popular ingredients are dehydrated fruit, pumpkin seeds, peanuts, popcorn, and sunflower seeds.

Negra looking at camera with night bag
Negra devours a night bag

Going for a Walk

The act of strolling the perimeter of Young’s Hill alongside Jamie. Other chimpanzees sometimes join the caravan, but Jamie often does this activity alone. Jamie and her companions seem to do this for several reasons, the foremost of which is to patrol the boundary of the group’s territory. Free-living chimpanzees conduct regular patrols to survey their home range and wage war on neighboring groups. The walks also seem to serve as exercise for the CSNW chimps and help them to maintain a set daily routine. The walks also seem to have a prosocial purpose since Jamie will frequently use gestures to request that caregivers join her. Jamie is also a footwear enthusiast and appreciates patrolling with people who are sporting new and/or interesting boots.

Jamie walks in the morning fog

The Chimp House

The sanctuary’s main building that currently houses all of the chimpanzees. The original structure consisted of five enclosures (four front rooms and a playroom) as well as a small area for human activities. The Greenhouse enclosure was added shortly after the chimpanzees arrived and was followed by a connection to Young’s Hill in 2011. The first phase of a major expansion was completed in 2019 and gave us humans a foyer, bathroom, laundry room and vet clinic. Notably, it also included five new enclosures (three new front rooms, the Mezzanine and the outdoor chute) that enabled us to provide a home for another group of chimpanzees. The second phase of the expansion will include additional playrooms and greenhouses, hopefully allowing us to take in more chimps!

The Chimp House on a snowy day

Grooming Tool

A short length of plastic hose material used by the chimpanzees to manipulate the environment outside the caging. We keep a quiver of these (yes, it’s literally a quiver made of recycled firehose) in the enrichment storage area because they are an important, popular and safe item for the chimpanzees to have. Jamie, for example, uses them to prod and inspect footwear as the humans are wearing it. We wouldn’t want her to be grabbing anyone’s clothes or accessories with her fingers, so the plastic grooming tool is employed as a substitute. These grooming tools can also be used as fishing poles (for retrieving items that have fallen into the hallway just outside the enclosure) and as drinking straws (for taking sips or gulps of smoothie and juice). Other sanctuaries use instruments such as wooden spoons or bamboo sticks for similar purposes. At a few sanctuaries, caregivers call them “tickle sticks” (phrasing!).

Jamie inspects a caregiver’s boots using a grooming tool

The Foot Box

A small cubby that allows us to take radiographs (x-ray images) of chimpanzee feet and hands. J.B. conceived this idea last year during Burrito’s painstaking recovery and fabricated the steel frame in his garage later that afternoon. Now that the box is securely installed, the chimps are learning to place their extremities inside of it and remain still. Once the chimps voluntarily do this, we can acquire high-quality radiographs that can inform how we manage injuries and conditions. At first, Foxie used the Foot Box to store her dolls and Jamie was seen putting a wooden toy in there. In the past couple of weeks, however, the Foot Box has begun to serve its original purpose. Jody has cooperated with us by voluntarily placing her injured foot into the box and holding it there like a true champion. Today, we were able to send detailed images to Dr. Erin without having to immobilize, sedate or restrain Jody in any way.  Also, if you haven’t seen it yet, J.B. and Diana’s x-rayed troll doll may be one of my favorite images in the entire history of the sanctuary. That’s why they make the big bucks.

J.B. calibrates the portable x-ray machine while Diana rewards Jody for being cooperative earlier today. The images were acquired without sedation and will help us to evaluate how Jody’s toes are healing. (Note that Diana backed away immediately before the image was captured to minimize exposure.)

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If you can think of any other jargon that you’d like explained, feel free to comment here or on the corresponding Facebook post!

P.S. I owe a huge deal of gratitude to Chimp Haven’s Jordan Green for writing the original blog post that inspired me.

Chimping Ain’t Easy

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Prior to my arrival in Washington, I was a photojournalist for the better part of a decade. It was during one of my photography classes way back when that I was introduced to the term “chimping.” The term came about at the dawn of digital photography. It was when digital cameras were beginning to be used more frequently over film (though film cameras were still widely used). Chimping is when you take a photograph and immediately look down at the screen to see how the photo came out.

There are two explanations of how the term came to be. The first is if the photographer takes a good photo, looks down,  and sees it, their response is similar to a pant hoot. A series of “Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!” as they scroll through their photos. The second explanation is that if a photographer spends so much time looking at the photos they just took, they may miss something. The story goes that a photographer went to a zoo to take photos of chimpanzees. Every time he took a photo he would look down at his screen to see how his shot came out. As he did this, the chimpanzees would do some remarkable things, but stop once he brought his camera up to get photos.

So we were taught to never “chimp” our photos so we wouldn’t miss anything. That lesson has stuck with me even today. Though, admittedly, I will chimp from time-to-time to ensure I got a good shot. By using this method, I have taken a lot of “outtakes” to my blog postings. So I thought I would share some of my outtakes today.

Sometimes these photos are just by chance. Like this photo of Jamie which was taken last week as I was testing out another camera lens we have.

Some times I won’t use a photo because I catch a chimp in mid-yawn. Like this one of Honey B from a couple of months ago.

Or sometimes they blink the second I push the shutter. Like Missy here scratching her chin. She looked pretty thoughtful otherwise, but this is what the camera caught. I admittedly chimped after this photo and wasn’t able to catch her looking thoughtful because as you know, Missy is usually always on the move. An example of why chimping is bad.

Other times, the photos just don’t fit the overall flow of the blog post, but they are too good not to share.

Like these photos of Burrito eating chow after a recent forage on Young’s Hill, Jody waking up in the morning and checking out what is going on outside, and Honey B getting into Honey B antics.

I tried to take some photos today as well. I couldn’t think of how to piece them together to write a well-cohesive posting today. On any other day, they probably would have ended up in my outtakes folder. But they actually helped inspire me to share some of my previous outtakes.

When the chimpanzees got access to Young’s Hill this morning, it was a little chilly. Foxie sneered her entire time outside before retreating back to the Greenhouse.

Jamie held off on going outside right away and enjoyed her chow in the warmth of the Greenhouse.

On the other side of the sanctuary, Honey B made probably the best fort I have seen her make.

And per usual, Mave was just being a mixture of goofy, shy, and beautiful today.