Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
The chimps usually are not too interested in music (or any noise-making things in general) but today Jamie was really interested in playing this toy ukulele. She carried it around for most of the afternoon! She kept looking at it very up close, and my assumption is that she was trying to figure out how the noise was coming from the hole in the ukulele.
Jamie likes to draw with pens and occasionally with crayons, but she’s not much of an artist with paint. She used to paint a lot when she first arrived at the sanctuary (we have some of her earlier pieces for sale in our store), but lately her focus has been more on eating the paint than actually creating something with it. However, volunteer Seana gave her some finger paint yesterday and she created quite the masterpieces!
Jamie loves a project- pretty much any kind of project. It could be as simple as filing her nails, or stuffing a straw inside of another straw, or as complex as attempting to tear apart the building– she always has something going on. She’s often engaged in projects that are far from natural chimpanzee behavior, but as Diana mentioned in her post last week, captivity isn’t natural, and given her history, it’s not all that surprising that her interests are very human-oriented. Chimpanzees are smart, and they often mimic behavior to reach their desired end result, but Jamie is no doubt a step above the rest.
After seeing J.B.’s recent post about Jamie “sewing”, supporter Wanda Trotta found these great sewing cards for her. I took it out to demonstrate before giving them to her and she was definitely interested, as you’ll see below.
Last week’s spiderweb had some pretty amazing details that may not have been captured by the video. There were lots of little bugs (bees, caterpillars, butterflies) caught in the web, along with troll dolls, stuffed animals, beaded necklaces, and plastic Slinkies. The Slinkies ended up being a nice touch, because when Foxie would shake the web, they bounced all over the place, which may be why they got so much attention that day. At one point, I caught Jamie stringing some of the ribbon through the coils (much like she was “sewing”) and later, Missy took one up stairs and played with it for a while. I like how she almost looks proud of her creation in the video below.
The slinkies were sent by our friend from Oregon, Leslie Sodaro, who sends us some of the most amazing things for the chimps! From hilarious stuffed animals (some of my recent favorites being Spock, Alf, Richard Nixon, and Betty Boop) to crazy dolls that Foxie flips for (literally!), when we get a package from Leslie, we know we are in for a treat! Thanks for always keeping the chimps (and humans!) so enriched, Leslie!
Here are a couple more of Leslie’s finds:
Burrito with the blue fish:
Foxie and the wrestler:
If you’ve been following our blog for a while, you know that we strive to post photos and videos of the chimps’ daily lives – everyday. We made a decision even before the Cle Elum Seven chimpanzees arrived that we wanted people to get to know who they were and what Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest is all about. We share every area of the sanctuary, even if there’s paint peeling in the shot (it’s so hard to get paint to stick when you clean as often as we do!). We want to let people in, and we want them to fall in love with Missy, Jamie, Negra, Burrito, Jody, Annie and Foxie as we have.
Working in a sanctuary and doing all of this sharing leads to some interesting questions about what “natural behavior” is for chimpanzees. It’s not the easiest question. Captivity itself is not “natural” for chimpanzees. We firmly believe that chimpanzees don’t belong in captivity. We’d love to see the day when sanctuaries like ours are obsolete because there are no more chimpanzees in laboratories, entertainment or in private homes – no more chimpanzees that need rescuing. In the meantime, we care for seven chimpanzees who have come from very unnatural and impoverished lives. They all have unique personalities shaped by their genetic makeup combined with their unusual and tragic past experiences.
The daily lives of the Cle Elum Seven are pretty different than what they would experience in their native habitat in Africa. All of the staff members have studied primatology, and we understand this. We use our knowledge of chimpanzee behavior to provide the chimps with what they need: a social group, room to roam, nesting material, enrichment to keep their minds occupied, choices, vertical space, the opportunity to exercise, a diet full of variety but focused on fresh fruits and vegetables, food forages to mimic what chimpanzees spend most of their time in the wild doing – looking for food, a routine so they know what to expect, and celebrations plus anything else we can think of to make each day unique.
I do worry sometimes that people might come across a photo like the one below that I took earlier today and not understand all of what I wrote above. I worry that, taken out of context, what we share might give people the wrong idea about chimpanzees and what Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest is all about. I’d love your thoughts on this issue.
Below is a very unnatural chimpanzee scene, unless it’s from a chimpanzee sanctuary in the NW of the United States in February, in which case it’s pretty normal.
Jamie licking peanut butter off of a pair of clown glasses while Jody and Foxie enjoy snow from a kiddie pool:
Today Jackie and I set up a giant spiderweb in the playroom with some ribbon and crepe paper. Foxie was pretty entertained! She spent at least 45 minutes pulling and slapping the web.
Jamie has an intense love for boots, especially new ones. She’s been carrying around the boots Candy sent since the minute she got them (a week ago today). I think she enjoys having lots of boots, but to her, there is nothing quite like a new pair of boots. Her other boots, even her favorites, get pushed aside when a new pair comes along. I guess that’s probably true for me too.
In the following photo, Jamie’s actually just yawning, but I love how it looks like she’s wearing a huge playface!
