Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Cy and George continue to live together as we move forward with integrating George into Cy’s group. In case you missed it, we have been in the process of day-long introductions with the remaining members of Cy’s group (Gordo, Terry, Rayne, and Lucky have already had theirs) as well as Mave before we continue with building up the group around Cy and George.
In today’s blog video, come along for grooming session with George and Cy!
We continue to make progress in introducing George to Cy’s group. This past week, George spent the day with Lucky (and Cy). As George navigates living with other chimpanzees, he is also learning that sometimes, he might have to share. See today’s blog video to watch how Lucky and George (with help from Cy!) navigated a conflict over their shared love of paper, and how they spent the rest of their day together.
Don’t forget, Willy B’s birthday is just around the corner! He’ll be turning 35, and will be celebrating with as many of his favorite bouncy toys as we can provide him with. If you’d like to purchase a bouncy toy for Willy’s birthday, see our chewy and Amazon wish lists, and look for the Ruff Dawg toys!
Blankets are great, but have you ever nestled into a giant pile of paper? Cy and George have been obsessed with nesting in giant rolls of paper lately. They love to make their nest with a whole lot of paper and incorporate a few blankets, in front room 7 were they both can see what the humans are up to and catch up on some much needed rest.
Introductions have been going very smoothly, but they can definitely wipe you out! So today Cy and George are taking some well deserved naps before we head into a few more days of introductions for the week!
Cy:
Georgie:
One of the reasons why we chose to introduce George to Cy’s group, at least to start, is that he needs some good role models. Having lived alone or with only one other chimpanzee for most of his life, he never had the opportunity to fully develop his social skills. And that can have serious consequences. Failure to follow the rules of a social group can get a chimp into trouble pretty quickly, especially when entering the group alone. We love Jamie and Willy B as people, but as leaders of their respective groups, they each leave a lot to be desired. They might be tough, but they are also insecure, capricious, and generally self-interested. I have a hard time imagining either of them sticking their neck out to defend a naive newcomer like George.
Cy and Rayne, on the other hand, are exemplars of true leadership. In addition to being tough, they are also kind, fair, tolerant, and forgiving. One way to think about the process that George is going through right now is that this is his chance to make mistakes. I hate to see him get in scuffles or to be in distress, but I can’t help thinking to myself: Screw up now George, it’s only going to get more difficult from here! We want him to offend Rayne when Rayne gets to decide how to respond, and not Rayne trailed by four other screaming chimps. We want him to learn about the privilege of dominance, and the price paid for disrespect, when Cy is the one doing the teaching.
George has proven himself to be up for the challenge of learning to be a chimp—as long as he keeps paying attention to his teachers.
Everyone has their favorite way of lounging. Here are a few ways we lounge around the sanctuary. Which style of lounging do you prefer?
George and Cy continue to live together as one step of many in our efforts to integrate George into Cy’s group. There is not much to report at this point, which is good news! They continue to get along well and are navigating the intricacies of living with someone else, including where to nest at night.
Meanwhile, life goes on throughout the Chimp House. Today everyone is making the most of some sunshine and spending time relaxing in their Greenhouses. A certain someone came up to greet me as I was walking around the Chimp House, looking for inspiration for this blog. So now…let’s play a game of “Who’s that chimp?!” I’ve placed the photos in order of hardest to identify to easiest (in my opinion). See how few photos it takes for you to guess who it is!
Time to get your final guesses in!! Scroll down to reveal the answer.
It’s Lucky! She was enjoying watching the camera as I took photos, and sat patiently as I did my best to capture even a little bit of her beauty in a photo. In case you missed it – Caregiver Jenna threw a great party to celebrate Lucky’s birthday this week!
Speaking of birthdays…Willy B’s birthday is coming up on November 30th, and we’d like to get him as many durable bouncy toys as we can! He loves to bounce and throw them (and Gordo enjoys them too!). If you’d like to send some durable bouncy toys for Willy B’s birthday, check out our Chewy wish list and consider donating any of the Ruff Dawg toys from our list.
As Ellen mentioned the other day in her blog, the next step in George’s integration process is to have Cy join him. Well, as of yesterday, Cy is officially George’s roommate! And so far, as far as roommates go, they’ve been nothing but respectful of each other. The transition has been incredibly smooth.
They’ve shared meals, shifted for cleaning, and even had an overnight together—all without a hint of drama (which we can’t say for the groups surrounding them!). Cy has already done an amazing job showing George his dominance, but in true Cy fashion, that dominance comes with a lot of patience and guidance.
Cy showed a bit of chimp politics by politely stealing chow from George, which George didn’t make a fuss about. Since Cy loves magazines, they’re considered a high-value item for him. There was a moment where George was looking at a magazine when Cy displaced him so that he could look through the magazine first, moments like this send a message that Cy gets first dibs on certain items. George has also tried taking what seems like lower-value food from Cy, and Cy has let him have it, so far. Cy is known for letting others in his group steal from him occasionally, but if it’s something he really wants, like corn, he draws the line and has no problem correcting them.
George is a really smart guy and seems to understand what Cy wants or values most. Everyday, we are also more and more impressed by George and his social skills! So far, these two seem to be getting along swimmingly, and it makes us really hopeful for their future together.
