Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

intro

George + Cy + ?

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George’s integration into a social group continues! This is very likely the only time in his life he’s been with two other adult male chimpanzees at the same time!

Big congrats to Ellen for leading this successful introduction and thanks to J.B. for the footage.

The trio spent the whole day together and tonight George and Cy are a duo once again with Gordo back with his group.

Our plan is to carry out the same process with other chimpanzees, with George and Cy remaining together. This will give us some information on group dynamics that one-on-one intros don’t provide and will give Cy the opportunity to decide what to do if there’s a conflict between George and another chimpanzee.

Tensions did rise at one point and George and Cy had an every-so-brief mild scuffle today. Gordo did not get involved. For a chimpanzee intro, we couldn’t have asked for a better result that these three. We feel proud of all of them.

George and Terry Play on The Bray

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George’s introduction to members of Cy’s group continues to advance each week. Today was the first time he and Terry shared time on The Bray.

Jamie’s group took note! Whenever something different happens, chimpanzees notice.

It was fun to see Terry and George so far up on the Bray with members of Jamie’s group walking along side them.

George and Terry also had access to the Oakwood Greenhouse, and George dutifully followed Terry from the front rooms, to the Chute, to the greenhouse, and onto The Bray. They definitely got their steps in today!

Introducing Introductions. Again!

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A few years ago, when we were embarking upon introducing Honey B, Willy B, and Mave to the Lucky Six, Anthony (who is no longer a staff member but was coincidentally here today as a volunteer, meeting George for the first time) wrote a thoughtful blog post about the complications of introductions.

Because we are planning on introducing George to members of the Lucky Six in the coming weeks, it seemed like a good time to share Anthony’s blog post again, which you can read here.

I also thought it was important to set some expectations about how we may or may not be sharing the details of these introductions.

Introductions can be a challenge for staff and chimpanzee alike. We don’t want you to expect to be kept apprised of every pair-wise introduction that George is involved in as we embark on this process. For sure, we will share – it’s in our nature to do so and this blog certainly has gotten us in the habit of providing daily information.

In order to honor this process and George’s in-limbo status (no animal welfare charges have yet been brought against George’s former owner), we will be less synchronous with our updates, and trust that you will appreciate how taxing the introduction process can be. We will of course share updates in time!