Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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Field Notes: Welcome

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Happy Tuesday, everybody! I just wanted welcome everybody to a new series we will be offering: Field Notes. As the research coordinator here, I try to stay on top of knowing all the different scientific articles released every month in various publications and try to figure if any of the new research can be utilized by us to help our mission to provide lifelong care for rescued chimpanzees.

The goal of this series is kind of twofold. First, we hope that you’ll be able to learn about chimpanzees and the new and exciting behavioral research going on both in the wild and captivity. Second, we hope this will give you just a little insight on how some decisions are made here.

I don’t want to set any expectations for this series, so as of now there is no set schedule on the frequency of this. It could be weekly. It could be bi-weekly. Heck. It could even be monthly. So instead of waiting for it week-to-week, let’s just say it’s a nice little surprise when they make the blog. Plus, the articles are released at the beginning of every month and not every release has chimpanzee related articles.

I’m excited about this series and hope you all are as well! I hope this series serves a purpose for you. I hope you are able to learn something new and gain a better understanding of these amazing people.

Now, here are some photos from Sunday I was able to snap while Cy and crew were enjoying a lunch forage on the Bray:

Cy

Rayne

George

Cool as a cucumber!
Sorry for the blown-out photo. During this forage, I put out some jackpots, usually some whole fruits and veggies. The one I put on the escher escaped everyone, even Rayne’s eagle eyes. Luckily enough, George realized I was trying to communicate something to the passersby. Though it looks like it here, George actually didn’t notice it. I asked him to come down and tried to walk him to a spot where he would see it. I pointed up, he turned around, looked up, and immediately looked back at me with a silent excited scream. Seen below.

George eating his prize apple as he looks upon The Bray!

Mental Health Awareness Month

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As May ends and June starts to usher in summer, I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight Mental Awareness Month. This is by no means the most in depth history about the recognized month. In fact, I will be honest that most of the information I got is from Wikipedia.

Mental Health Awareness Month was established in 1949 to raise awareness around individual’s suffering from conditions such as depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and suicide. Every year there is a theme to help boost awareness. This year’s theme is “More Good Days, Together.” Mental Health America, the organization who established the awareness then known as National Association for Mental Health, chose this year’s theme to encourage everybody to reflect on what a “good” day means to them and their communities. The way I interpret that is we know what a good day looks like for us individually, but what does a good day look like to everybody else and how can we help others achieve their good day.

Jamie looking up toward the sky back in 2022 after getting access to the newly expanded Young’s Hill. One thing Jamie adores is her time outside. After living in a windowless basement at the Buckshire Corporation to be used as a test subject, the chimpanzees, especially Jamie, cherish being able to look up to the sky and feel the breeze flow through their hair.

This year’s theme really made me think: what does a good day look like to everyone else here. I know what a good day here looks like to me. To me a good day is everybody shifts without hesitation, they eat all of their meals, there were no fights, the cattle took their own meds and I didn’t have to fight someone off of someone else’s, and Bruce allowed me to love him. There are some other small minor things, but those are the big ones. Now admittedly, I really don’t know what a good day to the other caregivers looks like. 😬 I think I just assumed theirs looked identical to mine. But in the spirit of theme, it’s really making me think about that.

Also, playing with the chimps is a HUGE plus in the ingredients for a good to for me. Like going around Young’s Hill with Burrito.

Mental health is such an important topic in the caregiver world. Burnout is one cause of the low attrition rate in this career field, and burnout hits fast and hard. Most of what I say next is just based on my own observations and personal experience. If I had to guess why the burnout rate is high is just due to the multitude of things we are responsible for. I know for me, this job is always on the top of my mind. Whether I’m on site, at home, on vacation, it doesn’t matter. Every worry, whether it be a fight, some social tension, upcoming procedure, etc., all those things follow me everywhere I go. No matter what I’m doing or where I am, I have chimps on the brain.

George went on the Bray to finish eating his breakfast. When Since the moment we as staff were told we would be rescuing George, everything that came with that has been at the forefront. The rescue, the legal proceedings, and probably the biggest topic, the integration. Though the integration has subsided a little because he has adapted incredibly well.

Though George’s situation has “cooled down” from what it was for me, now Negra occupies most of my thoughts. So as you can see, this job is a one thing right after another kind of job.

This job is one that keeps you on your toes… 24/7! For me, even though this is pretty much a 24/7 type of job, I get great gratification seeing the chimps playful and happy. That, regardless of how long it lasts, is what gets me out of bed in the morning. There are the hard times, but going through the storm to feel levitated like that is 1000% worth it.

Cy and George eating the primate chow on the Bray during breakfast. The relationship between Cy and George is one that gives me hope. For them obviously, but also just the kindness that the current state of the world covers up.
Terry also took his chow out onto the Bray for breakfast. It actually ended up in a fun little run between him and Burrito on the Young’s Hill side.

For years, Mental Health America has tried to rip down the curtain of stigma that surrounds mental health for some reason. I tend to be as open and honest with mine in case it can be of any help to anybody else going through it. And it thrills me that stigma seems to be waning for now, which is why I think they chose the theme that they did for this year: to help others in need.

Burrito and Foxie being silly with one another on Young’s Hill back in January. Foxie used to rely pretty heavily on Jody for support. Since Jody’s passing, Foxie has had a whirlwind of a time trying to refind her place. Luckily, Burrito has recently taken a big step in providing more physical and emotional support to Foxie.

Be sure to check Mental Health America’s resource page of a lot of different resources out there to help you or someone you know in a crisis. The world is a better place with you in it because you help better the world.

Mave and Dora hugging after Dora got scared of something. Mave has been a huge support system to Dora and vice versa.
Burrito hugging Foxie in the early days of the sanctuary.

Grooming Train

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Grooming is so important in chimpanzee social groups.

Grooming is used to build and strengthen relationships, to reconcile after conflicts, and to reinforce the social hierarchy.

While George is still not comfortable grooming his group mates, he often finds himself in the middle of grooming trains.

We all look forward to the day that George returns the favor, and starts grooming his group mates.

In the meantime, his new family will continue to include him in this important ritual.

George is such a lucky guy!

Afternoon Fun with Gordo and George

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We recently celebrated George’s first anniversary of sanctuary living! From our first blog announcing his arrival, his first ventures into the chute then the greenhouse and finally the Bray, meeting new friends for the first time (his now group-mates Cy, Terry, Rayne, Gordo, Lucky, and Dora, as well as Mave and Willy B), then living full time in his new group and navigating the social intricacies of chimpanzee life, mastering the art of nest building, his first sanctuary Christmas, and his first birthday in sanctuary, George has accomplished so much in his short time here, and there’s so much more to come!

It has been incredibly rewarding to watch him build relationships with other chimps throughout the introduction process, and even more rewarding to watch him live life within a social group. To say he and his progress have impressed us would be an understatement. Cy and Rayne have been his greatest teachers, as we had hoped an anticipated before beginning the introduction process. What was unexpected, but has been the best surprise, was his fast friendship with Gordo. In today’s video, come along for an afternoon of fun with Gordo and George!

George’s Hair

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A few people have commented asking questions about George’s lack of hair in places, particularly on his lower arms. This is due to a combination of over-grooming himself and others in his new group enthusiastically grooming him.

Because George came from West Coast Game Park Safari, a roadside zoo that was open to anyone who paid the entrance fee, we do have some photos of him when he was younger. Some of them were found on the internet and some were sent to us by caring people when they found out that George had been moved to Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. These older photos show varying states of hair loss in the same pattern. This indicates that he over-groomed himself starting at a very young age. Here are a few photos:

He had this same patterned hair loss when he arrived at the sanctuary, though it wasn’t as pronounced.

Now in his group of seven, all six other chimpanzees also groom him, and some of them like to pluck hair when grooming others. We’ve written before about grooming being a crucial aspect of chimpanzee social behavior. Chimpanzees especially love to groom scabs, which are much more visible on bare patches of skin.

George has a particular ingrained habit of self-grooming his shoulder with his opposite arm crossed over his chest. He’s doing this in almost every video that I’ve seen of George at the roadside zoo. He still does that here, but not as often as he did when he first arrived. You may have noticed there was a small sore on George’s shoulder from the video on Friday of his 1-year arrival anniversary party. That little wound has healed multiple times, only for the scab to be groomed off and the sore opened up again. It’s a very minor wound, but we are keeping an eye on it, just as his chimpanzee friends are.

Over-grooming / hair plucking can be a sign of anxiety, discomfort, or boredom, and it can also be a self-soothing behavior that developed during a particular period in life and persists as a habit throughout a chimpanzee’s life, well after the original stressor that prompted the behavior is gone.

Annie has a similar over-grooming pattern on her forearms, which is more pronounced some times than others.

Research has found that hair plucking is a very common behavior in captive primates. This study, for example, found that hair plucking was observed in 75% of the primates within the study group. This is part of the reason we don’t feel that chimpanzees belong in captivity. It’s impossible to give them an environment will all the opportunities to live as they evolved to as a species, even in the most enriched captive setting.

Thank you for asking about George’s bare arms. I hope this helps provide an explanation. We’re certainly interested to see if he will still be over-grooming or be over-groomed by others a year from now. Hopefully we will see him reciprocate grooming with his chimpanzee friends in the near future – that’s still something he hasn’t done!