Yesterday we celebrated Christmas in true CSNW style, with a feast of chimpanzee holiday favorites (celebration roast, corn, baked russet potatoes, green beans, rolls, sparkling cider, and some very cute lettuce snowmen) and many carefully wrapped presents. Huge thanks to all of the volunteers and staff that planned and prepared the festivities, and our wonderful donors that sent in lots of gifts for the chimpanzees! In today’s blog video, see George and friends get in the Christmas spirit, and come back for one more Christmas blog tomorrow! In case you missed it, see how Jamie’s group enjoyed their day here.
Cy
Your Weekly Dose of Cy Being Awesome
My phone was filling up with videos of Cy looking out for our boy, George, so I had to share them with you.
Regarding the little skirmish with Terry, this will be an interesting dynamic to keep an eye on. George is outnumbered, and will only be more so over the next few months, so it’s critical that he has Cy backing him up. But bailing him out? That can lead to the development of what we in the primatology business refer to as spoiled brat syndrome. I made that up, of course, but some of my colleagues will recall a certain chimpanzee that could get away with anything because his mom was in charge. And then there’s Willy B. I wouldn’t call Willy B a spoiled brat (he is in a category by himself) but Cy and Honey B did seem to enable his more problematic behavior by defending him without question. I’m actually not worried about George getting away with too much, but I will be curious to see if Cy eventually begins to let out the leash a little bit so that George faces more consequences in situations like these.
For now, I will continue to enjoy watching Cy wait for George at the door to tell him not to go outside without his coat 🙂
Person of the Year
I’ve wanted to write about my admiration for Cy for some time but I can never find the words.
I guess I’ll start here: Yesterday, we added Terry to the intro group, along with Rayne and George. Terry and George had a few brief scuffles during their earlier meetings, which is one of the reasons why we chose to add Terry now—so that they can work out their differences before Terry has even more of his old group mates to back him up. The first few hours were quiet, with Terry making some awkward invitations to George to play and George politely declining out of an abundance of caution. But just before dinner, Jamie’s group began to fight, and the noise led Terry to display, raking a plastic bowl on the ground and banging on the walls. At first, George quietly observed and stayed out of Terry’s way. But a male chimp can only stay silent for so long, and he eventually joined in with his own double-kick to the window glass. Terry didn’t appreciate that.
In established groups, male chimps display side-by-side all the time, but it’s clear that many members of Cy’s group are out to teach George a lesson early on: You have not earned the right to display yet. As soon as George’s feet hit the floor, Terry screamed and ran after him. Rayne followed close behind. George was, for the first time, learning how it feels to be outnumbered.
As George was chased from the playroom to the greenhouse and back, Cy ran by his side, throwing his own body into the breach every time George was cornered. He picked Rayne up and threw her to the side. He dove to grab Terry’s feet as he nearly slipped away in pursuit of George. He was a superhero, again.
Terry and Rayne got the message and left George alone. Or maybe they said all they needed to say. But when it was over, George was virtually unscathed, and Cy had sustained a deep canine gash to the wrist. Throughout the night, Cy stayed by George’s side.
Why would Cy do this? To be sure, there are often selfish explanations for seemingly altruistic acts. I scratch your back so that you may one day scratch mine, right? But the way Cy acts reflects something deeper, something that I can only describe as a sense of moral duty. For whatever reason, Cy is duty-bound to sacrifice himself for the benefit of those more vulnerable than him. And this is not only an admirable trait, but a crucial component of any attempt to integrate a lone, socially naive chimp like George.
Today was much calmer, though George continued to show some understandable unease with the volatility of his new group mates (as seen in today’s video). But he had Cy to lean on. And Terry, in his own awkward way, showed that he didn’t hold a grudge. By the end of the day, they would all be grooming in the greenhouse, held together by a reluctant hero.
I’ve loved and felt a strong bond with a lot of nonhuman animals before. But I look up to Cy. And I wish there were more people, both human and non-, like him in the world.
Through Cle Elum and High Water
As Chad mentioned yesterday, the Yakima River has been absolutely raging thanks to the atmospheric river sweeping through the region. Today felt just a tiny bit less dramatic, the water receded a bit, and we even caught a few glimmers of sun, but the storm definitely isn’t finished with us yet.
Regardless of what the weather decides to do, caregivers still have to make it in, and the chimpanzees still need their meals, enrichment, and all the usual comfort. So we do what caregivers always do- plan around whatever nature throws at us and find a safe way to get to the sanctuary.
Luckily for the chimpanzees, they remain blissfully unaware of any river drama. While the humans were swapping road-condition updates like we were running a small weather station, everyone inside was having a perfectly lovely day. A little sunshine peeked through the clouds, letting everyone soak up the warmth before cozying up in their nests.
Even we humans stepped outside to enjoy the sun for a minute. Can you tell it’s winter? One beam of light and suddenly we’re all sunflowers.
Cy eating baked onions:
Cy in a nest:
Sweet Georgie:
Jamie this morning, cozy in a nest:
Negra enjoying her persimmons:
By and Down the Atmospheric River
The Pacific Northwest is currently under an atmospheric river. No need to fear for our humble sanctuary though. Being on the high ground has it’s advantages. Atmospheric river or not, it still hasn’t stopped the chimps from going outside.
Though the rain isn’t finished and we have several more days in the forecast, I just really wanted to celebrate and applaud my fellow staff members and volunteers who braved the floods and mudslides to make it in today. I know to them it may not seem as much, but it’s the world to the residents here. I have met some pretty gritty people in my life, but the caregivers here, both staff and volunteer, are exemplary gritty. Braving the down pours, floods, walking through the mud and muck around the sanctuary, I admire each and every one of you and all that you do for the chimpanzees, cattle, and each other.
And one last photo of one the the most handsome individuals you could ever meet for good measure:
Come and Knock on Our Door, We’ve Been Waiting for You
We are ch-ch-chuggin’ along with integrating George into a larger social group. Today marks another milestone in that goal. Rayne has now moved in with George and Cy permanently. This part of the introduction has gone pretty good so far, though it did have some of the challenges mentioned before in other meeting George had with Rayne. There had been some brief conflicts between them, with Cy acting as mediator. The only real time we have seen Cy “take a side” was when George lashed out at Cy for a minute, which really wasn’t taking a side as much as it was defending himself. Chimp politics, amirite?
But since then, the three have made up and we have caught them playing with each other at various points in the day.
What was the miscommunication? I’m not sure, personally, but they know. Which brings up on of the questions we received from last week’s invitation for questions.
One of our long time followers, Kathleen, had asked about my perspective on the role gestural communication plays in this integration process with George. In my view, it plays a pretty significant role.
As you may remember, for most of his life, George has lived with one other female or completely alone. There are several different theories on how gestural communication is acquired, but really they learn it primarily from their mothers and the community they grow up in. And chimpanzees are remarkably resilient in adaptation. When females leave their group when they become of age to bear children, they will adjust the gestures they have learned growing up to match that of the new group that allows them in.
Why females? Chimpanzees in the wild live in a patriarchal society, meaning the males stay in the groups they are born into and the females leave to ensure the gene pool remains diverse enough to successfully reproduce.
One of the things an advisor on my thesis committee told me when I questioned why it’s easier to study the older male population compared to younger chimpanzees or females is because the older males are just that. Stubborn, “not going to change my ways,” old men. So their gestures are going to be the best representative of that group’s gesture repertoire.
That being said though, George is still a vibrant young man and is learning how to communicate with his new friends. This is my own personal opinion and not supported fully by any research, but I believe there is a basic blueprint to some gestures, but how it’s produce and the meaning it takes on is based on the environmental factor. My apologies but I couldn’t find the reference quick enough for this blog, but there is some kind of understanding chimpanzees in accredited zoos tend to understand each other better when they move between the facilities. Unlike those in other captive settings, zoo chimpanzees get to be raised by their mother for the most part. All the behaviors they have learned have been passed down from generation to generation originating initially from a relatively small group of wild caught chimpanzees. Chimpanzees used in the biomedical field had a different type of upbringing.
To me, the biomedical chimpanzees’ situation is very reminiscent of the case if the Nicaraguan deaf children who spontaneously created their own sign language. It’s a fascinating case study I encourage you all to read. If you ever find it, there is also a really fun game called “Sign” that is based on it where you have to create your own gesture communication system with those you’re playing with. But again, it is my own personal theory backed by no formal research that those in a sanctuary setting are kind of piecemealing it together as they go. It is why I believe why there can be those misunderstandings in the beginning of introductions even though to our eyes it doesn’t seem like there isn’t any difference in the gestures they use with each other.
In this little example, you can see Rayne doing her group’s infamous “bunny hop” trying to get George to engage in play. It also seems like George is misreading it as a display so he is displaying back by trying to look bigger and hunching his shoulders over.
Luckily enough, in this instance, George picked up that Rayne’s intention was non-threatening so he engaged in a game of chase.
This next little clip is when I interpreted as evidence of George learning and adapting. The little “knocks” you see him doing to get Lucky to play don’t seem like much. If you were to ask any of the caregivers where they have seen this move before, however, there is a high chance they would respond, “Gordo.” That’s an almost exclusive Gordo move. We have not seen George do this until recently and after a recent intro with Gordo.
I cannot definitively confirm this because I am not George and can’t tell what he was thinking, but if I had to guess he picked it up to help himself be better understood by Lucky, who lives with Gordo. Again, that is my own guess.
Today is also Giving Tuesday! There is still time to help us reach our goal to help build a new support building for staff to work in! Any little bit gets us closer to helping us fully bring the expansion of our facility to reality!
Bonus Photo of Negra coming in for lunch with a purple-haired Troll!
You Have Questions? We Have Answers… Hopefully…
When we post the daily blog, the comment section are usually peppered with great questions you have, our beloved followers. Whether it’s about the chimpanzees’ personalities, the caregivers’ work, the ongoing introductions, medical procedures, and a vast array of other topics, you always ask great, sometimes hard-hitting, questions. It has been a long while since we have done this, but we would like to extend a warm invitation for any and all questions you may have. We will try to answer your questions as a blog topic of discussion to hopefully really answer your questions as detailed to the best of our abilities. I fall in the category of people who think there is “no dumb question” as it relates to the sanctuary, the chimpanzees, primates in general, advocacy, etc. If you’re thinking of question you’re hesitant to ask, there’s a big chance someone else is wondering the same thing. I know I probably was at some point.
Again, we will try to answer your questions to the best of our abilities or at the very least try to lead you in the right direction. You can always check out the previous call outs for questions (here, and here) if to see if any of those spark any ideas of things you were wondering.
And then there was Mave…
