Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Jamie can be a little high-strung. As the boss of the group, it’s her job to make sure everything runs the way (she believes) it should, and to make sure everyone’s behaving themselves.
But Jamie also knows the importance of rest. During quiet moments, she often takes the opportunity for a quick siesta before she’s called to attend to the next dispute.
When Jamie first started her daily perimeter walks, it was usually just once or twice a day that she would ask us to accompany her (from the outside of the fence) around Young’s Hill. Now, it averages probably about seven to eight a day, maybe even more. She will ask each of her caregivers to go along at least once, but usually three or four times! She really has become a walking machine.
I think if the humans weren’t busy trying to clean enclosures, prepare enrichment and food, write the blog, and all the other things we do in a day—that Jamie would be asking to go on continuous walks non-stop. The other day, Elizabeth and I did a “walking relay” — I radioed her when Jamie and I were on our way down the hill so she could go wait at the gate (the starting point for these perimeter walks) with boot in tow. Jamie ran SO fast to meet up with Elizabeth and go on another walk!
It’s really awesome to see how excited she can be at times, because most of the time Jamie is all serious business. As Elizabeth mentioned yesterday, her moods can swing pretty wildly.
Here’s a couple recent pictures of Jamie on walks:
This one is from last fall, but I just love it.
Jamie woke up on the wrong side of the nest this morning. From the moment we arrived at the chimp house and greeted the chimpanzees, it was clear that Jamie was feeling a little cranky. This isn’t terribly unusual, and we caregivers know to just give Jamie her space for a little bit until her mood brightens.
Once the chimps got some breakfast in their bellies, Jamie’s mood did brighten. By late morning, she was feeling a lot more mellow. Keri snapped these photos of Jamie in a quiet moment with one of her boots.
As we’ve mentioned before, chimpanzees are very territorial and it’s within their nature to defend their home against strangers. In order to be intimidating, they will usually stand up on their legs, swagger, and their hair will stand on end (pilo-erect). Then, they usually bang something, vocalize, or otherwise make some sort of threatening noise. Threat displays are just that—displays. It’s all just to show how scary they could be, if you don’t watch out.
Sometimes, dominant chimpanzees want to show the others in their group that they could be pretty scary if they want to be. It helps solidify their role as the leader in the group—the intimidation aspect strengthens their control. A dominant chimpanzee will occasionally display their dominance with no provocation at all (or at least, nothing immediately observable).
Here’s a video of exactly that, a display just for the sake of displaying. It doesn’t mean that Jamie is angry or upset about anything, it’s just something she does to remind everyone (chimpanzees and humans) that she’s the boss around here.
Mornings at the sanctuary are a flurry of activity – the humans are busy cleaning the chimp house from top to bottom while the chimpanzees are playing with each other or outside exploring Young’s Hill. It’s not until early afternoon that we finally have a chance to sit down for a moment and regroup. It’s during this breather that we typically start thinking about what we’re going to post to the blog that day. Occasionally, we’ll catch the chimps doing something particularly interesting earlier in the morning, and we’ll stop cleaning for a second to run and grab the camera. But more often, our morning routine keeps us so busy that we don’t have time for paparazzi breaks, and it’s already one or two in the afternoon when we finally grab the camera and go see if the chimps are up to anything photo-worthy.
The problem with this routine is that early afternoon is siesta time, so we end up with a lot of photos of sleepy, lounging chimps.
Negra:
Jody:
Burrito:
Yesterday during dinner, Jody decided to relax a little in between courses. She would go out to the greenhouse, get her serving, and then take it to the front rooms to enjoy her meal without any distractions.
Sometimes the chimpanzees prefer to eat with more privacy, and will take their servings off to their own corner. Part of that might be to avoid getting their food taken by someone more dominant (which is completely normal in chimp society) — but partially I think some chimps just enjoy eating away from the hub-bub of the meal.
Still, some chimps will park themselves in one spot during a meal and stay there until everything has been served. Just another example of how great it is that in sanctuary, they can choose how and where to spend their time.
Chimpanzees spend a lot of time grooming each other. Grooming serves hygienic purposes – removing dead skin, tending to wounds – but maybe more importantly it serves to strengthen bonds between individuals. Chimpanzees don’t seem to have the same hangups about personal space as many of us do; they are not shy about getting right up in each other’s faces (or other body parts). It’s hard to imagine how two individuals wouldn’t be closer after a chimpanzee grooming session.
For the most part, the chimps seem to take these invasions of personal space in stride. This afternoon, though, I found poor Foxie pinned into a corner of the greenhouse by Burrito and Jamie, who were both showering her with (seemingly unwanted) attention. She looked like she wouldn’t mind a little breathing room (that’s Burrito in front of Foxie with his back to the camera, and Jamie on the right).
