Gordo

A Special Game of Tug

April 5, 2024 by Ellen Brady-McGaughey

One of the most special parts of my job as a caregiver is being able to build relationships with the chimpanzees. This can be a slow process, with most of the first steps being them testing you and seeing how you react to things they do. Sometimes these things are not so pleasant for you, like poking at items you are serving, spitting at you, jumping at the caging to try to startle you, or even throwing poop. But all of that is so worth it for the friendships to come. It is incredibly rewarding when they start to let their walls down with you, and you start to get to see the chimpanzee person behind the tough exterior they first put up.

When I was first starting as a caregiver here, I admittedly struggled with “being the new guy” with the chimps more than I had expected. I had worked with many chimps as a caregiver at Chimp Haven, and had helped to welcome in many new residents to the sanctuary over my years there so working through those initial steps of relationship building was not new to me, and the hazing by the chimps was to be expected. But a big difference, which I quickly noticed, was that I was greatly missing my reliable, constant friendships that I had built over years of working with specific chimpanzee friends. I could always count on having a grooming session with Keeli, Maxi’s excitement when I showed up to train with her, and a good game of chase with Hamlet, but now I was working to build new friendships without those old ones to lean on, and remind me of all that is to come.

But thankfully, the weeks and now months have passed by quickly, and while I do still miss my old friends, I remain very excited for all of the new relationships I have and continue to build with my friends here. There is something extra special (as I mentioned in a previous blog post), about being able to have safe ways to touch and be touched by the chimpanzees that has allowed for an even greater level of trust and friendship that I have not been able to experience before.

I don’t want to spoil anything in the video for you, so you’ll have to go there to see who I got to share a few extra special moments with recently! I’m so grateful to be here, and to be able to build friendships with these very special chimpanzee people.

Bonus photos from the day:

Honey B resting in Riverview

Jamie flipping through an extra large magazine sent by a donor – it was a HUGE hit!!

Negra napping in her nest after a busy morning

Gordo to the Rescue

March 28, 2024 by Sabrina

One thing we know about Cy is he loves to look at his books and magazines. He also tends to alarm bark when he see’s certain animals, especially cows, rhinos, etc. Even when he alarm barks at things in his reading material he tends to continue looking at them. My theory is that he likes to get a little scared, like people who love horror movies. Well, in today’s video Gordo came to Cy’s aid when he started to alarm call at his new book of African wildlife.

As a bonus I’ve included photos of Cy the other evening while he relaxed in his nest to enjoy a movie.

All Play and No Work Makes an Interesting Day

March 21, 2024 by Chad de Bree

A recent study conducted by researchers from Tufts University and Harvard University analyzed play and its importance in wild chimpanzees from Kibale National Forest. They found when food is scarce, adult chimpanzees cease to play with other adults. Adults in the wild are not inherently prone to play as is, so this finding wasn’t too surprising for researchers. What they did find interesting was though adults stop playing with other adults and focus on survival during hard times to find food, mothers will continue to play with their offspring even though they too are in a struggle to find food.

Play is important to chimpanzees, especially for the children. Playing with not just others in their same age bracket, playing with adults help juveniles to build social skills as well as it’s just a good form of exercise. This finding mirrors the what has been found in humans. Play with their parents is important to children. By playing with parents at a very early age, children, both human and chimpanzee, learn what is socially acceptable as play and the correct way to interact with others.

Though play amongst adults in the wild is sparse, in captivity, it is a whole different story. As you know, the chimpanzees here love to play, both with each other and their human caregivers. It is one way they manage their relationship with each other. Some even use play as a way to reconcile after a fight. Granted things would probably be completely different had they been able to be born in the wild and raised by their mothers. That is a scenario I earnestly wish was the scenario even though I would not be here today had that been the case. You would be hard pressed to find any sanctuary caregiver who wouldn’t wish they didn’t have their job if that meant those in their care were born wild and free. Reality, however, stinks sometimes. I can’t ignore the fact this is their lives.

Diana once wrote about the internal struggle caregivers face caring for chimpanzees. Though we love our jobs in taking care of them in a setting away from biomedical testing, we can’t help but feel a sadness that this is it. They won’t be able to travel miles upon miles a day. The won’t be able to fission off and go on adventures with those whom they choose from a community anywhere from 10 to 200 individuals, and return to the group at large when they wish. That is why enrichment is a crucial component in caring for captive chimpanzees. It helps provide variety and entertainment. It helps break up the monotony from day to day.

That being said, I hope you enjoy the video of some of the ways the chimpanzees are kept busy. And yes! I am over the moon Missy has decided to play with me more. I used to only get one good interaction with her a year. Two if I am really lucky. In fact, Missy has just been playing with everybody more; both chimpanzee and human. Not naming names, but there is one individual who seems jealous when she does decide to play with me and other caregivers.

Second note about the video. YES! That is indeed Honey B you see out on the Bray. Though it was a disagreement with Gordo that brought her out there, it was her own free will that kept her outside. All together she was outside a little over 10 minutes, most of which was by herself. There is some hope that she will decide sooner rather than later to go outside with out the chaos of a fight bringing her out there.

Here are some bonus photos from today’s lunch forage on Young’s Hill!

Missy

Annie and Burrito

Annie was playing it coy because somebody was watching…

Gordo

Foxie

Where did Strawberry Shortcake run off to while Foxie was foraging?

To have a discussion about running off like that!

Foxie definitely didn’t leave her there to grab some sweet potatoes and cherry tomatoes…

Jamie

And last but certainly not least…

Queen Negra

Keeping a watchful eye on a certain catcalling neighbor. Making sure he doesn’t overdo it.

Champion Among Apes

March 18, 2024 by Chad de Bree

The fact that the apes exist and that we can study them is extremely important and makes us reflect on ourselves and our human nature. In that sense alone, you need to protect the apes.”

We join the primatology world in mourning the loss of researcher Frans de Waal. Frans was one of the bigger names in primatology. His studies on cognition, emotions, empathy, intelligence, (this list goes on) are widely regarded as some of the most important studies contributed to the study of primates, particularity those relating to chimpanzees and bonobos.

Though in his early years most of his studies we focused on captive lab settings, he started to champion for non-lab studies and conservation efforts. In fact, he has been associated with many sanctuaries either as a member of board of directors or as consultant on behavior and welfare.

Frans was the author of many books on the topic of intelligence and empathy. Some of those aren’t all centered around primates but go through a whole spectrum of species. I could list all the books I recommend to read, but it would be a just a majority of his works. I will though say if you haven’t read his most influential book “Chimpanzee Politics,” that would be the best place to start. “Chimpanzee Politics” is the book that actually set me down the path to where I am now. At the time, I was well down the rabbit hole of majoring in political science and only a minor in anthropology, one of the many umbrellas the field of primatology falls under, which I was unaware of at the time. That book allowed me to realize I could marry up my political science and anthropology studies together.

“Chimpanzee Politics” was so influential to me, I was able to get Frans to sign my copy when he was passing through Seattle and giving a talk about animal emotions in conjunction with the release of his book “Mama’s Last Hug,” which I also recommend. “Mama’s Last Hug,” was written after the viral video of Mama recognized one of her oldest researchers, Jan van Hooff, visited her as she was in her final days. Not only can you read all about Mama in the book, but you can also read about her in “Chimpanzee Politics.” She plays a HUGE role in that monumental book.

The world of primatology has taken two big hits recently. Other than Frans, influential researcher Christophe Boesch passed away in January. Christophe also contributed a lot to the field with his research on social cognition, tool use, and cooperation of the chimpanzees in the Taï National Forest of Côte d’Ivoire.

With that, I will leave you all with links to Frans’ TED Talks about “morality” and “alpha males.” The are both really great.

To not leave everybody totally down, here are some happy photos!

Rayne

Cy watching the traffic go by on the nearby highway from Ryan’s Lookout.

Lucky

Check out those peanut butter lips from her afternoon Kong!

Gordo

On his way back in from today’s lunch forage on The Bray.

Mave

Waiting for caregivers to give her and her family access back to the Marmot Mountain Playroom after cleaning.

Mora

These next few photo are terrible, but also too good not to share.

Who knows what warranted this hug? These two seem to find ANY reason to hug.

Cy and Lucky

It’s actually a little difficult to get photos of these two siblings together.

So it was nice to capture a few when they were both on Ryan’s Lookout during today’s lunch forage.

Training with Gordo

March 15, 2024 by Ellen Brady-McGaughey

One of my favorite parts of this job, besides building and maintaining relationships with my chimpanzee friends, is getting to participate in our Positive Reinforcement Training Program. Positive Reinforcement Training (PRT) means we use rewards (food, praise, play, etc) to reinforce and encourage desirable behavior. We do this to provide the chimps and cattle with the ability to participate in their own care, and make necessary tasks (such as preparing for a sedation or even serving of meals) as stress free as possible for everyone involved.

Recently we were discussing the need for Gordo to have a routine physical exam to get a better understanding of his current heart health and health overall. This posed a bit of a daunting task as our goal before completing the exam is to have him comfortable with being separated from his group, and participating in training with a focus on injection training. At the time of the discussion, Gordo had only trained a handful of times and generally did not show interest in participating when we asked him to. Here comes the fun part…making a plan to achieve this goal, tweaking the plan as we encounter obstacles, and most importantly – making the whole experience positive and enjoyable for Gordo and strengthening our relationship along the way!

You may be wondering, why does he need to be comfortable being separated from his group? In order to safely sedate and then remove a sleeping Gordo for his exam, he needs to be alone. This is both for his safety so he is not vulnerable to others as he falls asleep, and for our safety as we then have to enter his room once he is asleep to take him to the clinic for his exam. Through PRT, we can work to make being separated from the group a positive experience (for example, being by himself means he gets a jackpot reward of several of his favorite things) which will help him feel less stressed as we prepare for his exam. Without training him for separation, it would likely cause much more stress for him when being separated as there would not be an existing positive experiences under these circumstances. We also have the goal to focus on injection training so that when the time comes, he will hopefully present his arm or leg for his injection to begin the sedation process. This is less stressful and easier to accomplish than having to use a small dart gun to administer the sedatives.

The first step was to write a shaping plan – a step by step guide for how we hoped to accomplish these goals. Jenna wrote a plan, and we were quick to get to work on it! Only one problem, Gordo was not as eager as we were to start the training. Most of his group is incredibly interested in training, so we had to have two trainers – one to occupy everyone else, and one to train with Gordo. We quickly altered our plan to train with him during meal time, when he often separates himself from the group naturally and comes up readily to receive his meal. We use a frisbee with hooks on the back of it to show him where we would like him to stay during the session (this is called a station marker), and he got the hang of this quickly! He comes up to his station marker, and to my surprise and excitement, he was very interested in training within just one training session!

Gordo stationing (in a box he pulled up to sit in, of course!)

We use both verbal and visual cues to communicate what we are asking of the chimps. For example, if I were to ask Gordo to present his left hand, I would hold up my right hand (mirror image) with my fingers pointed towards him and say “hand.” I would expect him to put his left hand up, sticking all of his fingers (except his thumb…that would be hard to accomplish since it is so small!) through the caging towards me. Gordo was quick to recognize that we were having a training session during the meal, and he started offering up several different behaviors he had learned during his time at Wildlife Waystation and seemed eager to participate. This may sound simple, but for a chimp who just a few weeks before was not interested in coming up to train, this was a big breakthrough and very exciting! As often is the case when working with chimps, we needed to be creative in order to find what worked best for Gordo. We are continuing to work with him on stationing (staying in one place) while doors are being operated, and have been focusing on his arms and legs during training sessions as these are ideal locations for injections. He is doing very well presenting both of his feet, his hands, and his right arm and leg so far! So long as he continues to do well, we will start progressing in his injection training (the next step is simply bringing a capped needle along to our sessions for him to observe), and asking him to move to different locations to station to be sure he understands that the same concept applies in a variety of situations.

Gordo presents his foot

Gordo touches his station marker

Gordo presents his leg and allows for a gentle touch with a chopstick!

PRT is such an amazing tool to have as caregivers. It helps us build stronger relationships of trust and cooperation with those in our care, and also allows them to actively participate in their own care. Through PRT you can get many important diagnostic values that may even prevent a need for sedation and can allow you to monitor existing conditions more regularly. It is incredibly rewarding to make progress in PRT with any trainee, but especially someone like Gordo who was not always interested or motivated to participate in PRT, and who this training can so greatly benefit him by decreasing his stress around a necessary procedure! Go Gordo, go!!!

Be Mine, Gordo

February 23, 2024 by Jenna

I have to be honest, I feel immense pressure to write a blog that accurately reflects how complex, yet amazing, Gordo is. He has so many quirks that make him stand apart from all of our other chimpanzee residents. Also, I’m still emotionally recovering from reading Katelyn’s blog about Foxie on Wednesday. How does one follow that!? However, just like Gordo himself, I’m going to do my best, but in my own unique way.

The phrase, “march to the beat of your own drum” perfectly describes Gordo. We have described him as aloof, because he is more reserved than the others. Gordo isn’t going to be the first person to greet his caregivers, he doesn’t often crave human attention like others (Cy and Terry), and seems to prefer hanging back and observing. He is not too keen on making a lot of eye contact with us humans, especially when it is not on his own terms. Often times, if Gordo is staring and watching a caregiver, he will quickly look away when they notice. He will then proceed to do a side-eye glance a few seconds later to see if the caregiver is still looking at him. It is one of his many quirks!

There is one corner in Playroom 2 that is Gordo’s “spot”. He doesn’t sleep there, nor spend the entire day there, but it’s a great spot for him to be close enough to all of the happenings within his group but also far enough from the Front Rooms where a lot of the bigger personalities hang out, while they’re trying to get some human attention. He doesn’t always hang out alone, but he does pick and choose the times he is being social and putting himself out there.

Gordo’s “spot” in Playroom 2. It has a great view of The Bray and is just steps away from the Front Rooms and the Chute.

Despite being a reserved guy, he really comes out of his shell when he wants to have fun. When Gordo is feeling silly and wants a caregiver to chase him, his movements are so subtle that anyone who is not familiar with his cues, could easily miss them.

Gordo initiating play with caregivers usually starts with a quick side-eye glance, immediately followed by him looking away. Next, while the caregiver playfully gestures towards him, he will start to scratch his torso and legs. This is when you know you got him locked in for an ultimate game of chase. Then, he will stand up and start hopping with his back legs (we have referred to this on the blog as a “bunny hop“). He loves being chased through the Playroom, out to the Greenhouse, and back. Sometimes, when he is really wanting to play chase but the humans aren’t picking up the cues, he will lightly tap on the floor with his knuckles, almost in a youthful, silly, impatient kind of way. Gordo also appreciates when caregivers wear silly accessories for games of chase. A Troll Mask, a jacket hood, or a blanket wrapped around you while chasing him is enough to make Gordo’s day.

Gordo often plays chase with the boys in his group. Anytime there is something exciting happening (such as a birthday party), it is almost a guarantee you can find Gordo “bunny hopping” with Willy B playfully chasing him from behind.

In social situations or conflicts, Terry and Gordo back each other up. They look out for each other, especially when Honey B or Mave is upset with one of them. Terry and Gordo spend a lot of quiet time together as well, often grooming or exploring The Bray.

Gordo (L) and Terry (R) on The Bray

I feel inclined to share with you something Gordo DETESTS.

He hates firehose knots. Firehose knots, one of our enrichment puzzles, is a strip of firehose that is twisted and knotted in unique ways, with nuts on the inside. The chimps needs to untangle the firehose to retrieve the nuts. Gordo seems to think that this is a waste of his time, especially if his caregivers are not going to help him with it. Nowadays, because we know he hates doing it himself and won’t, caregivers now untangle and untie the firehose knots for him and then hand it to him through the mesh, as one single untied strip. He seems to appreciate this gesture, as once he sees we’re willing to do the work for him, he is suddenly interested in coming and collecting his nighttime puzzle.

Now, this is where things get a little wild and everyone nearby should duck-and-cover. Instead of Gordo opening the firehose slits at the ends (like all the other chimps do) and dumping the nuts into his hands, Gordo whips the firehose onto the floor, as hard as he can. He doesn’t stop until he hears a nut go flying and hit a wall/floor/ceiling/bench/etc. Once he hears that, he starts hunting down the flying nuts, before his group members find them first. He repeats this method until his firehose strips are empty.

Recently, Gordo was doing this whipping technique in Front Room 7 near Cy, who sat there with his arms-crossed, watching. Once the whipping began, Cy sat there and sneered, seemingly hoping the firehose does not accidentally hit him (which it didn’t).

We have shown Gordo how to do firehose knots differently, but he prefers his way.

Gordo’s worst enemy, the firehose knots.

Gordo working on a raisin board. Peep the chopstick wrapper in between his toes!

If there is one thing you should know about Gordo is that if there’s a box, he will be sitting there. Especially during meal times.

Gordo’s favorite foods are pomegranates, avocados, chow, and potatoes that are not cut. Occasionally, we bake sweet potatoes for dinner and if the pieces are cut up (like they normally are to fit through the mesh), Gordo will decline. However, if it’s a baked sweet potato that hasn’t been cut-up, he will take it. He’s a particular guy, which we’re happy to accommodate for. I’m glad we can pick up on small things like that and make those adjustments, even if they seem silly.

Gordo also loves his daily breakfast smoothie. He happily grunts when he sees it coming and will find himself a nice place to sit so he can hold his own cup through the mesh. One of the sweetest things Gordo does, is when he is done with his smoothie, instead of just letting go of the cup like all the other chimps do (nearly giving us humans a heart attack from the loud sound), he will carefully slide it down the mesh, pinch by pinch, until it’s sitting upright on the ground. Then, he will leave. These are the little things that make my heart melt.

Gordo was born on July 19, 1988 at the Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP). According to his records, his mother was Andrea and his father was Les. Dora‘s father is also Les, making Gordo and Dora half-siblings. Gordo is half-siblings with many chimps at other sanctuaries.

Gordo greets Dora in the Riverview Greenhouse

When LEMSIP closed in 1996, Gordo and 30 other chimpanzees were sent to live at Wildlife Waystation (WW) in California. WW announced its closure in 2019, causing their 400+ animal residents needing to be rehomed. Gordo arrived here at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest in 2021, along with his group members, Cy, Terry, Dora, Rayne, and Lucky. They since have been integrated with Mave, Honey B, and Willy B and now live in a group of nine.

Left to Right: Cy, Gordo, and Terry

Gordo currently has 4 Chimpanzee Pals that sponsor him: Vicki, Monica, LauRenn, and Desmond. Thank you, thank you!

Gordo somehow has the lowest numbers of Pals out of all the chimps. How can this be?! We hope you fell in love with Gordo today and feel inclined to become his newest Pal.

Indoor Recess

January 17, 2024 by Kelsi

Brrrrr! It has been cooooold. Luckily, it will start to warm up a little after today, at least in the afternoons. Since it has been so cold and the chimps haven’t been able to go outside, we have been trying to make sure the chimps have a lot of enrichment opportunities such as forages, food puzzles, and of course snow cones. As you will see in the video, Honey B has no problem keeping her friends busy! When watching the video I can’t believe all three of those girls can fit on that leaf, they have such great balance. I hope that you all are staying warm and this video warms your heart like it did ours. Also a special thanks to Grace for lending me the amazing video footage!

We have been using Stur (water liquid enhancer) to help spice up the snow that we put out as enrichment! We are getting a little low on the Stur as well as some other items, check out our Amazon Wish List if you would like to help us stock up. 🙂

Our current situation: