Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Jamie

The return of Ellie the elk

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Ellie (as we call her), our local neighborhood wild elk, spends her days roaming up and down the valley where she grew up after losing her mother. During the winter she tends to stay more frequently at the neighboring ranch, but she always makes her way back to the sanctuary in the springtime to hang out.

On one of her first days back after the snow melted she decided to accompany the chimpanzees (everyone except Negra!) and I on a walk around Young’s Hill. The chimpanzees, however, (specifically Jamie and Foxie) weren’t so welcoming of her return and wanted to remind her whose territory she was in. (Be sure to watch until the end when Jody and Missy offer Foxie and her Dora doll reassuring hugs for their bravery).

The Best Laid Plans

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Jamie is religious about her Young’s Hill perimeter walks. As the boss, maybe she feels some responsibility to make sure the sanctuary is safe from intruders. But she doesn’t like to go alone. Her preferred walking partners are her caregivers. I can only think of a handful of times we’ve seen her walk by herself or with only other chimps as company. But today, she was desperate to go and couldn’t wait for us caregivers to get our act together, so she tried to recruit Foxie.

The elk that stole my job

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Many of you know that Jamie likes to be accompanied by a caregiver when she patrols Young’s Hill, her 2-acre enclosure. It’s the best part of the job, in my opinion – fresh air, exercise, and some quality bonding time between chimps and the humans that care for them. And if I’m being honest, it’s just nice to feel needed once and a while.

But it looks like us humans won’t be needed much longer.

This morning, Jamie and Burrito took a walk around the hill with our neighborhood elk, Ellie. This wasn’t the type of patrol we typically see in response to an intruder – Jamie wasn’t aggressive or even particularly vigilant. In fact, it looked to me like the same leisurely stroll that we take with Jamie every day…I mean, used to take every day. Before Ellie took over.

At least Jamie still needs us to clean her enclosures. For now.

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Jamie’s choice

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Jamie spent her childhood living with a trainer. Her records are scarce, but she was most likely used in some form of entertainment before being purchased for use in biomedical research at around the age of nine. It’s heartbreaking and infuriating to see chimpanzees (or any wild animal) robbed of their natural lives, their childhood, and their family and social structures in order to provide so-called “entertainment” for humans. While we cannot change the histories the chimpanzees have experienced, or the fact that they will be in captivity for the rest of their lives, we do our best to provide them the space to be themselves, exactly as they choose in every minute of the day. A safe, dignified and loving home in which their “chimpanzee-ness” can come out.

We give the chimpanzees a variety of enrichment each day to keep their curious and intelligent minds engaged as much as possible, but whether they play with it, nest with it, tear it up or ignore it, it’s their choice. Jamie is highly intelligent and most likely as a result of her unnatural history, she is also very human oriented in her interests. She will often choose to use enrichment in ways that the other chimps don’t. But that’s the key – she gets to choose. When Jamie first arrived here she periodically chose to wear clothing that was included in enrichment, but over time her desire to do this has faded away and thankfully been replaced by chimp like activities such as walking the perimeter, playing with her friends, and being the boss of us all. But given her unnatural history, it’s only, well, natural that she would still incorporate things that are familiar to her in her play from time to time.

So while supervising the cleaning of her home from atop her barrel, this was one of Jamie’s choices:

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An upside-down-Jamie-on-a-barrel is always a happy Jamie.

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If you’d like to learn more about how you can help end the exploitation and abuse of great apes, please check out our advocacy program, Eyes on Apes, and sign up for our Take Action Alerts. Just as Jamie once did, there are others who need your voice.

Then and Now

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Caring for chimpanzees with traumatic pasts is probably a lot like caring for anyone with a traumatic past. You’re aware of the person’s history and how it has affected them, but you probably don’t dwell on it on a day-to-day basis. There are even moments when you don’t think of the past at all; you’re just focused on the here and now.

Interestingly, the times I find myself reminded of the chimpanzees’ histories are the moments when they seem to be feeling particularly happy or relaxed or free. I think about how moments like that were few and far between until they made it to sanctuary. I hope that in those moments, the chimpanzees are thinking about anything but the past.

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Commander in Chief

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There are certain people that have such presence that you can’t ignore them. Jamie is one of those people. She runs the show around here, and you know it at first glance, from her perfect posture to her cocky strut to the steely glint in her eye. When she is focused on something, you can feel all her energy coming through her gaze.

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From the moment staff and volunteers arrive at the chimp house in the morning, we are aware every second of being in Jamie’s home. She doesn’t let us forget it. We are expected to keep her company when she wishes (and get lost when she wishes), to retrieve things for her that she can’t get herself, to be available to her at all times. She lets us know if we are being too this or too that, or not enough this or not enough that. Jamie has unapologetically co-opted the humans in her life as her minions, and for someone who was powerless for so long, we think that’s pretty great.