Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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george

Rest, Nest, & Recoup

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Blankets are great, but have you ever nestled into a giant pile of paper? Cy and George have been obsessed with nesting in giant rolls of paper lately. They love to make their nest with a whole lot of paper and incorporate a few blankets, in front room 7 were they both can see what the humans are up to and catch up on some much needed rest.

Introductions have been going very smoothly, but they can definitely wipe you out! So today Cy and George are taking some well deserved naps before we head into a few more days of introductions for the week!

Cy:

Georgie:

 

 

 

 

Role Models

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One of the reasons why we chose to introduce George to Cy’s group, at least to start, is that he needs some good role models. Having lived alone or with only one other chimpanzee for most of his life, he never had the opportunity to fully develop his social skills. And that can have serious consequences. Failure to follow the rules of a social group can get a chimp into trouble pretty quickly, especially when entering the group alone. We love Jamie and Willy B as people, but as leaders of their respective groups, they each leave a lot to be desired. They might be tough, but they are also insecure, capricious, and generally self-interested. I have a hard time imagining either of them sticking their neck out to defend a naive newcomer like George.

Cy and Rayne, on the other hand, are exemplars of true leadership. In addition to being tough, they are also kind, fair, tolerant, and forgiving. One way to think about the process that George is going through right now is that this is his chance to make mistakes. I hate to see him get in scuffles or to be in distress, but I can’t help thinking to myself: Screw up now George, it’s only going to get more difficult from here! We want him to offend Rayne when Rayne gets to decide how to respond, and not Rayne trailed by four other screaming chimps. We want him to learn about the privilege of dominance, and the price paid for disrespect, when Cy is the one doing the teaching.

George has proven himself to be up for the challenge of learning to be a chimp—as long as he keeps paying attention to his teachers.

Who’s That Chimp?

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George and Cy continue to live together as one step of many in our efforts to integrate George into Cy’s group. There is not much to report at this point, which is good news! They continue to get along well and are navigating the intricacies of living with someone else, including where to nest at night.

Meanwhile, life goes on throughout the Chimp House. Today everyone is making the most of some sunshine and spending time relaxing in their Greenhouses. A certain someone came up to greet me as I was walking around the Chimp House, looking for inspiration for this blog. So now…let’s play a game of “Who’s that chimp?!” I’ve placed the photos in order of hardest to identify to easiest (in my opinion). See how few photos it takes for you to guess who it is!

Time to get your final guesses in!! Scroll down to reveal the answer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s Lucky! She was enjoying watching the camera as I took photos, and sat patiently as I did my best to capture even a little bit of her beauty in a photo. In case you missed it – Caregiver Jenna threw a great party to celebrate Lucky’s birthday this week!

Speaking of birthdays…Willy B’s birthday is coming up on November 30th, and we’d like to get him as many durable bouncy toys as we can! He loves to bounce and throw them (and Gordo enjoys them too!). If you’d like to send some durable bouncy toys for Willy B’s birthday, check out our Chewy wish list and consider donating any of the Ruff Dawg toys from our list.

George’s New Roommate!

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As Ellen mentioned the other day in her blog, the next step in George’s integration process is to have Cy join him. Well, as of yesterday, Cy is officially George’s roommate! And so far, as far as roommates go, they’ve been nothing but respectful of each other. The transition has been incredibly smooth.

They’ve shared meals, shifted for cleaning, and even had an overnight together—all without a hint of drama (which we can’t say for the groups surrounding them!). Cy has already done an amazing job showing George his dominance, but in true Cy fashion, that dominance comes with a lot of patience and guidance.

Cy showed a bit of chimp politics by politely stealing chow from George, which George didn’t make a fuss about. Since Cy loves magazines, they’re considered a high-value item for him. There was a moment where George was looking at a magazine when Cy displaced him so that he could look through the magazine first, moments like this send a message that Cy gets first dibs on certain items. George has also tried taking what seems like lower-value food from Cy, and Cy has let him have it, so far. Cy is known for letting others in his group steal from him occasionally, but if it’s something he really wants, like corn, he draws the line and has no problem correcting them.

George is a really smart guy and seems to understand what Cy wants or values most. Everyday, we are also more and more impressed by George and his social skills! So far, these two seem to be getting along swimmingly, and it makes us really hopeful for their future together.

Scenes from George and Rayne’s Day on the Bray

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George recently spent a full day with Rayne. Rayne is a wise, confident, and well-respected chimpanzee who gives George a lot of grace but isn’t afraid to hold him accountable when he gets out of line. George and Rayne have had many short meetings before, and while a few of those meetings began with brief conflicts, they always ended on a high note. This longer meeting was no exception. After a bit of arguing through the mesh, the pair got together and settled down for a day full of socializing, eating meals together, and running throughout the 2-acre habitat (both with each other and with the chimps next door!). Learning the rules can be tough for someone without much social experience, but George couldn’t ask for a better teacher.

The State of a (forming) Union

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We are continuing the process of introducing George to Cy’s group of 6, and are preparing for a very exciting next step. Now seems like a good time to provide you all with a synopsis of what we have done so far, and where we hope to go next. If all goes well, George will soon be living with other chimpanzees full-time.

We began our introduction process with short (~1 hour) afternoon meetings with George and each of the individuals of Cy’s group, first focusing on Cy, Terry, and Rayne as those that we thought would be the most accepting of George. We wanted to give George positive introduction experiences to set him up for success before introducing him to others who may be more difficult. George did very well with Cy and Terry to start, and over the course of multiple meetings had some misunderstandings, all of which they were able to navigate. In these initial intros, he struggled the most with Rayne, which we later saw to be a trend with other females when he met Lucky and Dora. With the males, he was often quick to engage in play, and later would allow himself to be groomed, whereas the females seem to find him to be more of a threat (understandably – his displays are impressive!) and often sought reassurance or to groom, which he seems more uncomfortable with than play. George was also uncomfortable with being groomed in certain areas, and would quickly disengage when individuals tried to groom him in those areas. The females were generally less accepting of this behavior, and would become upset.

Cy grooms George

Once George had met Cy, Terry, and Rayne on multiple occasions, we started to include individuals from the remainder of Cy’s group into the introduction schedule. George met Gordo and we were happily surprised by how well they did together, and how calm Gordo remained even when George displayed repeatedly. George met Dora, then Lucky, and as we went, we changed our introduction plan to accommodate what the chimps were showing us that they needed. We introduced George to Mave to help him learn how to interact with females, as Mave is generally more confident than Lucky and Dora, and Mave showed us she was willing to hold George accountable when he acted inappropriately. We lengthened the time of the introductions, and let misunderstandings and conflicts play out more without closing the door to separate the chimps, though we were prepared to do so if needed. This is difficult to do as the human observer – we want to protect our chimpanzee friends, and conflict feels scary. But conflict is an important part of chimpanzee life, as is the reconciliation that follows. We needed George to learn (or show us he knows) how to reconcile after a conflict, before we could feel confident in future integration into a larger social group. These longer introductions allowed the chimpanzees time to reconcile, and George showed us that given time (and without the option to just ignore the other individual because they were no longer sharing space), he can do it.

During this stage, Terry and George had several conflicts during their introductions, but were given time to reconcile and by the end of their time together were again playing and grooming. This is promising for George’s future as he joins a larger social group, as he was able to navigate each of these situations successfully.

Terry grooms George

From there, we moved to all day introductions of one individual of Cy’s group with George (for Terry, Cy, Gordo, and Rayne). We chose to continue afternoon introductions with Dora and Lucky, as we thought they would be more successful in all day introductions down the line, with Cy there as well to lessen their anxiety. During these all day introductions, they got to experience more of a normal day together. They ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner together and were given access to the chute and The Bray. They spent more time without direct supervision of the humans (though we were monitoring them from afar via video monitors).

Gordo grooms George

The next step? Cy comes to live with George, and we will begin to build the group around them. Before adding in more individuals, we will give opportunities for Cy to assert his dominance over George to help him understand where his place will be within the larger group. A lot of this will come simply from living together full time. Cy may demand first access to his favorite foods at meal time (like corn), to get the first look at the newest magazines, or to be the first one to interact with the humans. From there, we will continue to follow the chimps’ lead as we navigate the introduction process. I’m excited for the opportunities ahead, and hopeful for George as he begins another big step in his journey here.

Downtime with George

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Lately, George has barely had a break. With introductions happening multiple times a week, finding a quiet moment to himself hasn’t been easy. But recently, he managed to set aside a little time to just sit and enjoy a pomegranate. It was a small, straightforward pleasure — his moment of zen this week