Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Jody

Quiet Contemplation

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Every day in sanctuary is a gift of life, a freedom, a privilege of choice that otherwise wouldn’t have been available to these chimpanzees. One of my greatest joys as a caregiver is, in fact, the moment I am not needed. Although I love to interact with the chimpanzees whenever we have the opportunity and am willing to don a boot and travel around Young’s Hill at Jamie’s inclination, I also appreciate the self-contained moments when my company is superfluous. I love knowing that these chimpanzees are so comfortable in their home, so secure in their sanctuary, that they can enjoy raucous company or quiet contemplation as they wish.

Jody next to the stairs in the playroom:
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Foxie sitting in the door to the greenhouse:
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Missy in silhouette on the catwalk in the playroom:
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Burrito on the wooden platform in the greenhouse:
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Levi’s birthday

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We love to throw parties for the chimps’ birthdays at the sanctuary. After over five years at CSNW, we’ve really seen how the chimps are “aging backwards” with each passing birthday—which is just all the more reason to celebrate! For five out of the seven, we celebrate an honorary birthday because we don’t know their actual birth dates, either because they were captured in the wild, or because their records are so scarce.

We commemorate Jody’s honorary birthday every year on Mother’s Day because she had nine babies in the lab in nearly as many years, more than any of the other females at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest.

One of Jody’s children, Levi, was born this day 30 years ago. He is now the same age as Burrito.

I’d love to say that we will be celebrating today in his honor, but Levi is not in a sanctuary. He is still living in a laboratory. Levi was one of the small group transferred from Alamogordo Primate Facility in New Mexico, to Texas Biomed in San Antonio a few years ago.

This was the only note written in Jody’s record, on his day of birth “11/23/83 — Delivered healthy infant male #88… removed and taken to nursery (Levi).”

Levi didn’t have the opportunity to grow up with his mother, and there is more and more evidence that points to how important it is for chimpanzees to be with their mothers. A recent study looked at a group of free-living male chimpanzees who were separated from their mothers, and 87% of the sample group died earlier than the expected lifespan.

Levi is still alive, but it’s unlikely that his birthday will be any different than any of the last 29 birthdays that he has lived in laboratories.

Levi and the approximately 866 other chimpanzees still in research in this country deserve to be in sanctuary.

As many of you know, the NIH announced that they are planning to retire about 300 of their chimpanzees. Just this week congress passed an amendment to the Chimp Act which increases the spending cap on federal sanctuary support, and it’s currently on the President’s desk waiting to be signed. This is a good step in the right direction, but we still have a lot of work ahead of us.

Be sure to subscribe to the Eyes on Apes Take Action Alerts to be notified when we need to voice our support for the release of chimpanzees still imprisoned in laboratories.

Levi:

Levi

Jody in the lab:

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Jody in sanctuary:

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Eye gaze

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Primatology is such an interdisciplinary field—it’s a mix of anthropology, psychology, zoology, biology, and ethology—and depending on a primatologist’s background, they have very different interests. If you have an anthropology background for instance, you might be interested nonhuman primates from the perspective of human origins for group size, culture, linguistics, and so on.

My background is in psychology, so in many of my classes we studied comparative cognition of nonhuman primates and humans. One thing comparative psychologists study is theory of mind. Do nonhuman primates have a theory of mind? That is, do they understand that other individuals have different beliefs, desires, and perception than their own? There’s a ton of behavioral measures that researchers use to determine if an individual—nonhuman or human—has a theory of mind.

One behavior that is evidence of a theory of mind is eye gaze and joint attention. Chimpanzees, like humans, communicate with eye gaze. They use it with each other and with humans, too. For instance if some food has dropped just out of reach, Burrito might get a caregiver’s attention by making some noise, and when they approach him he will look straight toward the food item. If we follow his gaze we see the peanut he’s trying to get. Things like this happen all the time, and for us, common sense would say that of course chimpanzees have a theory of mind. Burrito understands that until he grabs my attention and points it out to me, I am not aware of the peanut lying just outside the caging.

Very frequently we are asked if eye contact is OK with chimpanzees. Well, it is! And they make eye contact quite frequently. It’s one way they communicate with us.

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Happy Chimps

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The chimps here are so photogenic and always look happy, as you can see below:

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Every once in awhile we do catch them when they’ve perhaps woken up on the wrong side of the nest:

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On Young’s Hill

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The chimpanzees’ relationship with Young’s Hill has certainly developed over the time they have had access to it. Sanctuary has provided them with the room to run physically as well as the room to expand psychologically. Not only have they grown as individuals as a result of the space provided but their relationships and sense of self appear to have evolved as well. Today, in honor of the gift that space provides, here is a visual exposition of the chimpanzees experiencing the splendor of Young’s Hill.

Annie foraging:
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Jamie walking through the grass:
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Burrito climbing over logs:
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Missy smiling while running:
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Foxie sitting up on one of the wooden climbing structures:
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Jody walking through the grass:
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Negra enjoying the sun (a repeat but one of my favorites!):
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Jamie Chimpanzee’s Hallowbirthday 2013

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At Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest we take parties pretty seriously, and on this day, we have two occasions to celebrate: Halloween and Jamie’s 36th birthday. Consequently, we went a little wild with the festivities today.

The chimpanzees are lucky to have some really great friends, and today we want to thank three of them in particular for making the day so special. Supporter Jayne Roepke mailed us several boxes full of the most fun and creative enrichment for today’s party (and treated the chimps to some delicious and festive party food!); Lisa Stuverud sponsored today in Jamie’s honor; and volunteer caregiver Stephanie brought some more party decorations, food, and enrichment, including this hand-carved birthday/Halloween pumpkin:

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The pumpkin was the star of the show, as you’ll see in the video below. But first, some photos of the party this morning.

Negra with a gift bag:

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and with a chunk of the giant pumpkin:

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Jody enjoying some cran-pomegranate juice:

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and deconstructing one of the cute ghost pinatas that Jayne sent:

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Jody also loved the giant pumpkin:

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Foxie with the giant pumpkin (are you sensing a theme?):

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Burrito taking a brief break from foraging:

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Annie drinking some juice:

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And if you’re wondering about Jamie, the birthday girl, she thoroughly enjoyed the festivities. Here she is looking cool with a party straw:

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foraging for berries:

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inspecting some new presents:

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and treating herself to a “martini”:

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One of the highlights of the day was watching the chimps dig into the pumpkin. They all eventually had their turns at it, but Negra was the first to enjoy the spoils.

If you’re signed up to receive our e-newsletter, you know that we’re holding a competition to see which chimpanzee can get the most Chimpanzee Pals by the end of the year. Wish Jamie a happy 36th birthday by signing up to be her Pal today!

Happy Jamieween, everyone!

Forest

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I love seeing the chimps on Young’s Hill with the forest as a backdrop. Though we can never return them to the wild, we can give them the next best thing. After living decades in the lab, I imagine it must feel pretty great to have open air, sunshine, and blue sky overhead. And the view isn’t too bad either.

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