Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Today was sponsored by Michael Miller. Michael generously chose to celebrate his own birthday by honoring the chimpanzees today! We have the best supporters. Thank you so much, Michael! We all send loud and raucous pant hoots wishing you the happiest of birthdays and a big birthday forage!
The other day, Jamie was quietly taking in the view from Young’s Hill.
As Jody passed by, the two of them noticed something in the grass.
Young’s Hill is home to many other critters besides chimpanzees. Bugs, birds, garter snakes, and squirrels all try lay claim to these two acres, but they often run into trouble with their seven noisy neighbors.
You wouldn’t normally expect chimpanzees to be scared of creepy crawlies. Wild chimpanzees hunt and eat a variety of animals, which can include birds, reptiles, insects, and small mammals (even other primates), depending on the community. But the Cle Elum Seven are not wild. Physically, they are the same as their wild cousins, and they share many of the same behavioral traits, but they lack the culture of a wild community. And given their histories, they haven’t had much personal experience with the great outdoors either. So what might be seen as food by a chimp in Gombe might be feared by a chimp in Cle Elum.
Jamie certainly likes to kill, which shouldn’t surprise those of you that have gotten to know her through this blog. However, she has a good instinct for self-preservation and she still hasn’t quite figured out which animals fight back, so she often approaches cautiously. In fact, we sometimes liken her to a pointer, because she will stop dead in her tracks with one arm and one leg up. But rather than directing someone else to the prey, I always feel like she’s thinking…If it gets me, at least I’ll still have two good limbs.
Thankfully, it usually ends up being a wild goose chase, as it did in this instance. The field mice quickly scurry back into their holes and the birds effortlessly fly away while the chimps are still trying to get up to speed.
This type of enrichment can’t be beat – especially when no animals are harmed in the process. Captive chimpanzees will always require some kind of artificial enrichment, but there’s nothing like the unpredictable and often exhilarating enrichment that exists in the natural world.
During Foxie’s decades in biomedical research she was used as a breeder. We know of five children that Foxie gave birth to, two of whom were twins. It’s heartbreaking that Foxie was not given the opportunity to raise any of her children. Since arriving at the sanctuary she seems to have found a special affinity for her beloved troll dolls and more recently, Dora dolls. When Foxie chooses to join us for a walk around Young’s Hill she can often be seen carrying one of her many dolls on her back just as chimpanzee mothers do with their children in the wild. It’s a bittersweet glimpse into how life should have been for her and each of the Cle Elum Seven. While we can never know for sure what Foxie is thinking about her “babies” it makes my heart happy to see she has found something to call her own.
As J.B. explained a few weeks ago, Jamie has a particular need from her caregivers lately – that we put on cowboy boots and run or walk around the hill while she walks or runs on the other side of the fencing. She goes back inside the greenhouse once she is satisfied with this activity. Sometimes this is after just one lap around the hill, and sometimes it takes two, or three, or four. Once she’s back in the building, she often wants the boot that she’s been “chasing.”
Lately, though, she doesn’t want the boot immediately. Rather, she wants to sit in the greenhouse and groom the boot while the caregiver is still wearing it. This is precisely what we did this morning.
And she groomed my knee for a little while too:
I’m sure all of Jamie’s caregivers would agree that there is very little in life more gratifying than satisfying Jamie.
(Be sure to check out the earlier post with pictures of the party set-up).
Happy Easter! Today we had a big Easter egg hunt on the hill for the chimps. They seemed to really enjoy it. We kept the fun going and had another forage in the playroom, too! When you’re done looking at all the photos, watch the video at the end to see the chimps getting some Easter goodies.
Burrito with an Easter egg basket:
Negra drinking some water out of a watering can (while sitting in her cabin)
Jamie also liked this watering can, and Jody is here peering on:
Annie really liked a different watering can:
Foxie and Annie:
Foxie walking with Negra:
Jamie in the cabin:
Jamie found all our good hiding spots!
Missy with an Easter egg in her mouth:
Negra, looking very happy with her Easter egg:
It’s very rare to see Foxie without at least one doll keeping her company. In fact, when new volunteers are first learning to tell the chimpanzees apart, they can always tell Foxie by the troll doll or Dora the Explorer she’s carrying. She carried this Dora doll in her mouth for much of the afternoon.
The weather has been absolutely perfect today- warm sunshine, blue skies, and absolutely no wind (which is rare for spring in Cle Elum). As I was taking my afternoon walk around the hill with Jamie, all seven chimps came outside. Other than Jamie, who was fixated on making sure I kept up with her, the other chimps seemed pretty happy just relaxing in the sun and checking out the view. I was having a hard time not stopping to take photos of the other chimps without making Jamie impatient, but thankfully, she let me get a couple of Burrito.
But it wasn’t long before I was summoned to keep going. Our boss certainly knows how to keep our priorities in check.
