Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

dora

Join Honey B and Dora for a Play Date!

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Honey B has been back with her group for over a week now! She is so happy to be back with her friends and the humans are so happy to have a bit of a routine back. 🙂

Last week, I posted a video from Honey B and Lucky’s play date. Since Honey B had been out of the group for a while, we opted to do a slow re-introduction process to ensure she had some time with individuals instead of going back into the group all at once. It also allowed the humans a little bit more control over the situation, in that we would have a better chance of separating the two of them if her partner for the play date started grooming her eye too much.

Dora was another great play date that she had and I was lucky enough to catch some footage to share with all of you! Watching it back this afternoon made me chuckle just as much as I was when I was watching them, so I hope it brings some cheer to your day too.

Also- how many headstands can Honey B fit into one play session?! Check out the video to find out. 🙂

Bonus Photo:

Handsome Willy B, waiting for lunch today 🙂

 

International Women’s Day

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Today is International Women’s Day, so it seems only appropriate to recognize and celebrate some of the influential women in our field, and in our lives. If you missed Tuesday’s post by Amanda focused on women in primatology, go check it out!

I think it is safe to say that Dr. Jane Goodall is an inspiration to all of us who love and care for chimpanzees. For most of us, our love of the species and individuals is shown in the daily care we provide to them, our friendships built with them, and heard about extensively by our families and friends. But Dr. Goodall has shared her love and passion far beyond the boundaries of her inner circle. She has made a tremendous impact by inspiring both current and future advocates, caregivers, veterinary technicians, and veterinarians of chimpanzees through sharing their stories and the importance of preserving their place on our planet. Beyond that, she is a symbol of success in science for young girls and women everywhere to look up to and aspire to. Her passion for chimpanzees and conservation work has spanned decades, and she continues to travel and advocate for chimpanzees and the importance of conservation to this day (she will be speaking in Seattle later this month!). I was fortunate enough to meet Dr. Goodall briefly when she visited Chimp Haven several years ago. We had the opportunity to listen to stories she shared about meeting chimpanzees living in laboratories and seeing the conditions they had experienced, and then getting to witness the lives they had in sanctuary after many years of work to get them there. It was a wonderful day getting to introduce our chimpanzee friends to Dr. Goodall, if only we could explain to them how cool of a person they were getting to see! All that to say, we admire and celebrate you, Dr. Goodall, and are so thankful for everything you have done and continue to do for chimpanzees and our planet.

Caregiver Ellen talking with Dr. Jane Goodall during a visit to Chimp Haven. My colorful shoes were painted by chimp friends!

Here at CSNW, we have many wonderful women to celebrate today…both chimpanzee and human! If you missed our Be Mine series in February, visit the links for each of our female chimp friends here: Mave, Dora, Rayne, Lucky, Honey B, Jamie, Foxie, Missy, Annie, and Negra, as well as our friend we have lost but whose memory we will always celebrate and remember, Jody.

Male chimps, at least in my experience, are usually easier to get to know and more willing to let you in. Take Terry, Cy, and Burrito for example. These lovely gentleman so readily accept you into their circle, and welcome you. My very first day getting to interact with the chimps, Chad took me to learn about appropriate interactions with Terry and he was so gentle and patient with someone who was (mostly) a stranger to him. He gently groomed the back of my hand, and let me rub him with my knuckle. The ladies, however, are often much more difficult to build friendships with. They have to test you first, making sure you are worthy of their time and friendship. This makes it all the more rewarding when they let you in though. One of the best moments I had recently was with Negra, who J.B. recently (and very accurately and lovingly) described as “a grumpy old lady.” I got to the sanctuary and was turning on lights and making my morning rounds of greeting the chimps. Neggie peeked up from her nest to look at me, and when I told her “Good morning, Neggie!” she quickly got up and made her way over to greet me. She offered me a kiss, and we sat and panted at each other for several seconds as she gave me a kiss on the back of my hand. Next she reached towards me, as if she wanted to groom the back of my hand. In my past experiences with Negra, this usually was not a well-intended gesture, so I was unsure if I should allow her to touch the back of my hand. I showed her my knuckle, politely asking if I could knuckle rub her arm, and she turned to press her arm against the mesh and sat with me for a few moments, letting me gently touch her arm with my knuckle while looking into my eyes. This moment was pure magic for me. Does this mean Negra will always be sweet to me from here on out? No. But it means she let me in, even if just for a few moments, and felt comfortable to allow me to spend that time with her. There’s just something special about those female friendships.

A kiss from Negra

Negra

Happy International Women’s Day to women everywhere! I’m including a shout out to my mom here, because I would not be the person I am today without her example of following her passions and the love, respect, and belief she has had in me at every step of my life. May you all be surrounded with such strong and influential women in your lives, and continue to change the world in ways big and small every single day! Together we can create a brighter future for generations of women to come, both human and chimpanzee.

 

Be Mine, Dora

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How could you not ALREADY be in love with Dora?!? Okay, I guess I’ll forgive you if you need some convincing, but buckle in and prepare yourself to fall hard for the wonderful, sometimes spicy, silly lady that is Dora.

Dora

Dora was born at the Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP) on June 6th, 1989. Her records say that her mother was Stella and her father was Les. She has many half siblings including Gordo (they have the same father, Les), who came with her from Wildlife Waystation and lives with her in her current group. She also has a half sister, Amber, who now lives at Chimp Haven, and several other half siblings at other sanctuaries including Pumpkin at Save the Chimps. I had the opportunity to work with Amber at my previous job, and can see several similarities between her and Dora. Amber and Dora are both very friendly with others in their groups, and can be quite quirky and silly. They strongly resemble each other in my opinion as well!

Pumpkin, photos from Save the Chimps

Amber, photo from Chimp Haven

Dora, in the same pose as Amber above

Dora arrived at CSNW in 2021 after Wildlife Waystation had closed in 2019, requiring that new homes be found for their many residents. Dora came to the sanctuary with Cy, Terry, Gordo, Rayne, and Lucky (the Lucky Six) and her group was then integrated with Willy B’s group (Willy B, Honey B, and Mave). If you’re new to the blog, Dora is now best friends with Mave, and one is rarely seen without the other. They comfort each other in times of stress and support each other (for the most part) during times of conflict. Even the best of friends do occasionally have their differences though, and Mora (Mave+Dora) is no exception. Just last week, Dora seemed to have decided that the cherry tomatoes for Mave were cherry tomatoes for Dora. It became very offensive to Dora when Mave took the cherry tomatoes, and Dora screamed and hit at Mave, which turned into a brief dispute in the group. While each of them were very upset, they were also quick to reconcile and back to being the best of friends.

Mora, as seen through the hand box

Grooming time with Mora

Mave and Dora playing

Mave holding Dora’s toes, and Mave and Dora hands

Mave hugging Dora

One of my favorite activities to do with Dora is to train with her using positive reinforcement training. She loves training and gets very excited to participate. She knows a lot of different behaviors, but also gets so eager to train that she sometimes wants to play with the human training with her, which is a rarity for me with Dora. Recently when I was training with her, she put both of her feet up, sticking all her toes through the caging, and made a play face. I tapped her toes with the back of my wrist, much like I often do with Burrito, and she continued with her playful antics and seemed to love it. We trained a little bit more, she got more delicious snacks, and we just had a great time together. It was the highlight of my week!

Dora has also graced me with a few grooming sessions so far. When she is interested in spending time together, I will drop just about everything to make that happen. One of my favorite moments with her was early on in my time working here, shortly after I was cleared to interact with the chimps on my own. Dora came up to the caging as I was cleaning across the hall, gave me a brief look, then sat down. I noticed her looking at me and stepped over to greet her, and she presented her head to me as if she wanted me to scratch it. I waited a moment, and then she turned so that I could safely touch her arm with my knuckle, and I gently rubbed her arm with my knuckle while she sat with me. After about a minute, the moment was over and she was off to her next activity.

When it comes time for meals, Dora is most excited if there is corn on the menu. She enjoys a lot of other foods and her chow, but there is just something extra delicious about corn. She is picky with her smoothies, so you should always feel accomplished if you make a smoothie that Dora gulps down!

Dora eating corn

Dora with her smoothie cup

Dora is a very special chimpanzee, and I feel so fortunate to get the opportunity to know and love her. She is silly, especially with her chimp friends, and can make a game out of anything. The girl knows how to have fun! She knows what she wants, and will stand up for herself when needed but is not usually one to start drama. She is a loyal friend, there to provide support when needed and quick to offer a hug or reassurance that everything is okay. She is the kind of friend everyone needs.

Thank you to Dora’s current pals Vicki, Monica, Lisa, Victoria & Emelia, Barbara, Precious, Janet, and Leslie for supporting and loving the wonderful chimpanzee person that is Dora. If you’d like to be pals with Dora, visit our website today!

Indoor Recess

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Brrrrr! It has been cooooold. Luckily, it will start to warm up a little after today, at least in the afternoons. Since it has been so cold and the chimps haven’t been able to go outside, we have been trying to make sure the chimps have a lot of enrichment opportunities such as forages, food puzzles, and of course snow cones. As you will see in the video, Honey B has no problem keeping her friends busy! When watching the video I can’t believe all three of those girls can fit on that leaf, they have such great balance. I hope that you all are staying warm and this video warms your heart like it did ours. Also a special thanks to Grace for lending me the amazing video footage!

We have been using Stur (water liquid enhancer) to help spice up the snow that we put out as enrichment! We are getting a little low on the Stur as well as some other items, check out our Amazon Wish List if you would like to help us stock up. 🙂

Our current situation:

Jamie loved her “snow cone” was dragging the sandbox with her everywhere! Don’t worry we put out smaller snow cone buckets for everyone else:

Jamie snuggled up with her Lucy book in a cozy nest:

Rayne during the lunch forage:

Willy B:

Honey B picking through the forage in the green house:

Gordo with a whole lot of chow:

Mave:

Terry:

Dora the Distractor

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Yesterday, Mave and Gordo were having a very sweet grooming session, but as Mave’s BFF, Dora was obviously not far. I found myself having a hard time capturing the moment between Mave and Gordo because a delightful little chimp (Dora) with sweet, big eyes kept distracting me and causing me to put the camera back to her, but I mean, can you blame me? If you were not already in love with Dora, I think this video will help.

We would like to give a very special thank you to Marjorie C. for purchasing Naomi the Narwhal Squishmallow for the chimps!

Oh! Before you go, a few bonus photos!

Sweet, sweet Terry:

Rayne enjoying one of her sheets! She looks a lot like her sister Tatu in the photo:

A Trip to the Clinic for Honey B(‘s skateboard)

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*Right off the bat I want to apologize to anybody who became worried after reading the title!* (The alternative was “Honey B is Wheelie Excited,” but that crossed over into a threshold of cheesiness even I didn’t want to cross into.)

If you have been following our blog for a while, then you know that enrichment can be difficult for Honey B and friends. Some in her group love to eat things they shouldn’t be eating (certain plastics, rubber, certain fabric, etc.). One of the unfortunate consequences of this is when her and Rayne’s group integrated together, that meant some enrichment items Honey B, Willy B, and Mave had would have to be shelved either temporarily or indefinitely as staff try to alter current items or find an alternative.

During this year’s Comfort & Joy Auction, one item being auctioned for the chimps was wooden wheels to replace the rubber ones that come standard on Honey B’s skateboard.

A big thank you to Donna T. who placed and won the bidding for the wooden wheels.

The wheels came in last week and work was immediately underway so Honey B could finally have her skateboard back. Some of the staff (ok, mainly myself) were absolutely determined to find a way to make it so she can have it back. So thank you so much Donna! We and Honey B thank you for making it possible for us to give her skateboard back!

The Patient

Good as new!

Rayne tried to hand it back

“I think you forgot something in the enclosures again.” -Rayne (probably)

Comfort & Joy: Dragon Blanket Thanks!

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We have received a wearable “dragon”** blanket from the Comfort & Joy auction! We put it in with Cy’s group today along with some of their lunch forage. After Lucky added it to her blanket car and drove around with it for awhile, it has now made it’s way into Dora’s nest for the night.

**We do know this blanket was probably meant to be a dinosaur and not a dragon, but Diana did not know the difference until just recently and we want to be sensitive to her feelings during this time of learning.

Special thanks to Merle R. for purchasing the wearable dragon/dinosaur blanket for the chimps!

 

Rayne inspecting the newcomer

Lucky contemplating taking it for a drive

Plus a bonus of Rayne.. just because..