Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Food

full mouths, happy bellies

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We’ve been taken every opportunity with the not-bad weather to spread food over Young’s Hill so the chimpanzees can forage for their meals. They LOVE forages, and it’s nice to see them doing a little bit of what they would do if they lived in the wild. Of course, free-living chimpanzees rely on the bounty of nature to provide their meals. At the sanctuary, the Cle Elum Seven rely on the humans to provide their food. Their food squeaks and full mouths are an indication that we’re doing an okay job.

This morning we spread out a breakfast forage of strawberries, grapefruit, and chow biscuits.

Here’s Jamie collecting strawberries:

jamie foraging

 

Burrito eating some grapefruit while on the move to find more:

burrito foraging

 

Annie and Jamie checking the shakey bridge for food:

annie jamie shaky bridge

 

Missy found the stash in the cabin:

missy eating in cabin

 

Annie put an impossible number of chow biscuits in her mouth, then attempted to also eat strawberries:

annie eating profile

annie full mouth

annie eating strawberry

annie full mouth missy behind

 

Thanksgiving 2012

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It’s been one celebration after another at the chimp house today. After we cleaned the playroom, we decorated and put out little boxes with pecans in the shell. Jamie had a strategy in mind and gathered a bunch.

Jamie with pecan boxes

 

After the forage, Annie enjoyed taking down some of the decorations that Patti brought for the day.

annie with thanksgiving decorations

 

Then she and Missy played with the decorations for a while. I love this photo of Annie lovingly gazing at Missy.

annie lovingly gazing at missy

 

Lunch was the first Thanksgiving feast of the day with baked potatoes, apples and Brussels sprouts (thanks to volunteer Denice for making the baked potatoes in advance). Watch the video below and listen to the food squeaking-Thanksgiving-happiness.

And now they are having yet another feast – Thanksgiving dinner, complete with Field Roast, baked sweet potatoes and cranberries with apples.

Foraging for native plants

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One of our goals as a sanctuary is to give the chimps as much independence and autonomy as we can, given the inherent limitations of captivity. So we’re thrilled to see them finding their own food on Young’s Hill. Right now, their favorites include grass, dandelion leaves, and prickly lettuce. There are two bamboo groves on the hill, but the chimps haven’t taken much of an interest in eating them as of yet (climbing them is a different story). Of course, none of this will take the place of the meals we serve throughout the day, but it’s nice that the chimps can head out and grab a light snack whenever they want.

Food grunts and breathy pants

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One of the things that I like about the GoPro camera is that you can hear some of the sounds that the chimps are making when they are way out on the hill. In this video, you can hear food grunts from Jamie and Jody and of course a couple of Burrito’s famous food squeaks.

You can also hear Foxie’s breathy panting as she reassures Burrito. Chimps will often reassure one another with vocalizations like this, as well as through touch and embrace, when the potential for conflict exists. If there is a limited resource, like nuts and seeds spread on the ground on Young’s Hill, the chimps will sometimes try to make nice before a conflict erupts over who stole food from whom, in an effort to prevent this kind of conflict. Normally, the chimp receiving the reassurance would provide some sort of acknowledgement, but that’s not Burrito’s style – he prefers to close his eyes and pretend that uncomfortable situations don’t exist.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

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The chimps enjoyed a St. Patrick’s Day feast this morning. Volunteers Katelyn and Connie brought potatoes, brussels sprouts, and Field Roast grain meat, as well as green fruit & vegetable juice. And while the staff were disappointed to see snow on the ground this morning, the chimps were more than happy to eat it – especially with a little bit of juice poured on top.

Regular Morning Routine

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As we mentioned on the Facebook page yesterday, sometimes the daily routine fluctuates, and as caregivers we have to be pretty flexible depending on the choices the chimps make. Typically though, we do have a regular schedule. First we invite the chimpanzees in for breakfast—and as long as everybody comes in, one person (the Care staff or Level III volunteer) will serve breakfast while the other person (the Lead Caregiver) will start cleaning the playroom. We never enter an enclosure at the same time as the chimpanzees, so we have to ensure that all the chimps are out of the room we want to clean, and that every chimp door is secure. We do this for cleaning the playroom, front rooms, and the greenhouse. (To see what cleaning is like, watch this video from a couple years ago). Today things followed the regular routine, which you’ll see in the video below.