Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Lucky

The Simple Things

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Sometimes some of the best things in life are the simplest. I recently bought a heavy duty crate for my dog because he is a little destructive sometimes when alone. It was a little expensive, which is sad for me BUT there’s always an upside! The boxes the crate came in were massive so I knew the perfect solution: bring the boxes to the chimps..

Lucky enjoy her private accommodations:

Until….

And later Cy used the boxes as a fort to create a private reading space for himself:

Don’t forget to tune in for a discussion of episode four of Chimp Crazy!
Tonight at 5:00 p.m. PT / 8:00 p.m. ET the North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance and Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest are having our 4th discussion about the docuseries Chimp Crazy. We’ll be discussing the fourth and final episode of the series (Fantasy Island), and we have a very special guest who will be joining us – Ana Paula Taveres, CEO of Save the Chimps! Ana Paula will be able to tell us all about Tonka’s new life in sanctuary! Register to join the discussion by zoom.
And be sure to check out our wishlists!

Where are the humans in the hierarchy?

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Today, former staff member Anthony gave away a morning off to volunteer. If you were a fan of Anthony and his blog writing while he was on staff, you know that he had a certain fondness for Honey B, and she certainly reciprocates the sentiment – she’s always excited to receive a visit from her old friend.

Honey B is a chimpanzee who is very demonstrative – you can tell when she’s happy and you can definitely tell when she is mad.

I was sharing a story with Anthony about something that happened just the other day. I was sitting outside of the caregiver house where J.B. and I live when J.B. went up to see the chimpanzees for the first time after being away for two weeks. The house is not far from the chimp house, but it’s not right next door either. I’m not great at estimating distances, but I would say if were in in a city, the two buildings would be about a half a block away. When I heard an excited (and very loud) pant hoot coming from the chimp house, I knew exactly who was emitting the sound and why. Honey B had spotted J.B. and they were greeting each other as though they had been apart for a year.

This story led to Anthony and I talking about Honey B, Honey B’s preference for men, and the hazing that she does with some people, the results of which look like this:

For reference, if you don’t remember or haven’t seen the above photo before, that would be Krissy adorned with a mouthful of breakfast smoothie, care of benevolent Ms. B.

J.B. and I were trained that the humans who care for chimpanzees in captivity should consider themselves at the bottom of the chimpanzees’ hierarchy and should act accordingly, with proper deference and subservience. We have carried through a similar philosophy to Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. However, you can read this blog post from several years ago about the complications of trying to place dominance in a linear line. Considering the social primates that chimpanzees are, an interesting question to ponder is what they themselves perceive in terms of the status of the humans within their social sphere, both in relation to themselves and amongst the humans as our own separate troop.

Honey B is known, probably even for a casual blog reader, for her mischievousness and her ability to state, in no uncertain terms, that she very much does, indeed, have a level of power over the lowly humans who look after her. I know from experience with chimpanzees I have known previously that it can be quite humbling to be put in this position, a mere peon relegated to the outer circle of affection. In truth, though I am not of her favored gender and are therefore not greeted with the same level of exuberance, Honey B seems to have placed me in her personal hierarchy above those who regularly receive her ire (THANK YOU, HONEY B!).

Honey B is not the only chimpanzee at the sanctuary who treats humans differently based on what appears to be either an internally-decided or an externally-perceived ranking. For those of us who knew Lucky when she first came to Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, we couldn’t have envisioned a chimpanzee with such a demeanor sweeter than hers.

As soon as we began training new staff and volunteers, however, another side of sweet Lucky came out that was quite a surprise. When I asked Krissy (the most recent trainee on door shifting) how she would describe this side of Lucky, Krissy replied, “out for blood.”

Lucky will jump at the mesh towards those who she deems below her. She will try to poke them, and she will vocalize her unhappiness if they do something displeasing to her, which is almost always the caregiver attempting to do something quite nice, like give her some food.

I don’t begrudge this side of Lucky or any other chimpanzee. I bet Krissy will be moving up in the ranks as soon as another poor human initiate comes along that is more deserving of Lucky’s scorn, and Krissy and Lucky’s relationship will be all the more precious for it.

As for Honey B, I’m not willing to wager.

 

Three Years with the Lucky Six

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Today we celebrate three years since the Lucky Six arrived! I truly can not imagine life without them. Each one of these chimps brings so much life to this sanctuary. When I think about the day that they arrived, the day was so full of excitement. We had done it, we had reached our goal of expanding the building to take in more chimps to provide another chance of security and a life of choice. The Lucky Six have grown so much in their 3 years here. We have watched chimps like Gordo grow confidence and comfortably with things that are unfamiliar. We have watched the group of six become a group of nine, which has provided them with more social opportunity. Watching chimps like Dora become a social butterfly and Rayne being able to use one of her best strengths, her social savvyness, to help her group navigate and build friendships! We watched all of J.B.’s hard work paid off to build the Bray, their 2 acre outdoor habitat. To be able to watch Rayne walk outside like she had done this everyday of her life was certainly one of the many highlights of my career! I could go on and on about how amazing they are, but I think that when it comes down to it we are just so lucky to have them and we are all the better for knowing them!

Cy:

Gordo:

Terry:

Dora:

Rayne:

Lucky:

Fool Me Once…

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After relishing in a decent streak of sublime weather, that streak came to an end today. With the chilly air and dark clouds over head, I don’t think anyone can blame the chimpanzees for staying indoors all day (albeit the first morning patrol). In fact, not a single person is in an area that offers optimal viewpoints to observe them. They are all tucked in for a nap.

Negra seemed to set the mood of the day early in the morning.

Since I wasn’t able to get many photos today, here are some I captured of Burrito during yesterday’s lunch forage.

*RECORD SCRATCH*

Ok. Never mind. As I was writing the above, I glanced at the security monitor and saw someone move through the outdoor chute onto The Bray.

It was Cy! He was on his way to his new spot.

After watching him up on the new structure, with magazine in hand, it hit me as to what he was doing. It was nice and quiet at the top of the Bray, and away from the ruckus down below. He spent roughly ten minutes seemingly just taking in the view and peace. He decided to leave when he noticed part of his group decided to also head outside.

Coming down from the structure
On his way back to the Chimp House

On his way back, he crossed paths with his sister, Lucky.

Lucky also decided to take a moment to take in the scenery and quiet

As did Terry.

At the bottom of the Bray, on the boardwalk, Willy B was watching Missy’s group. (Gordo and Rayne were out and about too, just hard to get photos of.)

Speaking of the neighbors, when they realized over half of Willy B’s group was out, they decided they too needed to be outside. Well, minus one.

Missy was the first out, and since I didn’t stretch this morning, I didn’t attempt to catch up with her.

Annie, who was right behind Missy at first, took a detour to grab some of the ever-so-popular prickly lettuce growing on Young’s Hill.

Foxie on the other hand, decided she too wanted a fortress of solitude in the form of one of her new structures.

And then there is Burrito. The person who made me stop taking pictures to run around Young’s Hill and play with him. He did seem a bit distracted. That is when I realized he was looking at Lucky. He tried really hard to play it cool and to make it seem like he wasn’t paying attention to her at all.

And I will leave you with this additional photo I took of Burrito during yesterday’s lunch forage. My phone camera was acting funny and captured the photo like this:

There’s just something with the lighting and coloring that made me love this one of him.

Mr. Caterpillar

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Over the past few days, I have been gathering photos and thinking about a theme for today’s blog. At first, it was going to be about Rayne holding her new broccoli enrichment toy. However, this morning, Dora allowed me to take some amazing portraits of her. So then I ran with the idea of writing about the “Small, but Mighty Dora”. But then… Burrito started playing with Mr. Caterpillar! After that, Lucky and Willy let me take some awesome portraits too. So today I thought, why not have it all, a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I hope you enjoy the video of Burrito playing as he is always making our day brighter. And of course, all the bonus photos!

Mr. Burrito Caterpillar:

When the weather gets nicer, we often find Cy like this 🙂

Yesterday was a beautiful day. So beautiful that Honey B decided to hold out in the Chute 🙂

Lucky portrait:

And a Lucky smooch:

Mave grooming herself in the chute next to Dora:

Rayne relaxing in a nest:

Rayne holding her broccoli toy and enjoying the warm greenhouse:

Rayne’s typical breakfast spot, however, yesterday she brought this brush with her and never let it go:

She has amazing balance:

Willy B checking himself out:

And the little mighty Dora enjoying the warm sunshine in the chute this morning:

A Day on the Bray: Lucky Climbs a Tower!

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Mave has been showing off her newfound confidence on the Bray, though at this point she prefers to stay somewhat close to home. Lucky, on the other hand, has been pushing herself to explore the very top of the enclosure. The other day she climbed one of the towers under construction at the top of the Bray for the first time (I think!) and took a moment to enjoy the view with her brother Cy and pal Gordo.

Rayne with one of her favorite books:

Cy, as I found him while closing up the chimp house one evening:

Here’s a photo of the sanctuary taken several weeks back from the driveway on the southern edge of our property which the Bonneville Power Administration built to access their transmission towers for us to walk our dogs along. In the background you can see one of the many cuts along Old Highway 10 where university students and geology buffs go to examine the various strata of ancient riverbeds, as well as the infamous Taylor Bridge, forever linked to the 2012 wildfire which bears its name.

And one from yesterday, after a wind gust blew a plastic bag up this impossibly steep hill while Jake and I were working on cattle fencing. I figured I’d stop a take a photo to hide how tired I was from the climb and buy myself a little time before trying to make my way back down. I was reminded of one of those quirky British competitions where people chase after a wheel of cheese down a steep slope (I’m not kidding) except at the bottom of this hill is simply an old barbed wire fence. This view of the slope might give you a sense of why we couldn’t extend the chimp enclosures any further to the east than we did – bear in mind, the chimp enclosure is itself a pretty steep hill. I really thought about it, though.