Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Cle Elum 7

The View From the Bottom

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In chimpanzees, personality and dominance often go hand in hand. The alphas aren’t always the biggest and strongest individuals; they’re often in charge because they want to be in charge. (Despite some of the benefits conferred, not everyone is interested in running for president.)

At CSNW, Annie is the lowest in the hierarchy. She also happens to be a little anxious. It’s impossible to know whether she’s anxious because she’s the lowest in the hierarchy, or whether she’s the lowest in the hierarchy because she’s an anxious individual. (The truth is probably some combination of those options.) Despite being the lowest in the hierarchy, Annie doesn’t have it too bad. She has to wait her turn at meals, and she defers to the more dominant chimps in passing. But she also gets away with a fair amount of sass – probably because the more dominant chimps aren’t threatened by her. She can take food straight out of Negra’s hands – assuming it’s not something Negra cared too much about – and she always lets the other chimps know when they’ve wronged her. As the years go by, we see less and less anxiety and more and more peace and contentment in her eyes.

8th Annual Love a Chimpanzee Day

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We love made-up holidays around here (holiday = party for the chimps). For the last 8 years, the chimps’ good friend Monica Best has sponsored April 23rd as Love a Chimpanzee Day. (It also happens to be Monica’s birthday!) Unless you’ve followed our blog for awhile, you probably haven’t heard of Love a Chimpanzee Day; that’s because it didn’t exist until Monica dreamed it up.

To celebrate CSNW’s 8th Annual Love a Chimpanzee Day, we decided to throw a luau party, because there’s never a bad time to throw a luau party for chimps you love. The chimps enjoyed a feast of bananas, oranges, fruit smoothie, and pineapple coconut water for breakfast in the greenhouse.

Missy:

Burrito:

(Burrito was especially happy to see former volunteer caregiver Stephanie, who stopped by for a visit!)

Negra:

Jamie:

Jody:

Annie:

(Annie really had lounging down to an art today…)

Thanks as always to Monica for conceiving of and sponsoring this delightful holiday (and happy birthday)!

Easter 2017 Part II

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The day after the big celebration the chimpanzees have been napping, resting and eating light, recovering from yesterday’s all day party! As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, here are a few photos from the first Young’s Hill forage of the year (aka Easter Party #2):

Annie picking carrots we “buried” for the chimps to harvest:

Jody and Negra (Negra was ALL over the place! It was her day 🙂 ):

Jody finds a quiet spot to enjoy her spoils:

Missy scored on corn:

Foxie and Dora on the hunt for Easter eggs filled with nuts and berries:

Boss lady, Jamie, thrilled with her beloved leeks:

And a bonus video of Easter shenanigans from the breakfast forage:

Spring, storms, this and that.

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Springs storms are rolling through the area today and in typical fashion we go from sun, to cold wind, to rain, to hail and back to sun.

But spring hail (if you live in Cle Elum :)) brings the first tiniest of spring flowers:

No matter the weather, Missy asks to have the barn doors at the end of the playroom open and checks the garden every day!

And every time we open them up for the chimps to have a peek, it creates quite a ruckus and Missy is thrilled. She and Missy immediately began chasing each other around the playroom, laughing:

Jamie was keeping a close eye on the approaching storms from the chimp house windows after an aborted attempt at walking around the hill. She left me standing half way up on the windy hillside calling after her as she high-tailed it back to the greenhouse. Maybe she’s becoming a fair weather chimp?

It’s been a quiet afternoon with the unpredictable weather and the chimps have mostly congregated together in the toasty greenhouse to groom. If you are new to chimpanzee behavior, grooming is extremely important in chimp society. It’s a way to clean themselves and one another as well as to attend to any wounds, but it’s primary importance is that of building and maintaining their bonds with one another. Chimps use grooming to build relationships in the hierarchy and “get in good” with the more dominant chimps, it’s how they maintain bonds with friends, it’s how they soothe and calm each other and it’s how they make up after a fight. And here at CSNW, sometimes the chimps will choose to include their caregivers in their grooming. The chimpanzees relationships with one another are always the priority, but it’s always special when they include us.

Missy likes to groom herself with a small stick (seen here grooming her own arm) and invited me to do the same. For safety reasons we never allow our fingers to pass through the caging and the chimps know that if they want us to groom them or give them a knuckle rub, they have to press their body against the caging. You can’t see it here, but I am only using my forefinger and thumb to hold the tool – we keep as many fingers as we can tucked back for safety…That leg!

Here Annie (using her lips on her arm) and Jody are self-grooming:

Burrito was resting in the corner while Foxie groomed him, but he eventually moved down to groom with Jody:

The chimps have been loving the greenhouse today and even after an exciting dinner forage of roasted onions, pears, Brussels sprouts, and potatoes, they all took their evening enrichment of peanut butter in containers out to the greenhouse to enjoy. This is pretty unusual because they are typically building their night nests about this time. Keri and I said goodnight and received “crickets” in response. 🙂 Goodnight chimps! Goodnight friends of chimps!

You Can’t Please Everyone

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Burrito is more popular in some circles than in others. As a rule, humans adore him while his chimp family merely tolerates him. On a daily basis, Burrito terrorizes the six female chimps he lives with by charging through the chimp house in loud and intimidating dominance displays. Burrito’s just doing what male chimps do, but that argument doesn’t hold much water with the ladies who have to live with him.

Despite all that, there’s something endearingly innocent about him. He feels his emotions deeply. While not the most socially savvy person, he tries hard to fit in, and he doesn’t always understand why the other chimps are upset with him. He loves and trusts his caregivers without reservation, even though humans have not been kind to him in the past. He loves a gentle game of tug of war with his human friends, and he greets every meal like a kid on Christmas morning.

In memory of Linda Vizzare

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This day of sanctuary was sponsored by the chimps’ long-time friend, Lisa Stuverud, in memory of her sister-in-law, Linda Vizzare. Lisa and her husband, Rich, have been a big part of creating a life of sanctuary for the chimps and helping them celebrate each day. Lisa shared this beautiful message about Linda:

“Today, I’m honoring my late sister-in-law Linda who I miss very much (she loved Burrito)…this was always our day to celebrate…and I’m choosing to share it with the sanctuary because everyday since becoming aware of the Cle Elum 7 and everyone involved with CSNW…I have witnessed the ability to overcome and rise above, to appreciate every warm sunbeam and ripe tomato, to have a selfless passion to help others and I feel that I am a better person and my dear sister-in-law would be very proud.”

Lisa, thank you for including the chimps in your family and for doing something so beautiful as to ease your heart by sharing your love with them and adding to their lives. We hope all the joy that comes to them today brings you peace, comfort and joy as you remember Linda and celebrate all she meant to you. Our thoughts are with you and your family today.

For Linda,