Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Today after cleaning the playroom, we put a small drop of non-toxic dish soap in the pool and filled it up with water. The chimpanzees all enjoy soapy water. Jamie sometimes uses it to scrub the floor, while others like to take big mouthfuls of it. They seem to like the sensation of the foamy bubbles in their mouths. There’s no denying it – bubbles are just fun.
Annie:
Foxie:
Jody:
After breakfast Jamie set out onto Young’s Hill with purpose in her step.
We watched as she very methodically selected a bamboo shoot and headed back into the greenhouse.
As it turns out, she had unsuccessfully attempted to get some peanuts outside the caging using a toy rake. The handle was just slightly too big to reach out to the peanuts.
The bamboo stick was a little too cumbersome, so Jamie needed to tweak it a bit. First she broke it in half, and then she removed some of the branches.
Now that she designed the perfect tool, she could reach the peanuts!
Success.
This sweet video will make you smile.
As many of you know, our beloved (and sometimes troublesome) resident elk, Ellie, has made it a very well-known fact that she is in fact a horse. Or a cow. Or a goat. Or a human! But certainly not a wild elk. Despite her outward friendliness, we still keep our distance—she is still wild, after all, and ideally we would love for her to be more wild and less attracted to sticking around humans.
Today, Elizabeth spotted Ellie up on a high hill to the south of the sanctuary property. We both laughed, saying “what is Ellie doing way over there?” And then we realized, when four other elk followed, that wasn’t Ellie at all! We got very excited to see a small herd, which is sort of amusing when we see Ellie every day—elk really aren’t novel animals to us. But a herd! So exciting.
Unfortunately, Ellie was busy breaking into our compost bin—a very Ellie-type thing to do—so she missed the herd as they passed through. As much as we wish for her to be wild, we recognize that she is a unique being. She probably will always be more human-oriented because of how she grew up. Honestly, I’m not sure she would identify herself as an elk.
Imagine growing up with another species as your primary caregivers—you would undoubtedly have some sort of identity crisis. And though it is no one’s fault that Ellie was separated from her herd and ended up living at the farm next door, it’s definitely not the ideal situation for an elk.
For a chimpanzee, living in a human home is even more unnatural, and not surprisingly chimpanzees raised so closely with humans really struggle with their identity. Elizabeth wrote about “Burrito the misfit” the other day, and it’s so true. If he had been raised in an appropriate social environment, he most likely would be alpha male.
Some other “side effects” to being raised in an natural environment are Jamie’s love of boots and Foxie’s love of trolls. Though these are just part of everyday life here at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, when you think about it for a minute, it really is quite odd. But they are all unique beings and all have their idiosyncratic tendencies. For Ellie, that means rummaging through things, sitting in Diana and JB’s garden, and taking perimeter walks alongside the humans as Jamie leads the way on the inside of Young’s Hill.
For Foxie, that means delighting in these sort of funny-looking dolls with big eyes, crazy colorful hair, and hard plastic bodies. Here she is in a calm relaxing moment with one of her dolls (you can see just part of the troll in the top picture—he/she is out of the frame in the others but was still in her hand).
Although Burrito isn’t the leader of the group here, the other chimps do offer him lots of submissive greetings – it’s probably their way of trying to keep him calm since he can be a bit of a Tasmanian devil. But Burrito’s social awkwardness leads him to respond to these greetings in an unusual way. When another chimp approaches him to offer a greeting, Burrito usually turns away and squeezes his eyes shut, as if to say, “I don’t see you. This isn’t happening.” It seems that Burrito’s strategy for handling an awkward social situation is to avoid, avoid, avoid.
The other day I was taking some photos of Burrito when Negra (right) entered the room and offered Burrito a kiss greeting. As soon as Negra approached, Burrito looked the other way and closed his eyes.
When he thinks the greeting is over, he’ll often pop an eye open to check if the other chimp is still there.
The other chimps take Burrito’s odd behavior in stride, and luckily for Burrito, these greetings don’t last long. Once the uncomfortable moment has passed, he’s back to his playful self.
Today is warm and sunny at the sanctuary and the chimpanzees are in great moods. Annie and Missy spent much of the morning like this:
The chimpanzees have all appeared particularly serene and at peace today. It’s a beautiful spring day, but the wind is especially cold and everyone has spent a lot of time lounging in the warm greenhouse as they looked out over Young’s Hill.
While we often try to imagine what these moments must feel like to the chimpanzees after decades of trauma and uncertainty, I doubt we ever fully could. I am grateful and hopeful that with each passing day these moments outweigh those that came before. And I am grateful and hopeful that these faces (and toes) say it’s so.
Annie:
Annie feet:
Burrito:
Foxie:
Jody:
Missy:
Jamie was tucked away in a cozy nest in the front rooms, one arm splayed out over her eyes and the other hugging her boots to her chest, sound asleep. Unfortunately, not a spot the camera can get.
And you’ll never believe who the chimpanzees were watching from the comfort of the toasty greenhouse…
Negra. Hair blowing in the wind, the hill to herself, and how peace looked for her today.
