Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Enrichment

Ill Communication

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Chimpanzees are amazing communicators. Other than their vocalizations we all know and love, chimpanzees also use a wide array of gestures to communicate. Jamie is one of the best at this. As you might be aware, Jamie is a being with some very particular tastes. When she wants something, she usually won’t let up until she gets it. Sometimes this takes several tries. Sometimes it takes more than one person to decipher Jamie’s code. In this case it was both! As you can see in the video, Jamie would point at J.B., then point at me. It took us a little while, but we ended up figuring it out! She wanted the thing J.B. was carrying and the thing I was carrying, and for us to put them together. It now seems kind of obvious in hindsight, but in the moment, it was really, really confusing.

Here are some bonus photos from today’s lunch forage!

Willy B

Gordo

with Willy B

Rayne during breakfast

Magazine Madness

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This week we received some interesting magazines in a donation package, Cy and Jamie have been enthralled with their new reading material in today’s video

Cy even had his magazine thoughout the day and brought it to meals with him:

The Thing About Honey B

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The thing about Honey B is that she is amazing. Honey B is funny, she is quirky, fierce, mischievous, very opinionated, and not afraid to show you how she feels. My favorite part about Honey B is her humor. She’s never afraid to be herself at any point in time whether she is cracking her caregivers up or secretly getting into something she is not suppose to.

While she recovers we are working hard to keep her brilliant mind occupied, but as you have seen in the video or any of the video of Honey B, she has no problem keeping herself busy!

Ohhh! Wait! Before you go. You can now purchase the winning photo of Burrito, “Hey Girl” canvas, on merchandise website!

Memento Vivere

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Lately I’ve been inundated with targeted ads on social media, which I’m sure those of you who are on social media know what I’m talking about. Now, I’m not saying the work or don’t work, but one in particular keeps grabbing my attention. It’s an ad of a coin with “Memento Mori” on one side, and “Momento Vivere” on the other. I have heard the expression “momento mori” countless times, but “momento vivere” was a new on to me.

“Momento mori” is a saying in Latin that roughly translates to “don’t forget to die.” Many have tried to understand the meaning behind it. The most consistent understanding is it is supposed to be a reminder that life is short and to live in the moment. I had to do some digging for “momento vivere.” What I found is that it roughly translates to “remember to live,” meaning to take time for yourself and make every moment count. Though both try to roughly make the same point about enjoying life because it is short, I will just focus on momento vivere since momento mori sounds more bleak if you don’t understand it.

Momento vivere came to mind the other day as I was spending some time with Burrito. I’m not a psychologist by any means, so I’m not sure why certain thoughts hit at certain times, but in that moment I thought about the last couple of years I have spent with him and his take on life. Burrito is kind of the living embodiment of those sayings. He doesn’t seem to dwell on the past, and is not too concerned with the future. He lives in the now, and every moment he has he doesn’t want to waste them.

My time with Burrito is always such an experience to me. Not only do I get to call him friend and spend probably too much time with him (though I don’t think he thinks the same on that one), but he always keeps me grounded. I am 100% that type of person who gets lost in their own mind; worrying about the future and regretting some of the past. But with Burrito, all that goes away and I am present in the moment with him. I’m not sure how to communicate to him so he understands, but I try to thank him every day for the reminder and keeping me in the now.

The larger message is that this is sanctuary life. Being able to just enjoying these moments of calm and tranquility. Yes. There are moments of anger, frustration, fighting, yelling, etc. But it’s those quiet moments (as seen in the video) outweigh the others for the most part.

He can’t/won’t read this, but thank you Burrito, my friend.

Some bonus photos

Negra working her way through a firehose cube
Annie enjoying a self-obtained snow treat

I couldn’t decide which one to post, so instead here are both of the photos I captured of Rayne with her “Bonobo Lucy and her Baby Yuli” during lunch. One where Rayne is a little out of focus, but you can tell it’s her Lucy book. The other you can’t tell what book it is but Rayne is in focus.

How to Entertain a Chimpanzee

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First up, here is your Honey B update! Despite our best attempts to keep her attention away from her healing eyelid and occupy her time with other activities, she did open up her incision slightly yesterday. Dr. Erin assessed her and for now, we are waiting to see how it continues to heal and consulting with other experts to be sure we have the best plan in place for her. We continue to provide her with extra enrichment, and today one of her enrichment devices doubled as enrichment for the humans who created it.

We have had a large cardboard tube in the Chimp House for the past several weeks without a use for it. Today it found its purpose! We drilled some holes in the tube, added chain through the tube, and clipped it to the caging of Honey B’s room. We added some of her favorite things to the inside of the tube (popcorn, shelled peanuts, raisins) and raspberries to some of the holes to peak her interest. We gave her a bamboo stick as a tool and sat back to see what she did with it.

The idea was that the small snacks would fall through the drilled holes when the tube rolled around the chain, and Honey B would use her bamboo stick to pull the snacks to her. Well…that’s not exactly what happened. To no one’s surprise, Honey B outsmarted our plan! She was able to tap and tip the tube in such a way that the majority of the snacks fell out of either end, so it did not take as long as I had thought it would to finish the puzzle. I would like to create a reusable version of this for everyone with PVC one day, and Honey B has helped me to identify some flaws in my plan! Thank you for the design assistance, BeeBee!

It was a very good day around the sanctuary today. It is warmer here today (not warm…but warmer!). Negra enjoyed a nap in her nest in the greenhouse which was quite cozy with the heater going. Her group enjoyed eating some of the remaining snow, which is now a perfect snow cone texture. Burrito loved looking at himself on my phone and was especially fascinated by his own tongue.

I feel so fortunate to be able to share in these moments with the chimps, and to get to share them with you all. I hope your Saturday has been just as good as ours!