inspiration Archives - Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

I don’t think it’s possible to work with chimpanzees and not think about their remarkable adaptability and resilience. Tragically, their ability to adapt is why some chimpanzees have been able to survive in some of the worse conditions imaginable, for years on end.

Sanctuaries are often the first opportunity for some chimpanzees, depending on their past circumstances, to do dozens, if not hundreds (perhaps thousands?) of new things. Walking on grass, climbing, brachiating, foraging for wild plants, or even living in a group, can be new experiences.

It can take time to break beyond the life that they have adapted to – that they’ve been forced to live.

Chimp Crazy has made me think about this too. I wrote last week about the HBO documentary series and my questions about the general public’s perception regarding chimpanzees. I appreciate everyone who commented so thoughtfully (and also all who donated during Giving Day for Apes!)

Chimp Crazy has caused me to ruminate on so many issues. I talked a little about this in a recent interview on KOMO TV in Seattle, along with local photographer who we’ve partnered with – Alex Bogaard.

The main human subject of Chimp Crazy, Tonia Haddix, and other chimpanzee owners interviewed on the documentary, have only seen chimpanzees in the context of being pets or entertainers. People who own primates as pets have witnessed these primates adapt, to the extent that they can, to living in a their homes and performing tricks.

What they don’t see are the hundreds of things missing from that primate’s life. They don’t see or perhaps don’t care that they have forced their pet primate, a wild animal, to fit into an entirely different culture and environment from the environment and culture they evolved to experience in order to have a full life.

A couple of days ago, the Primate Awareness Network at Central Washington University hosted a talk by Dr. Andrew Halloran about his work with both captive and wild populations of chimpanzees. The topic of his talk was resilience. He shared stories of the incredible resilience of chimpanzees he has studied as part of the Tonkolili Chimpanzee Project in Sierra Leone who have adapted to live in fragmented forests after their original expansive habitats were destroyed in order to create large areas of farmland for crop exportation to other countries. And he spoke about the resilience of chimpanzees in captivity who he has worked for in zoo and sanctuary settings.

I was thinking today about the difference between adaptability and resilience and how they interact. It’s not always a good thing to be able to adapt to a bad situation. I’m sure everyone can think of examples from their own lives where you found that you had adapted to circumstances that did not serve you well. If you’ve become accustomed to one way of living, even if that way of living is detrimental to your physical or psychological well being, it can be incredibly difficult to take a leap when presented with new and better choices. We’re not so different than other primates in this way. We can experience resistance and fear of the unknown. And that’s where resilience comes into play.

Adaptability is what enabled Willy B to live in a laboratory for the first five years of his life. Resilience is what allowed him to climb the crow’s nests in his two acre enclosure last week for the first time. Sometimes primates need a nudge to discover their own resilience, like a plum in a location you’ve never climbed before.

Earlier this week, I listened to an interview with author Dacher Kaltner about his book Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How it Can Transform Your Life. I haven’t read the book yet (it’s on my list now!), but I keep thinking about the premise, as I will try to clumsily paraphrase: the key to happiness is experiences that give you a sense of awe.

As it relates to the sanctuary, it brings up three things for me. The first is just the fact of being around and getting to know members of another species, a species that is so relatable and yet mysterious at the same time. Just to be in their presence for a few minutes can be awe-inspiring.

I admit that there are times when I forget how incredible an unique this experience is. And I often think about how the chimpanzees shouldn’t have been put in a situation where this was possible for me at all. But they were, and I’m one of a small number of people who get to spend my days taking care of them and trying to work towards a future when chimpanzees are no longer in any captive environment. Dreaming of that day, when chimpanzees are only found free in their native land, evokes a different and even deeper sense of awe.

The second element of the sanctuary + awe that was brought up for me is the land and natural surroundings where the sanctuary sits. As I wrote on our About Us page, the sanctuary is located on the traditional land of the Kittitas band of the Yakama Tribe. The native Kittitas people referred to what we now call the Cle Elum River near the sanctuary as Tle-el-Lum, meaning Swift Water. I imagine the members of this tribe had a reverential respect for the river and the life that it carried and nourished.

J.B. and I have lived on the sanctuary property for about fourteen years now, and the last several, since the sanctuary has acquired more land, have been without any human neighbors within sight. Our couch faces large windows that look out into the orchard and the pine trees beyond the orchard that stand tall on the hill overlooking the river. It’s an awesome view that never gets old.

When we walk out the door, we are always greeted by the sounds of stellar jays or eagles or other birds (this time of year its the busy twittering of juncos, in a few months it will be the longer calls of red wing blackbirds). The deer pass through the property regularly, the marmots and ground squirrels always show up in the spring, and every once in a while we see elk, bobcats, coyotes or wild turkeys.

The third element of the sanctuary + awe that I keep thinking about is the experiences of awe that chimpanzees might have. There have been a few studies in the wild that have approached this question, including some speculation about the possibility of “sacred trees.”

I don’t think we could definitively say what any chimpanzee is experiencing, but once in a while we catch the chimpanzees at the sanctuary in moments that just might be awe.