Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Construction

Construction Update

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Summers are always busy at the sanctuary but this year seems more hectic than ever. We had the first of many volunteer work parties a couple weeks ago to work on the electric fences that will enclose the Bray and the renovated Young’s Hill, the 1.8-acre and 2.4-acre habitats for the new group of nine and the Cle Elum Seven. Many thanks to volunteer Karen Ducey for these first two photos.

The installation of the fence insulators is a daunting job due to the sheer number of them, but over a dozen hard-working volunteers managed to install a couple thousand in just one weekend.

Tomorrow, volunteers will return to keep the progress going.

The project foreman, Benny, will be on hand to make sure the work proceeds apace. It’s best not to get on his bad side.

Central Nursery arrived today to begin installing a massive new irrigation system that will initially support over 100 new trees and shrubs in the habitats including aspen, pine, hazelnut, dogwood, blueberry, and bamboo. The irrigation system will draw water from an old spring-fed irrigation pond by the house that was used to water the orchard back when this was a working homestead. We are installing more irrigation lines than we will need in this first phase so that we can plant even more trees and shrubs in the future.

We’re a little late taking panels off the greenhouses this year because of all the construction going on around them.

On the east side of the building, the folks from Sage Mechanical have been installing new overhead chutes that will make additional connections between the indoor enclosures and the Bray. This way, the chimps can reach their outdoor habitat from the front rooms, playroom, or greenhouse and won’t ever have to wait for us to finish cleaning to get where they want to go.

Here’s the view from the playroom window. To most people, these tunnels would not be the most exciting part of our expansion project but based on how much the chimps love the existing chute and how we’ve seen chimps use overhead tunnels at other sanctuaries, we’re pretty sure they’re going to be a big hit.

On the other side of the building, a smaller section of chute is being installed that will create an outdoor connection between the other playroom and greenhouse. This was conceived as a connection to the closed-top outdoor enclosure planned for the west side of the building but that larger project is on hold due to escalating costs and significant supply chain delays. But now that our new group of nine is living together in relative harmony and will soon have access to The Bray, the closed-top enclosure is far less important than it was when we first began making plans for the two separate Wildlife Waystation groups. We imagine the chimps will love to sit out in this chute and watch the staff, volunteers, and delivery people come up the driveway.

Finally, we are also starting to plan for and build new climbing structures within the future Young’s Hill and Bray enclosures. The first one to get underway was Ryan’s Lookout, which is being built with a generous donation from Karen and Don Young in memory of their son, Ryan. The basic structure is complete and soon it will be surrounded by trees and shrubs as well as fire hose vines for the chimps to swing on and tightrope-walk across. I think this will be a popular spot for the groups to sit and groom and stare out at the river and valley below.

Our hope is to have the renovated Young’s Hill ready by late summer and the Bray ready by fall. Soon we will have to tear down the existing fence, at which point the Seven won’t have access to the hill and the pressure to get everything completed will be intense! While I was of course joking about Benny being a foreman, in all seriousness, Jamie will be watching and patience is not one of her virtues. So that should help keep us motivated. But the disruption will be worth it when she finally gets to lay in the shade of the towering pines at the top of her new habitat.

engineering challenges that create fun perspectives

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Designing chimpanzee buildings is not an easy task. There are so many functional needs to take into consideration, not to mention having to make everything virtually indestructible as well as fun for smart and strong chimpanzees.

For our most recent construction, in order to connect the two new greenhouses to one another so that chimpanzees could pass from one to the other, a door needed to be installed between them, but we also wanted a human hallway in between the greenhouses with a shelter overhead.

After much rumination, J.B. and Marc Brown of Marc Brown Design came up with a door above the hallway. Our doors on the new side of the building are on a hydraulic system and remotely operated, so the next challenge was figuring out how the human door-operators could see the door while operating it.

The solution was to create a small space of caging embedded within the ledge of the greenhouses on each side that allows the humans a clear view of both sides of the door (Door Q, in case you’re curious), while operating the door using the lever on the left in the photo below.

image: Door Q

Aside from the outdoor Chute, It’s currently the only place where the chimpanzees are directly above human space.

Rayne thinks this perspective is very fun, and she surprised me the other day by greeting me from above.

You may notice that Rayne has a strange looking pinky toe on her left foot – this is from a recent injury during introductions. If you know chimps at all, you won’t be surprised to learn that Rayne is not bothered in the least by this injury. She allows us to spray it with Vetericyn, and I’ve seen her friends occasionally paying close attention to it, but otherwise I forget she was even injured. Even directly after the fight when this injury happened, she was ready to be reunited with the sparring chimpanzees, so we put them all back together for the big playroom romp that J.B. wrote about.

The toughness and silliness of chimpanzees will never cease to impress me.

Through a Window

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Windows are cool.

They let us keep an eye on the residents but, more importantly, also serve to give the chimpanzees a current view of their surroundings. The chimps use them to socialize with the neighbors, survey the property, and monitor human activity.

Today, I took some photos of the chimps from outside their areas.

Jamie
Jody
Burrito
Anthony, trying his best to be artsy
Jamie

On snowy days like today, the windows are even more crucial. Why step outside and get cold toes when you can just spy on everyone from a warm blanket nest? Their logic is irrefutable.

I also stepped into the new playrooms (under construction but almost finished) and looked through all the windows to imagine what the new chimps will see when they get here. J.B. is still rigging the overhead LED lights and some of the windows are still covered, but the windows and skylights fill the space with soft sunlight even on cloudy days. Of course, Honey B watched me the whole time from the reinforced window that looks into the new addition from the Mezzanine.

Honey B
Honey B and Mave (fore- and background, respectively)

A Taste of What’s to Come

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I should know better than to make predictions regarding construction timelines but I think it’s safe to say that we are within a couple months of the “Cali 3” moving into their new playrooms. Then, assuming our year-end fundraising is successful, we move on to completing the greenhouses. When that is done, we plan to welcome six more chimps and then create a 2nd two-acre habitat. It’s going to be a busy year!

Chimps always seem to know when the things we are building are meant for them. When we built Young’s Hill in the summer of 2011, the Cle Elum seven knew right away that it was their new habitat. How would they have known that? They’d spent their lives in small cages and hadn’t been outdoors since they were little kids, if ever. And surely they had never seen an electric fence before. But somehow they knew. In fact, months before we were ready to let them out, I took out my keys to unlock a chain near the entrance to the new enclosure and the chimps began hugging and screaming – they thought I was letting them out! Needless to say, I felt pretty bad about that. Luckily, they did go out later that summer and now Young’s Hill is part of their home. Honey B, Willy B, and Mave are just as ready to claim their new spaces and we’re looking forward to seeing them run, climb, and swing their way through the new playrooms and beyond.

In addition to the video above, I thought I’d share some bonus photos of Foxie from this morning. This is typical Foxie – she starts our patrolling with the gang and then wanders off by herself. She’s got a real independent streak.

Reconnaissance

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Jamie almost always walks around Young’s Hill with a purpose. Sometimes her goal is to lure a caregiver away for some private bonding time. Other times she is eager to race. This afternoon, as I was walking around the hill with Missy, Annie, and Burrito, I saw Jamie emerge from the greenhouse and plot a slow, deliberate course up the hill to her tower. On this occasion, she was determined to see what was happening on the roof of her home.

The roofers were finishing their work on the Phase 2 addition, adding flashing to the six skylights above the new playrooms. While the noise from the construction has been a bit intrusive at times, this did not seem to be Jamie’s concern. I think she just wanted to be in the know. Plus, we know she appreciates a good tool belt.

The chimps have a number of different vantage points from which they can watch the addition take shape. Sometimes the best spot is in the old playroom, especially if you bring your own popcorn (or chow).

Honey B, Willy B, and Mave have front row seats to the show. It’s their new playroom, after all.

At some point I plan to write a post addressing a question from our Q&A post about how we go about designing a chimp sanctuary, but for today, let me just say that chimps always want to know what is going on, so this has to be considered in the design brief for any chimp facility. One of the ways we can accommodate this need is by adding lots of windows, both to the outside and between different parts of the building, so that they can see what’s happening all around them. Our new addition contains twenty large chimp-proof windows for this reason. While we hope to add some simple murals to the walls at some point, anything we paint on the walls will pale in comparison to the enrichment that those big windows provide.

Sunrises and grazing cattle are great, but what interests chimpanzees even more than their natural surroundings is human activity. In fact, as I write this on the computer in the central foyer of the chimp house, I’ve got the clinic doors open so that Honey B can watch. Of all the things she could be doing, she’s chosen to sit in the medical enclosure, which is small and rather bare by design (for safety during anesthetic induction), just so she can keep an eye on the humans.

It’s the same story on the other side, only those guys have a direct view into the kitchen.

If you don’t prep dinner fast enough, Negra will let you know. Hurry up, Anna! (if Negra could speak, she would almost certainly add some obscenities).

When you have two groups of chimps in close proximity, things get really interesting. There’s been a lot of drama in the group of seven lately, and on top of that, Annie is at full swell. So Willy B is consumed with the soap opera next door and he is refusing to shift enclosures so that he can keep an eye on things. Visual access between groups can be incredibly enriching, but it certainly cuts both ways. Hopefully Willy B will return to his senses once Annie is out of estrus. If not, we’ll have an interesting problem to work through at our next staff meeting. If the chimps don’t shift, we can’t clean!

I’ll leave you with a few more photos of the chimps enjoying the view from Young’s Hill this afternoon.

Missy:

Annie:

Missy & Annie:

Burrito:

Jody:

The King of the Courtyard and His Growing Kingdom

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Willy B has been exploring more of his modest kingdom.

In his quest for scattered grapes, he has taken his first tentative steps on grass and dirt and away from the safety and security of familiar objects and structures. At times he is bold.

Other times he is more cautious.

This morning he inspected the grass from the safety of a plastic tub, as though he was in a dinghy setting out from a larger vessel.

While he is still hesitant to step on grass, he no longer has any fear of being outdoors. In the nine years since we opened Young’s Hill, I can’t remember a single time that any of the Cle Elum Seven took a nap outside. They run and climb and swing, they forage and they hunt, they patrol and survey. They even relax at times. But they never nap outdoors.

According to Willy B, they don’t know what they’re missing.

One of the things I’ve been meaning to do for a while is to explain what our plans are for the sanctuary over the next couple of years, particularly as they relate to Willy B, Honey B, and Mave. I know it can be confusing. We had hoped to integrate our three new residents with the Cle Elum Seven, knowing that we could house them separately if it didn’t work out. As you know, it didn’t work out, so we are now following Plan B. As far as backup plans go, things are pretty good – but we have a lot of work ahead of us, and I hope to clarify how we intend to meet the needs of these three as well as those still to come.

Phase 1 – The First Step in our Expansion

The Californians, as many of our supporters call them, live in our new wing, which was the first part of a three-phase expansion plan. There are smaller indoor rooms on the first floor (Front Rooms), a larger room upstairs (The Mezzanine), and an arched tunnel that connects Front Room 5 to the outdoor area (The Chute).

The Front Rooms
The Mezzanine
The Chute

The Courtyard

When we reverted to Plan B, our first thought was to alternate access to the 2-acre outdoor area, Young’s Hill, between the Seven and the Californians until we could create a separate outdoor area. But we realized that having a smaller yard to themselves would be safer and less intimidating for the new guys as they adjusted to the outdoors, so we carved out a section of Young’s Hill just for Willy B, Honey B, and Mave. The Courtyard, as we call it, is a separate space but at this time it is only separated by a single fence so we don’t allow the two groups out at the same time.

Next Steps: Phases 2 and 3

Phases 2 and 3 of our expansion plans were developed in conjunction with Phase 1, but building enclosures for chimps requires a lot of money so we knew we would have to break the project up into manageable pieces. Phase 2 consists of a large indoor playroom, divided into two sections, with 20-foot ceilings, catwalks all around, and large tree-like climbing structures from floor to ceiling in the middle of each room. Phase 3 consists of a divided greenhouse enclosure, connected to the playrooms, with a mulch floor and removable polycarbonate panels on the roof and three sides to provide warmth and shelter during the winter months (just like our existing greenhouse for the Seven). Originally these additions were designed for one group, but we decided to enlarge and divide each area to give us more options. Now, when both phases are complete, we will not only have a larger home for Honey B, Willy B, and Mave, but we will also be able to take in another group of chimpanzees from the now defunct Wildlife Waystation. The groups could be integrated but the space will allow two groups to remain separate if needed.

The south elevation of Phase 1
South elevation showing the addition of Phases 2 and 3

 

The view from above, showing the original building (on the left, oriented east/west) and the Phase 1 addition (on the right). The additions will extend into the empty area where the tractor is parked.

 

The future floor plan, showing Phases 2 and 3.

 

Funds for Phase 2 were raised before the pandemic struck, so we are excited to be breaking ground this year, as soon as permits are issued, with the hope of seeing Honey B, Willy B, and Mave enjoy their added space by winter. To save on construction costs, we will also be completing the foundation, steel framing, and hallway of the Phase 3 greenhouses at the same time, with the caging and polycarbonate panels to be installed later once additional funds are raised – hopefully by next spring or summer.

Additional Outdoor Enclosures

One thing we have learned over the years, much to our frustration, is that plans change. Five years ago, we made the decision to work towards expanding the sanctuary so we could take in more chimps. But there have been so many twists and turns along the way that making plans has been like shooting at a moving target. Ultimately, we focused most of our attention on the initial stages and left a lot to be determined as events unfold. Like the outdoor areas, for example.

Now that the future of the sanctuary is coming into focus, we realize that our three new residents, and those still to come, need their own outdoor spaces. To accomplish this, we have decided to rebuild the fences to create an additional 2-acre fenced enclosure, tentatively named The Bray in memory of our dear friend and former board member, James Douglas. James’ wife, Jennifer, is a long-time friend, supporter, and volunteer. She is sponsoring a good part of this project and chose the name, which we love. “Brae” is the Celtic word for hillside and James hailed from Bray, Ireland.

Enlarging the total footprint of the enclosures was only made possible because we now own all of the surrounding parcels and we don’t have to worry about maintaining a large buffer by the property lines like we did when we built Young’s Hill. Still, we can’t infringe on the power line easement to the south of the building and the topography limits how far up the hill we can build fences so we are limited to these two large enclosures at this time.

But because we may end up with three separate groups in the end, we do plan to build a third outdoor area just west of the new addition, opposite the building from the fenced enclosures. This one, however, will be a more traditional closed-top design. Why? As I mentioned, space is certainly a factor, but we also find that some chimps, even after several years, are more comfortable in closed-top enclosures and make more use of them. Ultimately it’s about choices and flexibility. We want Honey B and Mave to join Willy B outside and we want to give them all the time in the world to make that decision for themselves. But it never hurts to have other options. Other chimps will benefit from the option as well, as groups can be rotated throughout the facility to experience different enclosures.

The sudden closure of the Wildlife Waystation has focused our efforts as well as our resolve to expand. Like other sanctuaries, we will always struggle to find the right balance between providing what is best for our residents and responding promptly to crises like this. At times it feels like we are too cautious, but we know that our primary responsibility is to those already in our care. With the future of the remaining Waystation chimps uncertain, we are working as hard as we can to complete this expansion project so that we can welcome more chimpanzees to Willy B’s kingdom.

All Work and Lots of Play

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As Anna mentioned yesterday, the humans are hard at work getting ready for our new arrivals. The quarantine area is almost done, with just a few items remaining on our punch list. The big project we’re working on now is the installation of an overhead chute that will connect the indoor quarantine enclosures to an extension of Young’s Hill. This will accomplish two things: First, it will give the new chimps a way to get some fresh air while they’re still under strict quarantine, which prohibits sharing access to the existing enclosures for health reasons; and second, it will provide the new chimps with a way to access Young’s Hill after quarantine but before they are fully integrated into the existing group. This second point is important, because successful introductions are never guaranteed and even successful intros can stretch on for many months.

The reason for elevating the chute is to maintain access for people and equipment around the building, something that gets trickier as sanctuaries grow and get more complex. Plus, chimps just seem to love overhead chutes.

The team behind the project is led by Gary McInnis of Sage Mechanical (pictured above with a section of the new chute outside his workshop). We were first introduced to Gary through our good friend Ozzie at Spencer Fluid Power, who generously donated a hydraulic unit to power the chimp doors we inherited from the former Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute. Gary visited the sanctuary with Ozzie last fall to help advise us and before long he had offered to donate all of the labor and materials required to hook up the doors. He then asked about the caging we were building and offered to do that job for 25% less than the lowest bid we receive. All told, Sage Mechanical has donated $35,000 worth of materials and labor this year to help us create a home for Honey B, Willy B, and Mave. It’s rare for us to get to work with a group as generous and committed to the sanctuary as Gary and his team.

While the humans are working hard to get everything ready, the chimps are free to do as they please. For Missy and Annie, that often means playing. For Negra, it usually means a good nap. But once and a while she will get a little playful, as you can see in the video above.