Alpha Jamie can be pretty bossy, but she’s not entirely opposed to the other chimpanzees having some fun. (Just a little bit, on occasion.)
Cle Elum 7
Dashing Burrito
I’ll never tire of seeing this guy in our “portrait studio” — the place in the chimp house with a lot of great natural lighting. Just check these out!
Spiderchimp
The ceiling of the greenhouse is made up of long metal bars that allow the chimpanzees to brachiate (swing arm over arm), much like wild chimps swing through the trees. The chimps use these bars pretty often to move from place to place in the greenhouse. For Foxie, though, they’re more than functional – they’re fun. Foxie uses the greenhouse ceiling as her own personal playground. She climbs around upside down on all fours, and then dangles by her feet (sometimes while laughing). Today she took Dora along for the ride.
In Search of The Perfect Snow to Eat
It didn’t take long for the chimpanzees to make their way outside today once the sun came out. Jamie, Jody, Annie, Missy, Foxie and Burrito all made their way onto Young’s Hill. While Jamie continued on to do her first perimeter walk around the hill, the other chimpanzees were more focused on eating the pieces of crusty snow they found. Missy seemed to be on a mission to find the perfect piece.
Missy took her time making her way across the logs, eating chunks of crusty snow along the way.
Then she moved on to Negra’s cabin in search of more pieces. Of course, as many of you know by now, Missy has a knack for climbing. She climbed up one of the posts and made her way up to the roof of the cabin.
Lo and behold, there it was, another big piece.
She took her time enjoying the morsel, taking in the scenery and scoping out where to find the next piece.
When she finished, she climbed onto the roof of the cabin and then proceeded to check for more crusty snow chunks on the other side.
After that, she continued up to the top of the cabin.
Ahhhh, the perfect piece.
Peace and Quiet
Negra’s days are made up of quiet moments. She’s usually the last one out of bed in the morning, and the first to go back to bed after breakfast. She spends most of her day lying in a big, soft nest in front of her favorite window on the playroom catwalk, where she can watch the neighboring farm and the train running through the valley. When there’s a conflict in the group, Negra does her best to stay out of it, and she’s usually the one to end it with her “That’s enough!” pant hoot.
To Negra, sanctuary means peace and quiet.
Jamie’s mood
Just like all emotional beings, Jamie’s mood fluctuates. We don’t always know if we’re going to be greeted in the morning by Happy Jamie or Somewhat Cranky Jamie. Lately she’s had far more of the former than the latter, which is a huge plus for all the primates at CSNW.
If Jamie wakes up on the wrong side of the nest, her crankiness can translate into intolerance for things like dropping food (which we do a lot—especially me, who wins the Clumsiest Caregiver award every year), or playing troll toss too loudly with Foxie, or standing closer to the fencing than Jamie would like. And sometimes, it’s for what seems like no reason at all.
One thing that Somewhat Cranky Jamie doesn’t always like is when we try to take photos or videos of her, especially if she’s working on a project. But she’s been very tolerant of such activities recently, and even let me take this very up close photo of her today:
I usually thank her for letting me take her photo, and to show my appreciation, I turn the camera around so she can see what I captured. She likes to look at photos, so we will scroll through what is on the card until she turns away to find something else to do.
Today, Happy Jamie spent the afternoon getting groomed by caregiver-in-training Whitney, and played a brief game of tug-o-war and chase. Even though Jamie is very human-oriented, she doesn’t always roughhouse with her caregivers, so it’s a real treat when she allows us to play games like that with her. She also spent some quiet time grooming caregiver Lizz for awhile, and has already been on three walks, despite the drizzly overcast skies.
We love days like today… a Happy Jamie means a good day for everyone.
Taking It All In
Today we’ve been lucky enough to have some mild temperatures and sunshine in Cle Elum. After lunch I headed out to the greenhouse, expecting to find most of the chimpanzees lounging out there (their favorite sunny day spot). I was pleasantly surprised, however, to find everyone except for Burrito and Negra outside on Young’s Hill, their two-acre outdoor habitat.
When it’s cold outside, the chimps would generally rather be indoors. The more determined among them might go out for very short periods, but as a rule, the chimps choose to spend most of the winter inside. On mild days, it’s not uncommon to find some activity on the hill – the chimps know that the nice temperatures won’t last long.
When I stepped outside this afternoon there was a large group of hawks circling over Young’s Hill.
I started thinking about how before Young’s Hill was built, the chimps had never had an unobstructed view of the sky before. Young’s Hill has expanded the chimps’ world in more ways than one. In addition to giving them more space to explore, it allows them to see more of their surroundings and to participate more in their environment.
Here’s Annie looking out over the valley adjacent to the sanctuary:
The chimps also have a clear line of sight to the driveway, so they can always check out who’s coming and going. Today Jody was very interested to watch volunteers Pam and T.J. arrive for their shift:
Missy, on the other hand, had no time to look around. She was fully focused on her acrobatic feats.
