Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Honey B

The Great Adventure Begins

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Introductions have started! We as a staff had talked a lot about how introductions might go. We also had Amy Fultz from Chimp Haven provide advise from their successful introductions. To start intros we had Missy, Annie, and Jody meet Willy B, Honey B, and Mave first. We were very excited to have the chimps shift into the areas we needed them to so smoothly. To be honest, we were a bit shocked. We planned for one thing knowing that we might need 5 more back-up plans. Jamie, Burrito, Foxie, and Negra were offered a forage on the Hill that led to the new Chute and into Phase 1, which they have never been into! Foxie, Jamie, and Burrito went into the new Chute with ease. In the process Negra decided she wanted to stay on Young’s Hill. The Chute was foreign to her and she wasn’t ready for it yet, so Negra’s great adventure began!

I should start off by saying we do not normally close chimps onto only Young’s Hill. However, Negra was only out there until we could shift her back inside. Negra seemed to enjoy her time on the Hill. She grabbed a blanket and some forage and would go up to a structure and snack. Did I mention what was in the forage? There was lettuce, pomegranates, oranges, apples, pears, and Hawaiian rolls! When Negra needed more forage she would climb down, grab some more, and than go back up to relax on the structure. She even explored all over the Hill by herself. We thought she would hate being out there alone, but Negra was truly content. As some people say, Negra was living her best life.

I am sure you are all dying to know how the 3 on 3 meeting was. I can tell you there was fighting, hugging, A LOT of screaming, and A LOT of reassurance. Jody and Mave did a great job at keeping the peace! All of their reactions were normal for introductions. However, we were pretty busy the whole day and were not able to get very much video or photos. We also tried to keep the human interactions to a minimum. It is very important for Annie, Missy, Jody, Willy B, Honey B, and Mave to make a good relationship for the rest of the introductions to go smoothly. We are not out of the thick of things yet, but overall today’s introductions went well. Stay tuned for tomorrow, there will be a short video of clips from the introduction.

Flexibility

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A lot is changing around here! It is exciting change, but still an adjustment. We are learning that flexibility is key while the humans and chimps are learning a new routine. Even though it is just 3 new chimps, a lot of work has gone into this. We are getting to know 3 new chimps, while still devoting ourselves to the 7. We have new checks to do, spaces to organize, and old & new volunteers to train. With the new chimps comes a need for more fresh produce and toys. If you are ever curious about how to help, check out our amazon wish list. It is an easy way to help the chimps and we always need Safeway gift cards!

The 7 have been wonderful through this process with the new chimps arriving. They have been curious and as patient as they can be. Though the suspense of hoping to meet their new neighbors has brought some tension to the group. Overall, everyone is adjusting well and the 7 have been able to keep most of their days normal.

Negra is still catching some Zzz:

Jamie is still going on walks, maybe even more now:

Though Burrito is so interested in Honey B, Willy B, & Mave. He often waits by the window just to catch a glimpse:

All in all I think chimps and humans are very ready to get these intros started!

 

Similarities

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Honey B and Jamie seem to be the smarties. However, do not get me wrong everyone is extremely intelligent! There is a similar way in which Jamie and Honey B do certain things. I often wonder how the two will get along. I am curious in what their dynamic will be like. Honey B seems equally strong willed, curious, great with tools, and very resourceful. Sound like anyone you know? We have mentioned before that Jamie will sometimes scream when an item of food is valuable to her. This is in hopes it will cause the group to panic and drop the valuable food. Smart and resourceful right? We have observed Honey B using the same strategy in food situations as well. Honey B is great with tools and figures out the food puzzles fairly quickly. Honey B likes projects such as a bucket of soap and scrubbing. They both enjoy leeks or any onion form. And most importantly when you look into their eyes you can see the wheels turning. Honey B and Jamie, also as we might have mentioned before, remind many of us of Tatu, who lives at the Fauna Foundation. Tatu is another one of those smarties who is always planning and you can see it in her eyes.

Jamie, Honey B, and Tatu know how to remind you that just because you might be a human doesn’t mean you are smarter than them.

Another awesome similarity, we have watched Jamie make nest/forts with big enrichment items and we have seen Honey B do the same. Recently, there was a big play toy put in the Mezzanine. It got knock over and later on the spy camera we saw Honey B pulling the big toy toward her nest, having it surround her.

Example of one of Jamie’s forts:

This is the big toy Honey B incorporated in her nest:

 

What to do on a Rainy Day?

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Well, I guess Fall is coming whether we like it or not. Today was a pleasant rainy day here at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest (that was a very Washington thing to say). It was the perfect day to nestle into a nice nest, eat some onions, and inspect the new neighbors. Or for the chimps at least. I for one love spending my Fall rainy day under a big heated blanket watching Harry Potter or something to that effect, I am sure Negra could relate!

Even Jamie at some point in the day had succumbed to the rainy day. We found her in the Green House under a batman sheet:

Negra in the Green House this morning:

Later, Neggie and I did a photo shoot in the portrait studio:

Mave got cozy with a big stuffed dog:

Willy B:

If you are worried that the chimps slept all day, do not fret! They spent the majority of the afternoon inspecting the neighbors and observing J.B. and Anthony working outside, lots of commotion was going on!

If you look closely you can see Honey B is wearing a headband around her thigh:

Honey B also decided to try on a glove today:

Honey B’s Style

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As highlighted in a recent post, Honey B is already known for her intelligence, energy and creativity. Not only is she an engineer and a philanthropist, but she is also a fashion enthusiast.

Yesterday, she decided that the cloth headbands we provide as enrichment are better suited as waistbands. Interestingly, she isn’t the first chimp to have this innovative idea! As caregiver Kelsi showed us last month, Annie has been wearing headbands around her waist for years.

It would be tempting to suspect that Honey B learned the behavior from Annie, which would be great evidence of cultural transmission between groups of chimpanzees. In the wild, chimpanzee communities across Africa have cultural traditions (i.e., their own ways of doing things) that spread among individuals via social learning. Chimpanzee cultures are rich and fascinating, but may be disappearing. This year, scientists published a paper about the negative effects that human activity may have on the cultural diversity of wild chimpanzees. As chimpanzee numbers dwindle and we degrade and fragment their forested habitats, their capacity for culture catastrophically decreases.

Although the process of cultural transmission certainly exists among groups of captive chimpanzees, it has been difficult to document and is seldom reported. In the case of Honey B and the waistband, it seems unlikely that she learned it from Annie. Annie only wears the improvised belt for a few days or weeks and then ignores them for the rest of the year, and she had already stopped wearing this summer’s edition before Honey B and her friends arrived from Wildlife Waystation last month. It is possible that one of the many videos we showed to the new trio features a scene of Annie sporting the headband-waistband look, but it’s more likely that they both just have similar taste in enrichment and utilize what we give them in novel ways.

With that being said, it will be interesting to see if any behaviors do cross over from one group to the next! Chimpanzees are brilliant and creative, and never stop surprising us.

 

Oodles of Fun!

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Oodles: (Noun) a very great number or amount of something. For example, I have oodles of photos!

Guys, what a week! It has been a little crazy here at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest or at least on the human side. It’s becoming cold and flu season and it took some of our team out this week. But, we made it to Friday and rest assure I have a oodles of extra photos from this week! Who wouldn’t want to look at chimp photos to ease into their weekend!

Also if you have ever wondered how can you could help these amazing & wonderful chimpanzees, a very simple way is to buy items off our amazon wish-list! An example could be: we have three more chimpanzees, which meaning we go through produce a lot faster. Donating Safeway gift cards is a great way to really helps us out!

Okay enough talking, let’s look at these chimps!

It is beginning to feel like fall. This morning I found Neggie wrapped up in blankets in the Green House:

Burrito at Annie’s party:

Jody catching the warm sun in the morning before Annie’s party:

Jody at Annie’s sunflower bash and foot full of celery:

and sunflowers:

Annie:

Foxie with a new tiny troll doll that she loves:

Mave in a hammock:

Honey B:

Willy B:

Fierce little Missy running off Young’s Hill:

Jamie eating her favorite, pears:

 

We’ve Got Ten!

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Today was a pretty busy day. We had an amazing group of volunteers from Suncadia come and help us with the new extension on the Hill which provided a lot of supervision opportunities for Jamie and the entire chimp house really! But guys… Honey B, Mave, and Willy B got to go out in their new tunnel yesterday afternoon!! The seven and the three got to see each other from afar, and to say they were excited would be an understatement. I mean, Burrito almost forgot to eat dinner! So there was a lot of hustle and bustle between the work on the new hill and getting a peak at the new guys! There will be a video soon, but I thought today I would show you a collection of photos of each one of the chimps!

And a big thank you to the volunteers who came out to help us!

Jamie supervising:


Foxie:

Jody:

Annie:

Missy:

Neggie:

Burrito:

Sweet Mave with beet lips:



Willy B:

Honey B cleaning the Mezzanine after we had cleaned, it was not up to her standards: