Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

enclosures

To Shift or Not To Shift

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Shifting occurs when caregivers are moving the chimps out of one space and into another, in order to clean the enclosures. We shift the chimps every morning, two to three different times so that we can clean every space. Our cleaning routines typically stay the same so that the chimps know what to expect. However, one of the many beauties of sanctuary is the fact that we don’t have a true schedule of where the chimps have to be at certain times (such as a zoo, where they may need to be on exhibit by a certain hour). While we have an ideal daily cleaning schedule in mind (typically from 9:30am-1pm), the chimps can say yes/no to our plans at any time.

After our first round of cleaning, we always put out a forage with greens (cabbage, lettuce, sometimes radicchio). While the chimps love greens, sometimes the forage alone isn’t motivation enough to shift. As we have discussed in many blogs before, Honey B is probably our #1 hold out (meaning she is less likely to shift with her group than anyone else), Negra is probably in the number 2 position, with the occasional Foxie, Dora, and Mave as runners up. While the cleaning day certainly goes by faster if all the chimps shift on-time, we don’t force anything. If Honey B doesn’t want to shift with her group, for example, she isn’t required to, and we will work around her while she hangs out alone or with team Mora when they occasionally don’t shift. Negra, on the other side of the chimp house, also has days where she prefers to stay in her warm, cozy Greenhouse nest and won’t shift back into the Playroom so we can clean the Greenhouse. Again, that’s okay and we will try at another time or the following day. Surprisingly, despite all of these ladies who always seem to question, “To Shift or Not To Shift?”, we manage to clean every space the majority of days!

The only times that we would absolutely need them to shift is in emergency situations, such as a rattlesnake or unusual bad weather. In emergency situations, caregivers would bring out high value foods (e.g. grapes or berries) to get the chimps attention and ask them to move to x enclosure or to vacate x enclosure (depending on the situation). We practice recalls regularly, so the chimps are familiar with the recall process and it should run fairly smoothly.

Today was a rough day for myself + the camera. I present to you the one photo that turned out…

Negra and the hair on her brow ridge:

When the wind blows

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The chimps at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest have over 85,000 square feet of living space. Most of it is outdoors, on a hillside overlooking Cle Elum and the Yakima River.

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But the chimps don’t want to be outside all the time – like today, for example. It’s warm outside and the sun is shining, but the wind will almost knock you off your feet. So they have choices. Sometimes they hang out in the playroom.

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Other times they seek out some privacy in one of the four smaller “front rooms.”

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But the best spot on a day like today seems to be the greenhouse – all the sun and warmth but without the wind.

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Of course, nothing short of a hurricane could stop Jamie from her walks around the hill.

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Choices

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You’ve probably noticed that all of us here at CSNW get excited when the chimps are out on Young’s Hill. Knowing that they lived for decades in small cages in a windowless basement, we celebrate every minute that they can feel the warmth of the sun on their backs, the dampness of the grass beneath their feet, or the cool breeze through their hair.

This year, it’s been all about Negra. Every chimpanzee does things in her own way, and in her own time, and Negra tends to approach things much more slowly and cautiously than the others. But this spring, she has found her confidence out on the hill. She is often the first one out the door in the morning, and sometimes the only one out in the afternoon. She loves eating her breakfast, or handfuls of spring grass, in the shade of the bamboo or one of the many climbing structures.

web Negra eat forage under platform YH IMG_7568

This morning, we were thrilled to see her try something she hasn’t done before. She crawled into the underground tunnel and stayed there for about 15 minutes while snacking on grass and dandelion leaves. Every once and a while she’d pop out to grab more grass and then retreat to her hiding spot.

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Sometimes, when you provide captive chimpanzees with choices, they’ll surprise you. For a while, we thought that Negra would choose to stay indoors in bed as the other chimps frolicked outside. But when she was ready, she chose to join them.

But as Negra spends more and more time on the hill, it’s worth noting that none of the Cle Elum Seven spend their entire day outside.

In the morning, it’s common to see all seven chimps on the hill, whether we put their breakfast out there or not. Today, Foxie took a Dora and a troll on her morning adventure.

web Foxie walk YH troll in mouth dora on back IMG_7656

And Missy defied gravity, as she often does.

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But when they’ve had enough playing and exploring, the chimps usually head back inside for a nap. They could choose to build a nest outside, but they seem to prefer napping indoors.

The greenhouse is everyone’s favorite spot year round. In the winter, they might wrap themselves up in a blanket on the second level of the platform, where it is warmest. But on a hot day like today, it’s common to see most of the group sprawled out on the lower platforms. They don’t like to be outside in the direct sun for too long, but they love the heat in the greenhouse. It’s like a sauna.

When the chimps want to relax and let their guard down, I think they feel more secure in an environment that is more familiar to them – one that has four walls and a roof.

web Jody Burrito Annie Negra Missy GH platform

And I think they also like to keep an eye on what the humans are doing. While we clean the playroom in the morning, Burrito often sits in the window of the greenhouse, watching us. Burrito was raised by humans, so it’s no surprise that he likes to be part of our world and keep up with what we’re doing. But more importantly, he wants to see what kind of food we are going to put out in the playroom once it’s cleaned. One track mind, that guy.

web Burrito in window PR to GH

Sometimes the chimps just want to be alone, so you will occasionally find someone in the front rooms while we are cleaning the playroom. This morning, Diana put on some boots for Jamie, and after they walked around the hill she gave them to her. Jamie wore one of the boots to bed and rested her head on the other.

web Jamie nest with boot on foot up in the air room 3 FR

It can be hard to separate your own ideas of what’s best for the chimps from their ideas of what’s best for themselves. On days like today, when it’s 86 degrees and sunny and Jamie is sleeping on the floor inside, I feel like a parent whose kids are inside playing video games on a beautiful day. But that’s a silly way to think. The chimps are most certainly not our kids; in fact, most of them are older than me. And after all, what’s the point of sanctuary if not to give them choices?