Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

friendship

Superhero

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Two things to note before you watch the video below:

  • The video shows the chimps fighting. If that’s not your cup of tea, we understand.
  • If you choose to watch, you must do so with the sound on so you can hear the narration that attempts to explain some of what you will see. The chimps will be loud at first but we’ll turn down the volume on the screaming and pant-hooting early on in the video.

Showing the chimps in your care fighting may not be what they teach in nonprofit PR/fundraising school, but I’m always hopeful that people can learn to understand and appreciate chimps as they are while continuing to support them and the sanctuaries that care for them. Sanctuary life is filled with fun, happy moments. To a lesser extent, it also contains unsettling, even terrifying moments. They are still chimps, after all.

As I mention in the video, we are often of two minds in this job. First and foremost, we are caregivers, fretting over each bump and scrape the chimps receive and agonizing over every decision we make with regard to their care. This is the mind we inhabit in the midst of a conflict. But we are also primatologists and enthusiastic observers of chimp behavior. We are the people that, like many of you, were glued to Jane Goodall documentaries as kids and who find the complexities of chimpanzee social dynamics endlessly fascinating. And as I watched the footage of this conflict, I felt my 20-year-old self, just entering the field, marveling at each and every interaction. Perhaps you will feel the same.

If by chance you are new to Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, this group is the result of the integration of two smaller groups: A group of six, led by Cy, and a group of three, led (mostly) by Willy B. Almost immediately after their integration in 2022, Willy B accepted Cy’s dominance and established himself as the #2. But Willy B does not have Cy’s social skills, and from time to time that can get him into trouble with a few others in the group.

Similar to what is seen in the literature, the rate of conflict in this larger group hasn’t gone down all that much since the initial integration; it ebbs and flows and at times it may even be higher. But the conflicts are shorter and result in fewer injuries (I don’t believe in jinxes, I don’t believe in jinxes, I don’t believe…). This conflict was unlike most in that it lasted a long time; as I say in the video, this is likely because of Gordo’s unique inability to calm down. Prior to the integration of these two groups, Gordo would occasionally get this upset with Cy. Cy, having nearly unlimited patience, would just let himself be chased by Gordo until Gordo eventually wore himself out. But that was a low-ranking male venting at the alpha, who clearly felt no threat to his own safety or status. Here, the relationships between the lower-ranking males is less well-defined. And thus the stakes are higher.

There’s an important caveat that I should mention here: I describe some of what I think I’m seeing, but any time I read a matter-of-fact description about relationships and behaviors as complex as those in chimpanzees, my BS detector starts to go off. Half the time we just don’t know or we drastically oversimplify things. So let me admit that up front. And this, I should add, is with the benefit of instant replay and slow motion—now maybe you can see why we say we don’t always know what happened in real time when the chimps get in fights.

Oh, and another one: Cy gets top billing in this blog post and he certainly has the most influence over the outcome, but boy that Honey B has some guts. And there are so many other interesting interactions that I didn’t touch on, many of which are also influential. Alpha males always get the headlines while the females quietly do much of the work. But this alpha sure did put on a show.

This video also doesn’t include what happened after the fight, which in some ways is the most interesting and important aspect of chimpanzee relationship formation and maintenance.

I could probably go on all day about this so I’ll stop here. Feel free to ask questions!

Becoming Friends with Jamie

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Being friends with Jamie is a wonderful gift, but one that certainly must be earned! As one of the newest caregivers here, I have been enjoying getting the privilege to know Jamie, and wanted to share with you all about some of the joys of Jamie.

Jamie can be a complicated friend to have. Much like how we are not always in the best of moods, she too has some days where she is feeling more social than others. But the quiet moments of just being with Jamie are more than worth enduring anything that she might (quite literally) throw your way! She is an individual who knows exactly what she wants and will go to great lengths to communicate that to you if you can be of assistance. Her happy food grunts when she is eating one of her favorite foods are one of my new favorite sounds (she was really enjoying her red peppers with dinner tonight!). I hope you all enjoy today’s video to see how Jamie and I’s friendship is progressing so far. I look forward to getting to know so much more about her!

Growth

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I know I have mentioned this many times, but being able to witness Mave and Dora’s group grow into this integrated family that has provided them more social opportunities and friendships, plus the ability to work through interpersonal relationships has absolutely been one of the highlights of my career! It is really easy to forget how stressful the introduction process was, especially since they have grown so much and worked so hard to become this group of nine! However, I can still remember the feelings of uncertainty and stress about whether the integration would actually work. It almost feels silly to think about about how stressed we all were. I just remember thinking that Mave, Willy B, and Honey B needed more friends, especially the social butterfly Mave. That was the motivation- more friends and more opportunities.

Now a year and some months later, Dora’s group is flourishing! As predicted, eventually, Mave loved making new friends and Willy B finally has some male friends to hangout with. But the real surprise, the real social butterfly is Honey B. Honey B always seems to be in the middle of a grooming train, mall walking with friends, or playing with a friend like Dora! It goes to show that in sanctuary providing more opportunities and choices really does make their lives all the better.

Bonus photos!

Jenna took this photo and was kind enough to share it with me! A sweet photo Honey B, Mave, and Dora all nesting together:

Recently, Negra has been keeping a doll in her pelvic pocket:

Jamie in the portrait studio:

Foxie right next to Jamie:

Foxie rubbing her toes together:

 

Five Simple Rules to Becoming Mora

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The thing about Dora is that everyone loves her! If you had told us that she would be the popular girl, I think we all would have been shocked. But it’s hard work being popular, we don’t know how Dora does it. She doesn’t seem to get a lot of alone time, but Dora also doesn’t seem to mind all that much. Especially when it comes to Mave. Again, if we were making predictions of friendships going into integrating this group of 9, my money would not have been on Mave and Dora. But that is the thing about chimps, they are always surprising us! And this was one of the best surprise I think we all didn’t know we needed. It has been so sweet to watch Dora and Mave’s friendship blossom. They truly care for one another and enjoy their time together, which is how the power couple of Mora became. However, there are rules to Mora:

1. Groom or spend quality time as often as possible

2. Three can be a crowd, but not all the time.

*** Rules 3 and 5 are very important and can be repeated or enforced multiple times throughout the day!***

3. No, and I repeat no, more than one arms length apart from each other. If Dora or Mave are to far apart, adjustments must be make quickly!

4. Always try a little bit of each others food. Sharing is caring you know!

5. It is important for any relationship to hug or hold hands as much as possible. The more engulfed the hug is the better!

Lucky Us

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There are chimpanzees in captivity who are front-and-center as soon as you meet them and every day thereafter. Burrito and Jamie, for example.

Then there are chimpanzees who allow others in their group to take the human-liaison role and more often hang out in the background.

Sometimes, this is because they just aren’t that interested in the humans (think Missy). More power to those confident types who just don’t need us bipedal apes (unless there are tomatoes to gather from the garden, of course).

Sometimes, chimpanzees are just shy or apprehensive. I can relate! It might take them more time to warm up to caregivers (think Gordo).

Sometimes, there are chimpanzees who choose certain humans they connect with, while they are pretty ambivalent about other people in their orbit (the best example of this with the chimpanzees I’ve known over the years was Washoe – she had her favorite people, and was SO EXCITED to see them. Everyone else was simply there to wait on her, and the rare occasions when she decided to pay attention to you, if you were not on her favorite list, were thrilling. And she knew this.)

Personally, I’m just not sure about Lucky and where she fits on this spectrum I just made up. She does greet her caregivers with enthusiasm, and seems to be more enthusiastic with certain humans (Jenna may be her human BFF right now).  She’s not front and center like others in her group. She is often at a bit of a distance, observing.

The other day, I felt very privileged to sit down with Lucky for a somewhat extended period of time while she was in the Oakwood Greenhouse.

She quietly sat, wanting to groom my hand, and looked into my eyes. Towards the end of our interaction, she started to look around, like she was searching for something but not finding it.

After a few seconds, she reached over to the bamboo plant next to her and pulled off a leaf. Then, she handed it to me through the caging.

I don’t know what she was thinking when she did this, but it seemed to be a gesture of friendship, and it made my day.

Bonus photos of one of the more gregarious chimpanzees in Lucky’s group. The ever-present Terry:

Grooming with Missy and Annie

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Find someone that looks at you the way Annie looks at Missy. But make sure you have separate hobbies or something like that because, to be honest, Annie can be a bit clingy at times.

Seriously, Annie is a completely different person than she was when she first arrived over 14 years ago. She’s far more confident and secure. And I would attribute that in large part to the thousands upon thousands of hours she has spent grooming with her best friend Missy.

Burrito’s Busy Play Day

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Burrito had a pretty busy day! It seemed like everyone wanted to play with him, which for Burrito is the perfect kind of day! It was fun to see that even Annie wanted to join in! Burrito and Annie do play and interact with one another. However, they tend to have some miscommunications with each other as well, so to catch a small moment of them having a good time is always a treasure.

It’s hard to decide whether or not to film these fun moments the chimps are having with one another. Pulling out our phones or camera can often distract or stop them from engaging in the interaction with each other, and there are times when it feels like they should just have the time to play and interact without us disrupting them. There are other times when we decide that maybe they are in the moment enough to not notice and we go for it. We never want to interrupt, but we also want to be able to share it! Today was a day I was able to capture these moments without bothering the chimps!

Bonus! Today was a warm one, so what better way to cool down than with a Popsicle!

Foxie approved!