Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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Highway 10 Fire

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Today started out pretty normal. Us humans were busy cleaning all morning, with breaks to walk around the hill with Jamie and check in with the other chimps. We had finished cleaning the playroom and had started cleaning the front rooms. I was over by the playroom door and Jamie was craning her neck and body to see out. We know Jamie pretty well, and we knew something was up, so Anna went outside to see what Jamie might be looking at, and saw a plume of smoke a few hundred yards away.

 

The chimps have seen smoke from intentional fires on our property (when there’s not a burn ban!) and our neighbor’s property before, and I don’t think they’ve reacted to it, but maybe they knew this was different, having gone through the Taylor Bridge Fire in 2012.

Their alarm was warranted. The fire was close and was moving through the ground cover, burning some of the trees that had been downed in the fire four years ago.

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Just like the Taylor Bridge Fire, it traveled up the hill, towards some of the properties that had been rebuilt.

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They came through okay, though, thanks to the firefighters.

fire helicopter

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Thank goodness for firefighters, and thank goodness for volunteers and data collectors! Volunteer Ally and primatology student Jake jumped into action to help. We were asked to evacuate the house that J.B. and I share with our two dogs and two cats. Ally and Jake were lifesavers – helping get harnesses on the dogs and put the reluctant cats in crates, then, with caregiver Anna’s help, driving them to safety at Jake’s house.

In the meantime, J.B. got the emergency sprinkler system, which pumps water from the pond above the house:

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We had brought the chimps inside the building and shut all of the windows and doors, so the window in front room four was the spot to watch from. Most of the chimps were very calm. Jody and Foxie were a bit anxious, with Jody sticking close by Burrito most of the afternoon.

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In the below two photos, Burrito and Jody were lying next to each other:

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Foxie kept a Dora doll close:

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We gave them some extra treats today and otherwise followed the routine as much as possible. They are in bed now – Jamie with her boots, Foxie with her dolls, and Negra under a blanket.

Our dogs and cats are back home (thank you Anna, Katelyn, Ally & Jake!).

The fire seems to have sparked again well above the property as I was writing this. The helicopters were on it immediately. There are also still some smoldering spots nearby, but we feel that we and our neighbors are safe with the skilled firefighters working so hard.

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We lost power (the electric company probably shut it off due to the fire), but the chimp house’s generator kicked on immediately, not even skipping a beat.

J.B. and I are making our own dinner in the chimp house kitchen, but trying to keep things quiet so we don’t wake any of the chimpanzees as the slumber safe in their nests.

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Summer mornings

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Our recent heatwave is on the down-slide, but it’s still quite warm and the chimps and humans are each enjoying the summer days in their own way. After breakfast, most of the chimpanzees headed for the still cool grass of Young’s Hill (with the exception of Negra who took a break from her adventures for the day and made a nest at the top of the greenhouse where she could enjoy the morning breeze). Annie chose to take a walk up the hill bipedally to join Foxie and her troll. If you look closely you can spot the troll’s red hair on Foxie’s back.

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Missy took her breakfast chow and literally ran out to climb up a structure where she could enjoy it with a view:

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Jody was the first to head out onto Young’s Hill this morning and quickly disappeared into the tall grass to forage for wild greens before her buddy, Burrito, could catch up with her. So he opted to sit in the raceway which leads from the greenhouse to the hill and enjoy the morning sun with me, remaining on the lookout for Jody’s return.

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After a busy morning on the hill, by late morning things got pretty warm and Jamie sprawled out in a comfy nest to cool off and doze in the summer breeze.

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How profoundly grateful we are that the chimpanzees’ days are filled with such serenity, comfort and peace. Thanks to all of you who make the hours, days and seasons of their lives so beautiful.

Today is in memory of Susan

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This day of sanctuary was sponsored by Jennifer and James Douglas to honor the memory of their dear friend, Susan von Beck Turner, and her legacy of care and compassion. Jen and James shared that “Susan touched the lives of many dogs and humans and made them better.”

Susan made a difference in the lives of so many dogs. It was her lifelong passion to rescue them and she saved hundreds, healing their health and spirits and finding them forever homes. When Susan’s own dog, Cardiff, began failing in health and she was unable to find the kind of boarding care she wanted for him, she decided to leave her job and went on to build a well-respected and successful dog boarding facility, Cardiff’s Lodge, here in Washington.

Jen and James, thank you so much for celebrating Susan’s life with such a compassionate and generous gift for the chimpanzees. We are profoundly grateful for all that you do for them and we are honored to celebrate such a special soul today. To you, and Susan’s family and friends, our thoughts are with you all and we hope that your memories of Susan bring you the joy, love and comfort that she provided to so many others.

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What’s in a Nest?

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An intriguing article is making the rounds about a primatologist named Koichiro Zamma who has developed a bed, called the humankind evolution bed, that is based on how chimpanzees construct their own beds in the forests. Apparently he tried out a chimpanzee-constructed nest  while tracking chimpanzees in the wild and found it to be very comfortable, waking up quite refreshed after his night of nesting.

A prototype of his invention is currently on display at Kyoto University Museum in Japan. Articles say this about the bed: “The mattress features a depression in the centre to replicate the natural dip in a chimp’s treetop bed and has a raised periphery for the head, legs and arms. It is supported by a frame made from woven paper string for maximum breathability, and eight curved legs that are designed to allow the bed to rock almost imperceptibly.”

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Megumi Kaji of the Research Association of Sleep and Society takes a nap on the humankind evolution bed. Photograph: Koichiro Zamma

 

As we’ve written in the past, chimpanzees in captivity make similar constructions for their nests as their free-living counterparts, building up walls of material (blankets, straw, paper, etc), and laying in the middle.

Jody is a master nest-maker:

 

Missy makes a pretty mean nest too. This was one of my favorite photos from the early days of the sanctuary:

 
Missy in tire nest

In fact, these two were featured in this tutorial-style blog post about how to nest.

Here are some more photos of nesting from the Cle Elum Seven:

Jamie's paper nest

Missy constructed nest

Missy sleeping in a big nest

Negra nesting

 

I have to admit that I wonder if perhaps Zamma’s restful night of sleep was due to being particularly exhausted after a day of following chimpanzees around the forest, but I remain intrigued.

What do you think – are chimpanzees on to something that we should be paying attention to? Should we ditch our flat mattresses? Would you want a humankind evolution bed?

 

Year Eight

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We hope that you have been enlightened, entertained, and inspired by the musings on years’ past this week. Today’s final post in the looking-back brings us from June 2015 to last week, the eighth anniversary of the arrival of the Cle Elum Seven to Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest.

The chimps’ eighth year began with a true test of our medical clinic. Burrito spent some time in the clinic twice after breaking a canine tooth. The first was an exam to determine the extent of his previously-diagnosed congestive heart failure and to assess the broken tooth, and the second was the tooth (make that teeth) extraction procedure.

Burrito tooth extraction

The chimpanzees are so fortunate to have such good human friends in their corner, who always go out of their way to ensure that they have the best care possible, and Burrito was in the hands of a large huge team of veterinary professionals who donated their time and skills to see Burrito through his procedures without a hitch.

Dare I say he’s even cuter with his missing teeth?

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Dora the Explorer and friends were making frequent appearances with Foxie last year, and she seemed to show a particular fondness for the jaunty and clearly extra-adventurous France Dora:

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and Dora’s fiery-haired friend Kate:

a flair for the dramatic

 

Troll dolls have not been replaced, though! They continued to be a favorite enrichment item for Foxie, with some of the other chimps seeming to adopt the trend:

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Negra with a troll doll
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Jody with a troll doll

 

Last summer, J.B. put together another of my favorite videos of the last eight years – the epic Troll Scarf Tug O War:

 

While the chimpanzees continue to make the most out of the ever-expanding life in sanctuary…

 

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Jamie at the top of Twister

 

…the humans have been working hard “behind the scenes” to secure their future and work towards giving more chimpanzees a sanctuary life. The community of donors and volunteers came together and made it possible to purchase the sanctuary property that we had been leasing, acquire new land that tripled the total sanctuary footprint, and enter into an agreement to provide a home for chimpanzees coming out of biomedical research.

And, on a national scale, there was huge news as invasive biomedical research on chimpanzees came to a halt.

Just think about what the next eight years will bring!

Year Six

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Continuing the trip down memory lane in celebration of the sanctuary’s 8th anniversary,  today is all about the Cle Elum Seven’s sixth year of sanctuary. 

After the harrowing experience of the Taylor Bridge Fire in the late summer of 2012, our thoughts continued to turn towards safety and security. We put the finishing touches on the mobile veterinary clinic to be used for emergencies and planned procedures and we installed a back-up generator that powers the chimp house as soon as the power goes off.

These important safety measures were possible because of generous contributions from friends of the Cle Elum Seven near and far. Everything that happens at the sanctuary is possible because of donations! That includes really important life-or-death measures as well as the addition of things that enrich the chimpanzees’ existence, and in turn all of our lives. For year six that, of course, included:

Foxie’s troll dolls:

Troll doll whispering to Foxie

 

Burrito’s wooden toys:

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Jody’s blankets:

Jody hold blanket in greenhouse through glass by JB's iphone

 

Negra’s peanuts:

Negra holding peanut

 

Jamie’s (many) boots:

jamie with boot

 

Annie’s natural lipstick:

Annie carrying beets

Annie with beet lips

 

And Missy’s access to as many adventures as she can manage in a day:

Missy leap

 

With the passing years, we have been faced with the loss of friends and fans of the chimpanzees. A particularly difficult loss in year six was that of Dr. Mel Richardson, who was the chimpanzees’ first veterinarian and an important voice for animals everywhere.

In Memory of Dr. Mel Richardson

We now have the Dr. Mel Memorial Walkway at the top of Young’s Hill where anyone can honor a loved on or create a stone for themselves to be placed in one of the most peaceful spots on the sanctuary grounds.

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