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Honey B

Honey B Update and a February Day on the Bray Video

February 5, 2024 by J.B.

Watch the video above to see Cy’s group enjoy another mild February day—a welcome change from January’s relentless cold and snow. Just don’t tell Gordo that I shared that clip of him.

And a quick update on Honey B:

As you may know, Honey B sustained a laceration to her lower right eyelid a couple of weeks ago and Dr. Erin leapt into action to perform an emergency repair that same day. After monitoring the healing process, Dr. Erin thought that it would be in Honey B’s long term best interest to have a surgeon perform a revision to the eyelid to ensure that both the lid and tear duct would continue to function correctly. As she always does, Dr. Erin assembled a great team to not only perform the surgery but also to conduct as much diagnostic evaluation and preventative treatment as possible while Honey B was under anesthesia to reduce the need for further procedures down the road.

We were grateful to have Leah Bezzo, CRNA return to the sanctuary to perform anesthesia along with her colleague Christine Zielke, CRNA. Tyler Sugerman, DVM, another veteran CSNW volunteer, performed an abdominal ultrasound using our new machine. On the other side of the table, Jerry Woodfield, DVM DACVIM (Cardiology), performed an echocardiogram. And after the initial tests were conducted, Karen Brantman-Crosetto, DVM DACVO performed the surgery.

Here’s the good news: Honey B is overall quite healthy and Dr. Brantman-Crosetto did a wonderful job on the eyelid. Honey B will, unfortunately, need some additional time apart from her group while the revision heals but we are optimistic that she’ll be back with her friends soon. And in the meantime she will sit with her chimp friends at the window, spend tons of quality time with her human ones, and receive extra enrichment from Chad, Ellen, and the rest of the team.

As she often does, Dr. Erin served as both orchestra conductor and player, sneaking in joint and dental exams, x-rays, and other tests as her assembled team proceeded through their evaluations. Did you know that the CSNW caregivers also take turns serving as Procedure Manager? This role, filled on this occasion by Kelsi, ensures that the medical team follows a schedule developed in advance by Dr. Erin, keeps notes and records throughout the procedure, makes sure each task is completed, and finds that thing that no one else in the clinic can seem to find when they need it.

Many thanks again to this incredible group of volunteer medical professionals! And keep your fingers crossed that Honey B leaves Dr. Brantman-Crosetto’s beautiful handiwork alone.

Filed Under: Honey B, Sanctuary, The Bray, Veterinary Care Tagged With: chimpanzee, Honey B, northwest, rescue, Sanctuary, surgery, veterinary

Mirror Mania

February 4, 2024 by Amanda Hathaway

Chimpanzee intelligence is well-known and a specific aspect of their intelligence that I find particularly fascinating is their awareness of self as separate from others, or ‘theory of mind’. A classic experiment used to test for theory of mind in animals is the mirror test whereby a mark is placed on the face or some other body part of an animals and then they are presented with a mirror. If the animal notices the mark and reaches towards their own face instead of the one in the mirror, this indicates that they are aware that the image in the mirror is themself and not another animal. This works on a number of species we all recognize to be intelligent like elephants, dolphins, and the great apes while, interestingly, other nonhuman primates like monkeys, will fail this test. Human children typically begin to pass the mirror test around the age of two.

I’ve always enjoyed watching chimpanzees look at themselves in the mirror. Some are more interested than others in their own reflections, usually picking at marks or scabs on their face and head, opening their mouths to inspect their teeth and tongue, and sometimes making faces at themselves. Are they amused? Are they curious? What’s happening in those minds?!

To celebrate this endearing behavior, I’ve decided to put together a compilation of photos and videos of the chimps at CSNW looking at their own beautiful faces. Enjoy!

Filed Under: Burrito, Chimpanzee, Chimpanzee Behavior, Dispaying, Foxie, Honey B, Intelligence, Jamie, Mave, Missy, Negra, Sanctuary, Willy B Tagged With: Burrito, Foxie, Honey B, intelligence, Jamie, Mave, mirror, mirror recognition, Missy, reflection, self-awareness, Willy B

The Thing About Honey B

January 31, 2024 by Kelsi

The thing about Honey B is that she is amazing. Honey B is funny, she is quirky, fierce, mischievous, very opinionated, and not afraid to show you how she feels. My favorite part about Honey B is her humor. She’s never afraid to be herself at any point in time whether she is cracking her caregivers up or secretly getting into something she is not suppose to.

While she recovers we are working hard to keep her brilliant mind occupied, but as you have seen in the video or any of the video of Honey B, she has no problem keeping herself busy!

Ohhh! Wait! Before you go. You can now purchase the winning photo of Burrito, “Hey Girl” canvas, on merchandise website!

Filed Under: Honey B, Latest Videos, Sanctuary Tagged With: Burrito, Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, Enrichment, Honey B, Play, Sanctuary

How to Entertain a Chimpanzee

January 27, 2024 by Ellen Brady-McGaughey

First up, here is your Honey B update! Despite our best attempts to keep her attention away from her healing eyelid and occupy her time with other activities, she did open up her incision slightly yesterday. Dr. Erin assessed her and for now, we are waiting to see how it continues to heal and consulting with other experts to be sure we have the best plan in place for her. We continue to provide her with extra enrichment, and today one of her enrichment devices doubled as enrichment for the humans who created it.

We have had a large cardboard tube in the Chimp House for the past several weeks without a use for it. Today it found its purpose! We drilled some holes in the tube, added chain through the tube, and clipped it to the caging of Honey B’s room. We added some of her favorite things to the inside of the tube (popcorn, shelled peanuts, raisins) and raspberries to some of the holes to peak her interest. We gave her a bamboo stick as a tool and sat back to see what she did with it.

The idea was that the small snacks would fall through the drilled holes when the tube rolled around the chain, and Honey B would use her bamboo stick to pull the snacks to her. Well…that’s not exactly what happened. To no one’s surprise, Honey B outsmarted our plan! She was able to tap and tip the tube in such a way that the majority of the snacks fell out of either end, so it did not take as long as I had thought it would to finish the puzzle. I would like to create a reusable version of this for everyone with PVC one day, and Honey B has helped me to identify some flaws in my plan! Thank you for the design assistance, BeeBee!

It was a very good day around the sanctuary today. It is warmer here today (not warm…but warmer!). Negra enjoyed a nap in her nest in the greenhouse which was quite cozy with the heater going. Her group enjoyed eating some of the remaining snow, which is now a perfect snow cone texture. Burrito loved looking at himself on my phone and was especially fascinated by his own tongue.

I feel so fortunate to be able to share in these moments with the chimps, and to get to share them with you all. I hope your Saturday has been just as good as ours!

 

Filed Under: Burrito, Caregivers, Enrichment, Honey B, Intelligence, Tool Use Tagged With: Burrito, eating snow, Enrichment, Honey B, phone, reflection, snow, snow cone, tool use

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:

Jamie loved her “snow cone” was dragging the sandbox with her everywhere! Don’t worry we put out smaller snow cone buckets for everyone else:

Jamie snuggled up with her Lucy book in a cozy nest:

Rayne during the lunch forage:

Willy B:

Honey B picking through the forage in the green house:

Gordo with a whole lot of chow:

Mave:

Terry:

Filed Under: Dora, Enrichment, Friendship, Gordo, Honey B, Jamie, Latest Videos, Mave, Play, Rayne, Sanctuary, Terry, Willy B Tagged With: chimp enrichment, Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, dora, Gordo, Honey B, Jamie, Mave, Nesting, Play, Rayne, Sanctuary, Terry, Willy B

Snow cones, Squeegees, and Smarty pants, oh my!

January 13, 2024 by Ellen Brady-McGaughey

It is another cold day here at the sanctuary! The chimps spent their day with extra projects provided by caregivers to keep them occupied since outdoor activities were off the table for the day given the very cold temperatures. For the most part, this included things like adding seeds to their daily forage for them to search for inside, and providing flavored snow made with fresh snow and sugar free juice. But, as you will see in the video for today, Honey B quickly created her own project, and showed off her tool use skills and determination in the process. Her group enjoyed watching her work, and reaped the rewards when trading parts of her contraband back to caregivers for extra snacks!

Jamie’s group had a more laid-back kind of snow day with lots of relaxing in fabulous blanket nests, eating their flavored snow, and playing together with both caregivers and each other. Enjoy some photos from the day below!

Jamie and Burrito enjoying flavored snow

Burrito, Missy, and Jamie eating flavored snow

Burrito, Jamie, and Missy eating flavored snow

 

And some bonus photos from today…

A VERY handsome Cy Chimpanzee!!

Filed Under: Burrito, Caregivers, Cy, Honey B, Jamie, Missy, Sanctuary Tagged With: Burrito, Honey B, Jamie, Missy, snow, snow cones, tool use

Post Party Blues

December 27, 2023 by Kelsi

Today was pretty low key. The chimps seemed to be recovering from all the festivities, I think we can all relate to that! Please enjoy a few photos of the chimps having a nice lazy day.

Jamie on the barrel:

Jamie holding Foxie’s doll and her bonobo book:

Honey B eating Brussels Sprouts:

Lucky:

Rayne soooo sleepy in a nest:

Cy:

Gordo grooming Terry (Cy and Mave grooming in the background)

Gordo is so handsome:

Filed Under: Honey B, Jamie, Lucky, Nesting, Rayne, Sanctuary, Terry Tagged With: Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, Cy, Gordo, Honey B, Jamie, Lucky, Rayne, Sanctuary, Terry

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