One of the many reasons why I love caring for chimpanzees is that they continually surprise me. This morning, Sarah and I opened the front rooms for cleaning, and we discovered that someone had modified one of their drinking fountains overnight, using a straw from their breakfast smoothie. It works much better now than it did before. J.B.
Cle Elum
Jody, Missy, Burrito and the Great Ape Protection Act
This is what I think about when I look at the below photos of our new friends…
the seven individuals who have a new home in Cle Elum are truly some of the most interesting people I’ve ever met. They rely on me and their other caregivers to provide everything for them, and the truth is that we can never do enough to make up for what they’ve been through in their lives, but we will do our best to try. These seven people truly need all of us in order to provide them with a good life. That is why I am so eager to share their lives through this blog. I hope that you will continue to learn about them, laugh at their antics (especially when it involves me getting spit on), marvel at their intelligence, and contemplate their resilient nature.
When I look at these photos I also think about the chimpanzees who are still in laboratories. There are ways that you can help them too – one simple thing that you can do today is to contact your legislator and encourage their support of the Great Ape Protection Act. You can find more information here: http://ga1.org/campaign/gapa
Jody, Missy and Burrito (below) have been in sanctuary for 17 days. I would like be able to say that soon about all of the 1200 chimpanzees still in laboratories.
Video of Jamie drawing!
Watermelon Forage, Missy in a box
Today was a good day. Jamie greeted us wearing a necktie she fashioned out of a strip of sheet. Negra was stubborn about leaving the front rooms after breakfast (while it sometimes messes with the routine, stubbornness is a characteristic I find completely understandable in captive chimpanzees, and I actually appreciate when someone decides they can choose to do what they want rather than going with what the humans want). For dinner, we had a big watermelon forage, and, for the first time since they arrived, the building erupted in food grunts. Then, during dinner, Missy sat in a banana box and ate her watermelon. What more could anyone ask for in a day at a chimpanzee sanctuary? Diana
Learning about Jamie
We have been learning a lot about all of the chimpanzees over the last few days. Jamie is quite amazing. She figured out the lazy susan feeding doors in about 2 sec. She really enjoys the enrichment that we’ve been giving out – she’s spent many hours cleaning with the brushes and big buckets of soapy water that we have given her. The second day we left the bucket in room two. When the chimpanzees were let back into that room, Jamie immediately went for the bucket – ignoring all of the fruit that we had also left in the room, which is pretty remarkable because she loves fruit and can get angry if someone else gets an apple or orange that she wants. Instead, she protected the bucket and would not let any of the other chimpanzees near it until she had tired of cleaning – which took over an hour. She was very focused and thourough in her cleaning, concentrating on one concrete step for a long time, then washing a mug in her bucket as though it were a sink.Today, Sarah and J.B. report that Jamie tied a bow – she took a piece of string, put it around her neck, and tied it into a bow. These things indicate that Jamie was raised in a very human environment prior to being sold to Buckshire. We hope to find out more. Although it is a testament to their intelligence and ability to learn, it always saddens me a bit when chimpanzees do things which they only could have learned in a human environment. It makes me wonder how Jamie views herself and if she once saw herself as a human, or perhaps still does. We as humans have taken away ‘normal’ chimpanzee culture by raising chimpanzees in captivity, and often we replace that with aspects of our own culture, so the chimpanzee is left with no place to really fit in.On a positive note, we will be working hard to keep Jamie occupied and interested in her surroundings and we will provide her with her favorite things as we learn what they are.Diana
Chimpanzees in big playroom now!
I’ve got my hands full today processing a whole bunch of produce that Safeway gave to us this morning. They’ve been wonderful and are setting aside produce that they pull from their stock each day – most of it has only slight blemishes.I wanted to be sure to tell everyone that the chimpanzees are now in the big playroom. The stairs were secured this morning and we did a thorough check of the area. The actual “release” into the play area was fairly mellow. I think that the group was fairly uncertain about going into that big space. Once in, however, they settled in pretty quickly. Missy almost immediately began nesting, and when she saw Annie making a nest in another spot, Missy took her blankets and made her bed right next to Annie’s. Jamie is checking out everything and, as predicted, especially likes to look through the window into the human kitchen. She’s pretty excited about Safeway’s generous produce gifts and is watching me intently as I wash strawberries, carrots, potatoes, melons, apples, radishes, and organic lettuce. When Foxie went into the play area, she was clearly a little wary, and she spent at least 20 minutes just walking around the perimeter of the inside of the room, checking everything out. Although there’s a sturdy set of stairs now in the play area to get to the loft and catwalk (mostly for the benefit of humans), Negra has decided to use the railing instead, chimpanzee-style. It’s great to see her do this and I look forward to reporting more new behaviors and acrobatic prowess from all. I’ll post photos as soon as I can! Diana
Negra’s Home
Click on the words “Negra’s Home” at the end of the paragraph for a video of Negra filmed yesterday coming into her new home!! She was the last chimpanzee to be tranferred in. You can see in the video that she comes right in and excitedly greets Sarah, who was taking the video. When the door is opened for her, she goes through to meet up with her chimpanzee friends waiting in the other front rooms. Negra’s home
