Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Jamie

Jamie’s creative expression

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Like most artists, Jamie chooses to express her creative mind in a variety of ways. Jamie spent the first nine years of her life living with a human as a “pet” and being used in the entertainment industry. While we know virtually nothing about this time in Jamie’s life, she often chooses to engage in human oriented activities, most likely as a result of her unnatural childhood. For example, today Jamie chose to arrive for lunch wearing a red bandana tied around her neck (which she untied and re-adjusted half way through her meal). While we certainly do not advocate for chimpanzees being dressed in clothing, here at CSNW we do try to offer a variety of enrichment (including clothing) to accommodate their individuals interests. If the chimpanzees want to wear things, tear them up, play tug-o-war, make a nest with them, or ignore them, it’s their choice. Choice being the key word here. We recognize that each of the chimpanzees have unnatural histories which have influenced their individual interests and that plays a key role in developing individualized enrichment to keep their intelligent minds active.

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Notice the perfect knot Jamie incorporated into her bandana!

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Jamie chooses to wear clothing less and less since arriving at the sanctuary. While we want Jamie and her family to be able to engage in whatever interests them, it also thrills us to see their unique “chimpanzee-ness” coming out more and more. For Jamie, that sometimes still means wearing a bandana to lunch, patrolling the perimeter of Young’s Hill with her cowgirl boot, and occasionally drawing and painting when there is no “business” to take care of as Boss of the sanctuary. And that’s what sanctuary is all about, choices and the ability to express one’s self as one wants. And the art of expressing herself as she wants is something Jamie is a true artist at.

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If you haven’t cast your vote for Jamie’s artwork yet in the Humane Society’s chimpanzee-only art contest, please do so now! It’s a wonderful way to help our artist-in-residence and her chimpanzee family!

Engaging the mind, body, and spirit

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One of the most challenging and rewarding responsibilities of care-giving for chimpanzees in captivity is, I think, coming up with activities and enrichment ideas that are engaging and satisfactory for the chimpanzee mind. Keeping them busy is a full-time job (just ask enrichment coordinator and caregiver, Debbie). Luckily we don’t have to come up with ideas in the dark. Each chimpanzee has individual inclinations about how to spend their days in sanctuary and, as I come to know them better, I can accommodate those preferences more easily.

As you may be aware by now, Jamie does like to create art. But Jamie’s not just an artist. Her mind is so active that she comes up with a myriad of ways to entertain herself. In particular, Jamie is often actively engaged in her environment. She will take the time to inspect any and every new or unusual thing in and around her home. If there is something different at the sanctuary, Jamie will know and make sure it’s been thoroughly investigated and properly dealt with (if necessary). There is a lot of work that goes into being the boss! Good thing she gets the time to relax and create art in between all her other responsibilities.

If you’d like a quick and easy way to help enrich the chimpanzees make sure you’ve voted for Jamie’s artwork in the chimpanzee-only art contest sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States.

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In the meantime, check Jamie out as she checks out the world around her.

Jamie & Missy spying on the neighbors (as previously seen on our Facebook page):
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Jamie inspects the camera mount on Young’s Hill:
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Jamie inspects the donors’ sign on Negra’s cabin:
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Jamie checks the grass on Young’s Hill:
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Jamie’s Brain

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You know that whole thing about right brain vs. left brain and people identifying themselves as one or the other? Well, Jamie seems to be ambidextrous-brained. You know she’s an artist because you’ve been voting for her piece in the chimp art contest every day this week, right?

Her left brain side is pretty strong, though. As J.B.’s video demonstrated yesterday, Jamie is a skilled tool user. And she loves to solve puzzles. Just watch her solve a puzzle that the human’s created for her recently:

Jamie’s sunflower seed painting

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So, by now you hopefully know that Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest’s chimpanzee boss-lady Jamie is entered in this very unique chimpanzee-only art contest sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States.

You can and should vote for her piece every day until the contest ends on August 22nd at 5:00 ET. The sanctuary that cares for the winning chimpanzee will receive a $10,000 grant from HSUS!

If you aren’t on our e-news list (which you can remedy by signing up here), or if you missed the email sent out yesterday, below is the video we shared of Jamie during the session where she created her mixed media masterpiece that is in the contest.

There are many things that I like about this video and Jamie’s approach. In particular, I like the way she carefully applies the paint to the sunflower seed shell with her finger and the way she wipes off her hands when she’s done. These are classic Jamie things to do.

I hope you appreciate the effort she put into her art and give her your vote! The voting website even allows you to be reminded to vote each day by texting CHIMPART TO 30644 (message and data rates may apply).

In other good news, MSN shared this video on their page today!

Fire and Art

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One year ago today, the sanctuary property was engulfed in flames and smoke. We thought at one point that the caregiver house that J.B. and I live in was gone (it turned out the roof and siding had caught fire, but the interior was saved). J.B. stayed with the chimps as the flames spread, and the rest of the staff watched helplessly from the road or waited anxiously for updates.

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It’s not a day any of us would like to repeat, but we knew the chimpanzees were safe thanks to our own protocols and the actions of the local volunteer firefighters. We can never thank Kittitas County Fire Districts (KCFD) #1 and #7  enough for what they did for us and what they do for neighbors and strangers everyday. Read the account from the Seattle Met, or, in our own words, through our blog posts.

We’ve made even more improvements to our protocols and our equipment based on our experience last year. We are still working on our future emergency preparedness while also raising money for our general operating costs, and we have a great and fun way for you to help us get a nice grant!

The Humane Society of the United States is sponsoring a chimpanzee art contest, and our resident boot-loving artist boss of the sanctuary, Jamie, has a piece entered! Voting for Jamie’s mixed-media piece will not only give her the accolades she knows she deserves, but will also give the sanctuary a chance to win $10,000! You can vote for Jamie’s piece once per day from now until the end of the contest, which is 5:00pm ET on August 22nd.

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Please vote today and every day and share with everyone you know via email, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc!

15 minutes of paint

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Thank you again to Lindsay Zager’s parents who sponsored today in honor of her birthday. Jamie really got into the spirit of things by spending some time making the artwork we provided today her own.

We painted a mountain-scape on the window between the greenhouse and the playroom and, as soon she was able to, Jamie inspected our work.

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She also made some personal edits.

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And, here is my nod to Lindsay’s day, an Andy Warhol-esqe version of Jamie and the artwork. Happy Birthday, Lindsay!!

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Chimpanzee teeth

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Apes (humans included) all have the same dentition pattern, which is a fancy way of saying we have the same number of teeth, and in the same order, across the board. We also have baby teeth, or “milk teeth,” that we loose when the adult teeth come in.

One difference between our dentition is that though non-human apes have canines in the same place as humans, their canines are much larger than ours. What we know about diet probably doesn’t explain why they would have almost carnivore-sized canines. All apes eat mostly fruit, leaves, and other plant items as well as the occasional small mammal meat in the case of chimps. Still, even that small amount of meat wouldn’t be the reason for why non-human apes have such large canines.

What other purpose can teeth serve if not to chew up food? Threat. Certainly large canines are quite intimidating, and can serve as a warning to enemies to stay back, or else you could get bit and boy—it’ll hurt!

In these photos you’ll see the large canines I’m referring to—the chimps are only yawning, but you can see just how intimidating their teeth can be. Just another reason why chimpanzees do not make good pets!

Foxie:

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Negra:

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Burrito:

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Jamie:

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