Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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diet

Fishing for Greens

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The chimpanzees’ friend and veterinarian, Dr. Erin Zamzow, arrived at the sanctuary today with two big paper bags overflowing with beautiful greens harvested by her neighbor. The timing of the delivery was perfect as we were getting ready to set up a forage on the hill for the chimps’ lunch.

If you have been following the blog for a bit, you might guess which of the chimpanzees went right for all of the greens she could find. You can see in the photos below how Jody got the nickname Farmer Jo.

We had spread the bounty of greens in different parts of the hill, along with some onions, primate chow, sweet potatoes, and a few bonus cherries (thanks to Darwin’s Natural Pet Products and Charlie’s Produce for the yummy cherries!).

The grass on the hill has taken on a life and personality of it’s own. The blades were moving in unison with the wind likes waves in a sea. We could see Jody’s shape glide through the grass in one direction only to abruptly switch direction as she spotted another stem to add to her collection.

We would catch a glimpse of her surfacing from the tall grass once in a while, her arms and mouth stuffed to their limit:

As is her habit, she returned to the greenhouse with her haul, taking her time to enjoy every delicious bite.

Alfalfa, the miracle weight loss food

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If the chimps had their way, they’d eat all day long. Burrito would be unstoppable. Negra would probably forego blankets entirely and just make huge nests out of bread and peanuts so that she would never have to get out of bed again. But overeating is not usually conducive to good health, so for their sake we try to balance these two competing interests as best we can.

Thankfully, there’s a miracle diet food that helps keep chimps happy and healthy: alfalfa. Not just alfalfa, but also bamboo, grape vines, timothy hay, cattails – things that we collectively refer to as “browse”. Chimps love browse, but most browse plants are too fibrous to be digested properly, so they either pass right through or the chimps spit them out after a thorough chewing. Browse makes it possible for chimps to chew to their hearts’ content without eating a lot of calories.

In the summer and fall, many types of browse grow naturally in the chimps’ two-acre enclosure, which allows them to grab a snack anytime they like. Naturally occurring browse is harder to find during the winter, so we make sure to provide Burrito and his family with store-bought treats like alfalfa cubes on a regular basis:

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Are Chimpanzees Picky Eaters?

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People are often curious what foods the chimps like. The Cle Elum Seven as a group are not very picky – not nearly as picky as other chimpanzees I’ve known. The bulk of the food we provide for the chimps is raw (or sometimes baked or otherwise cooked) fresh produce, and almost everyone eats almost everything we serve. There are a couple of exceptions, of course.

Jamie, for example, eats almost everything, but really does not appreciate the skin of carrots, so we peel hers for her. She also will often turn up her nose if there’s raw spinach in the chimps’ morning smoothie, though I discovered the other day that cooked spinach (frozen and then thawed and blended up with some fruit and almond milk) is better than okay in her opinion. Foxie is probably the pickiest, and declines several different vegetables, preferring fruit. Surprisingly, she loves smoothie with either raw or cooked spinach, even though it’s doubtful she would eat spinach on its own.

Strangely (or maybe not so strange for those who agree with their tastes), as a group they don’t seem to care much for zucchini or summer squash, but they love pumpkin and they like spaghetti squash, so we’re always asking each other – do you know if they will eat this squash? This is what happened tonight when Elizabeth and volunteer Tania were getting dinner together. Elizabeth held up a butternut squash and asked if I knew if the chimps liked that variety. I really wasn’t 100% positive, but Negra gave us the answer with her food squeaks:

Negra eating butternut squash

Negra holding squash

It turns out they all loved it. Missy was probably the most excited, but was moving far too fast to get photos. We’ve learned it is always best to give things a try, even if there’s a chance that one of the chimps might not like one of the foods we serve. Sometimes tastes change, and, because we provide as large a variety of produce as possible and always have three or more choices in a given meal, there’s always something for everyone.

Treats

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This weekend marked the start of our summer visitor program. During the guided observation of the chimpanzees, while the chimpanzees foraged for their lunch, I found myself talking a lot about food with our guests.

One thing that we discussed was how easy it is as a caregiver to want to give the chimpanzees “exciting” food all of the time. Chimpanzees, much like humans, love food. Witnessing their excitement as they see food being presented and hearing their food grunts and squeaks is incredibly rewarding.

We made the very conscious decision before the chimpanzees came to the sanctuary that we would not give them processed sugar and we would avoid food with added salt. In the last few years, we’ve even gone further, and rarely give them processed foods of any kind (with exceptions for certain holiday parties, like 4th of July, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, and their primate biscuits). Their diet therefore is almost entirely fresh produce with some seeds and nuts, peanut butter, air-popped popcorn, and a small amount of commercial “primate chow.”

The result of our somewhat strict rules on food is that the chimpanzees remain extremely excited about fresh produce. We hear food grunts and squeaks everyday over fruits and vegetables, even produce that they get on a frequent basis like apples and tomatoes.

If we had decided that it was okay to give the chimpanzees things like cookies, cake, pizza, ice cream, and all of those foods that we humans tend to have a love / hate relationship with, the chimpanzees would have grown accustomed to that diet and might look down their (rather flat) noses at lettuce, kale, cucumbers, radishes, and all of the produce they truly love now.

We recognize that we are responsible for the health of the chimpanzees, and we try to ensure that we are doing everything we can in the way of preventative health care, which means providing a healthy diet and opportunities for exercise.

We’re very happy that something like a single fresh raspberry, picked from the bushes right outside of the greenhouse and still warm from the sun, is a huge treat for Foxie (pictured below) and for all of the chimpanzees:

Foxie eating a raspberry

raspberries on vine

bowl of rasperries

 

Today Jamie savored the broccoli that was spread on the hill as part of the lunch forage, bringing it into the greenhouse to slowly eat:

Jamie with broccoli

Jamie eating broccoli floret

 

Dinner tonight included lettuce, watermelon (a special summer treat), and peppers:

dinner tray

 

Jody in particular likes to supplement the diet we provide with plants that she picks herself, including this bamboo that she brought into the playroom this afternoon and ate the leaves, one by one:

jody with bamboo

Our friend Zarin, who has written guest blog posts about her work at the Kibale National Park in Uganda, shared research they did that examined the nutritional profile of food that the chimpanzees in Kibale eat. One interesting thing they found was that even ripe fruit that the chimpanzees eat in the wild at that field site contain about the same amount of natural sugars as the carrots found in grocery stores and gardens here.

This information led us to serve more vegetables and less fruit to the Cle Elum Seven, and we now often sneak veggies into the chimps’ morning fruit smoothie. No doubt our policies will continue to adapt as we learn more, and hopefully the result will be healthy, happy, and long-lived chimpanzees.