Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Cle Elum Seven

Stirring Up Trouble

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Jamie does not live in the moment. She is a thinker and a planner. Sometimes you can see her wheels turning and you have to wonder what she’s up to. As the leader of her group she performs frequent dominance displays, but with Jamie, they don’t always seem to be about dominance. Or at least not solely about dominance. Sometimes it seems that Jamie displays because she’s bored and wants to stir up a little excitement.

This happens a lot when all of the other chimpanzees are settled down, quiet and doing their own thing. Jamie struts around the room, assessing the situation and planning her strategy.

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Then her hair stands on end, she pant hoots, drums on her go-to plastic barrel, and ends by screaming and throwing the barrel across the room.

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She then quickly looks around to see if she got anyone riled up. If not, she tries again. And again. Eventually the other chimps can’t help but get caught up in the excitement. Pant hoots are like yawns to chimps – they’re contagious. Once the chimp house is a cacophony of noise, Jamie seems to feel like she’s done her job and she’s finally able to settle down.

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Just the right piece

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There is no shortage of snow on the ground in Cle Elum, so the chimpanzees don’t have to step far outside for a cold snack. They don’t have to, but with this sunny weather they’ve been venturing farther and farther onto Young’s Hill just to grab a handful of snow and bring it back inside to eat. It seems the snow is just an excuse to have a quick outdoor adventure.

This morning Jody walked outside with purpose, climbed up onto the shaky bridge, gathered a very specific chunk of snow from the bridge, and immediately climbed back down and went back inside.

20 snapshots of the day

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I probably could never quite explain how ecstatic we all were to wake up to sunshine and beautiful clear blue skies this morning. We couldn’t wait to start shoveling the chimps’ walkway on Young’s Hill and fluff it up with fresh, dry straw so that they could enjoy their morning outside.

As we prepped the walkway the chimpanzees were so excited, intermittently watching us and playing and laughing with one another inside.

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Once I opened the door to the hill I couldn’t believe my eyes when who but Negra was leading the group outside! You can just see her head peeking out from in front of Missy at the head of the line. Then we have Annie, Foxie and Jamie bringing up the rear with one of her new snow shovels (Burrito was the one person who opted to stay inside and eat snow from the raceway door, but he’s been enjoying a day of Burrito-style antics with his caregivers):

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I put a straw path up to one of the swinging tires, always a favorite spot to check for ice treats. Jody headed straight for it and quickly made her way back to the greenhouse with her prize. The trick was getting around boss lady, Jamie, with her treat undetected.

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But the boss had work to do so Jody was able to sneak by.

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Missy:

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Annie enjoying her solitude:

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But she was so happy when her best friend, Missy, arrived and greeted her with a kiss and a hug:

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Foxie rubs her toes together when she’s happy and content and if you look close you can see she seemed to be pretty pleased to be enjoying the morning outside with her troll:

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Jamie was in her element this morning as she proudly surveyed her snow covered kingdom:

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Foxie and troll headed back inside after stopping to collect snow on the way:

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Annie was the last to head inside, but had to stop briefly to readjust her huge mouthful of snow:

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Jamie still had a little work to do:

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Negra didn’t stay out long, but she made it quite away out to collect snow and then returned to her favorite sunny spot inside the greenhouse to enjoy it, along with Jody.

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It’s been a good day at the sanctuary! The chimpanzees have spent a lot of time outside enjoying some warmer temperatures and even more time at the top of the toasty greenhouse grooming and napping. Blue skies and sunshine have worked wonders and been a welcome respite from our crazy winter for all the primates here today.

The Complete Story

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It’s often said that a picture is worth a thousand words, and this is often true. But pictures are only snapshots of a single instant, and they often fail to provide perspective or context. If you saw this photo of Jamie:

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you might conclude that she is a depressed chimpanzee who lives in a small cage. But your conclusions would begin to be better informed if you also saw this photo of her wrestling and laughing with her friend Foxie:

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or this photo of her surveying her kingdom:

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These are all moments in Jamie’s life, and taken together, they begin to paint a picture of Jamie’s personality and her experience in sanctuary. But individually, none of them are the complete story. Jamie is a complex person made up of unique interests, personality traits, and life experiences. Like most of us, she is impossible to categorize, and she is full of contradictions. She is bossy and insecure, selfish and generous, serious and lighthearted, gentle and brutal. She does probably experience depression and feel confined at times, and she also experiences joy and freedom. She is sometimes sweet and sometimes a little mean-spirited and we love all of her.

This is equally true of all of the chimpanzees, and though we do our best to share a variety of perspectives on this blog over time, most of the time you are only seeing a snapshot in any given blog post. The snapshots we share are always honest snapshots, but they are never the complete story. We love the chimps we care for not because they are angels or victims or martyrs, but because they are each individuals who are amazing and flawed and perplexing. It’s one of our greatest joys to get to gradually discover their complete stories.

Jamie the Merciful

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We take a lot of photos and video around here, but Jamie isn’t always a fan of the camera. Sometimes she’ll be clear across the room, and as soon as she spots a caregiver with the camera she charges over and pounds on the caging to let us know to cut it out. If you’ve ever had an adult chimpanzee charge toward you, hair standing on end (even if there’s caging between you), you’ll know why we respect her wishes. She gets her message across loud and clear.

But sometimes Jamie’s in a tolerant mood. At times she even enjoys the camera; she likes for us to turn the camera around and show her what we’ve captured. Today she allowed me to record her building a nest in the playroom. She even gave me her patented head nod of approval (watch to the end).