Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary for primates.

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Grassy Gordo and the Honey B Holdout

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One of the ways that captive chimps entertain themselves is by attempting to thwart their caregivers’ plans. Oh, you’d like to clean this area now? That’s unfortunate for you, ’cause I just decided that I’m going to live here forever. Honey B is the master of this. If you try to sweeten the deal by putting food in a different area, she’ll run out, grab the food, then high tail it back and barrel roll through the door as it closes, Indiana Jones-style. It’s rarely wise to engage in a battle of wills with a chimpanzee, even less so once they are fully stocked with provisions.

There are days when I could swear that she arranges for Willy B and Mave to run interference while she makes a mad dash for treats.

Today we cleaned on Honey B’s schedule while Willy B soaked up some afternoon sun. He still won’t touch the grass in the courtyard if he can help it and he rarely ventures further than ten or fifteen feet from the chute.

But that seems to be enough for him for now.

As we start to consider how the other group of Waystation chimps will feel about venturing out into larger, more naturalistic enclosures, I’ve been heartened to see Gordo’s comfort level increasing.

On Wednesday I caught him napping on the grass in the greenhouse.

From the look on his face, I think he’ll really appreciate the privacy that the larger enclosures will provide.

Let’s all just stop here for a second and appreciate Rayne. She is without a doubt the best chimpanzee that I’ve ever known, just like every other chimpanzee that I’ve ever known.

The forecast is calling for showers and cooler temperatures this weekend, both of which are long overdue. We’ve had enough anxiety about fires, smoke, and rattlesnakes for one summer. Still, I can’t help wanting to hold on a little longer to these al fresco breakfasts on the hill.

Missy, Burrito, and Jody:

Negra:

Foxie:

Jamie:

Foxie, Burrito, and Missy:

Jody:

The bidding has already begun at our Hoot! For the Holidays virtual event and the live event takes place tomorrow at 6pm Pacific. Tune in to hear stories from the past and learn about our plans for the future, and bid and donate to help support the 16 chimpanzees and 4 bovines that call Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest home. Don’t miss it!

Twinkle, Twinkle (Lots of Stars)

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Although the sanctuary is located in a moderately-populated valley, the skies here are still dark enough for stargazing on moonless nights.

I get excited about this lack of light pollution because of my newest hobby: astrophotography. This genre of photography encompasses any imaging of objects and phenomena in space. Those celestial subjects can include the moon, the sun, the other planets, meteors, auroras, Imperial battle stations, neighboring galaxies and stars, and anything else that emits or reflects detectable electromagnetic waves.

Like many who dabble in this art form, I began by taking long exposures of the night sky with terrestrial landscapes in the foreground. It might sound expensive and difficult, but taking these wide shots only requires a hobby camera, a sturdy tripod, and relatively dark skies.

While the techniques do require some patience and persistence to master, you can learn the basics by watching tutorials on YouTube. The most tricky step in the process is tinkering with the camera’s exposure settings. Most importantly, the shutter needs to be open for the right duration to let the perfect amount of starlight reach the sensor. I typically leave the shutter open for 10-20 seconds. Then, I manually focus the lens on the stars (which is practically focusing “to infinity”), set a delayed shutter timer, and make sure the white balance is capturing the scene’s colors with the appropriate warmth or coolness. From there, photographers can create more artistic, difficult or unique shots (e.g., by blending multiple captures into composite images), but this certainly isn’t required.

For months, I’ve dreamed of photographing the chimpanzees’ home under the Milky Way, capturing their little world in the same frame as countless others. The proverbial stars aligned around Labor Day; I volunteered to watch the sanctuary at night in place of Diana and J.B. (who took a much-deserved weekend vacation) and was lucky enough to have a clear, moonless night during my tenure as the overnight watchman.

I set out just after sunset and admired the silhouettes of the forested hills against the rose-colored sky. Eventually, the scene darkened and rendered the Milky Way visible with the naked eye. I trekked around the perimeter of Young’s Hill, trying not to annoy the nearby cattle with my headlamp or step on any nocturnal critters that might be lurking in the prairie grass. Eventually, I picked a good location where the Ponderosa pines made a natural frame around my window into the cosmos.

I wondered if any of the chimps were still awake or if all sixteen were blissfully curled up on piles of fleece blankets in the heated playrooms. From what we’ve seen, they’re mostly heavy sleepers. (Burrito, for example, picks his sleeping spot right after dinner is served.) Still, it’s possible they occasionally venture out into the greenhouses long after the humans have left and watch the Milky Way turn overhead as the coyotes yip in the distance.

We humans know what the stars are but that doesn’t make them any less wonderful. I like to think the chimps are awestruck by them, too.

The following are my favorite images from my nocturnal hike around the sanctuary. I hope you all enjoy them!

“Blue hour” sunlight illuminated one of the sanctuary’s several ponds.
The sunset provided a fitting backdrop for the silhouettes of trees scorched by past wildfires.
This 15-second exposure shows one arm of the Milky Way galaxy over the new wing of the sanctuary’s Chimp House
You can see the fences of Young’s Hill, the chimps’ outdoor habitat, in the foreground of this 15-second exposure.
A Starlink satellite crossed the frame during this 20-second exposure taken behind Young’s Hill.
I tilted the lens upward for this 15-second exposure that shows three of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites. There are currently ~1600 of them orbiting the Earth, with thousands more to be launched soon.
This 15-second exposure shows the light pollution from nearby Ellensburg, the largest city in our county. It also captured the star Enif (known as the “front hoof” in the Pegasus constellation) and the lights of a passenger plane leaving Seattle. (Note: the blinking red light on the plane’s left wing and white light on the tail tell you the plane was traveling from right to left when this image was taken.)
Bonus Photo: the smoke from the 100,000-acre Schneider Springs fire drifted towards our valley over Labor Day weekend, creating a gnarly afternoon sky.

 

 

 

Everybody Loves Dora

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Humans and chimps all really do love Dora, who wouldn’t! As I walked by the front rooms I found Rayne and Dora playing. Eventually, Lucky wanted to join the fun. Dora may be teeny tiny, but she can hold her own if she needs to! Dora may be small, but she sure is mighty!

After the play session Lucky needed to rest.

Cy guy <3. I think Cy has stolen everyone’s heart in this chimp house. I truly have never met a chimp sweeter than Cy.

Missy spying on the neighbors, while wearing a stylish grape sock.

Burrito being his perfect self!

And Jamie! She built this incredibly cozy, comfy, HUGE nest and then tucked herself in.

 

 

Can’t Help Falling In Love (With Fall)

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For those of you who aren’t acquainted with this slang term, a “basic” person has uninteresting interests.

To be fair, being labeled as basic isn’t necessarily bad. Basic things are, by definition, quite popular.

In a way, basic people are anti-hipsters. Rather than having eclectic or unique tastes, they enjoy activities that are universally-liked by everyone else. The cliché basic person is a 20-something educated female who listens to Taylor Swift, uses TikTok, watches The Office, and drinks pumpkin spice lattes in August. Oddly, a common stereotype is that these people all LOVE autumn and anything even loosely associated with the season. (Of course, fall is also the perfect time to show off a diverse collection of flannel shirts and take artsy photos of fallen leaves.)

While the term has only been applied to humans, I’d like to argue that even chimps can be basic.

For example, Negra’s hobbies include eating spring grass, eating peanuts and chow, watching the caregivers work, and napping peacefully on high platforms. None of these interests are avant-garde, and Negra seems totally fine with that. She doesn’t want to be surprised, shocked, or inconvenienced; she just wants to enjoy the simple, familiar pleasures. She’s basic to the core and seems to be proud of it.

Perhaps the world would be a better place if we were all, like Negra, comfortable with our own basicness.

I’m sure that if Negra had her own Instagram, she’d be posting selfies of herself enjoying the cool autumn breeze under a pile of fleece blankets today. Since she doesn’t have her own social media, I decided to post on her behalf today.

 

#PumpkinSpice #FallMeMaybe #FallmostHere #AutumnVibes #FleeceBlankets #Basic

Up Close and Personal

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It will be a little while still before we are able to construct the two larger outdoor areas for Lucky’s group and Honey B’s group (we’re planning to begin this fall). In the meantime, Lucky, Cy, Gordo, Dora, Rayne, and Terry got their chance to explore “the chute”, which is a short tunnel that will connect their playroom, greenhouse, and other enclosures to the open-top enclosure to be known as The Bray. The chute may not seem like the most exciting thing in the world but any new space is fun to explore. And we’ll let you in on a secret – while people love to see chimps in large outdoor habitats, many captive-reared chimps seem to prefer overhead tunnels to almost anything else! That’s why we should always strive to provide them with variety and the ability to choose.

The two groups from the Wildlife Waystation are used to living near other groups of chimps – and lions and wolves, for that matter. So living within sight of a new group of chimpanzees is no big deal. But the chimps in Jamie’s group went without seeing other chimps for decades and as a result they react a bit differently at first. As in, they go a bit crazy. This is not the first they’ve seen of Lucky’s group, but it’s closer than what they’re used to and it was cause for some alarm and a lot of excitement. The group’s anxiety was short-lived and soon Burrito was angling for the attention of some new playmates-at-a-distance and Jody was flirting with the new boys in town.

The first order of business this morning was to patrol Young’s Hill. Negra, as always, stayed behind, as did Annie on this occasion. But the others set out as a group around the perimeter of their 2-acre habitat. Meanwhile, Lucky’s group took their breakfast to the top of the chute and wondered what all the fuss was about.

Foraging

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Now that it’s cooled off a bit, the chimps in Negra’s group are spending a little more time on the hill. We started the day with a breakfast forage, which lured Negra out of her nest and into the great outdoors.

After spending a considerable amount of time foraging, she decided to take the remainder of her breakfast to go and made her way back to the comfort of her greenhouse nest.

Burrito and Jamie also stuffed their mouths with fruit, including apples from our very own orchard that Diana picked the other night.

This is a good example of why we don’t forage all of the chimps’ meals – there’s just no controlling how much each will get! There’s a good chance Jamie’s got some food in her feet as well. I guess it takes a lot of calories to fuel all those walks around the hill.

Missy, who will turn 46 on Monday, set out to demonstrate that age has no bearing one’s athletic abilities.

Jody agreed, adding that she had never been very athletic, even when she was younger.

Nevertheless, she eventually made it to the top of Negra’s cabin to search for more treats.

Annie sought a bird’s eye view of the action.

Later, Jamie, Burrito, Missy, and I went for a walk around the hill, stopping momentarily to reenact the scene from the original Charlie’s Angels poster.

For a short while, Burrito led the way. Nothing keeps this guy down for long.

Jody caught up to us at the top of the hill, but broke away soon after to snack on a few wild rose hips.

We have a quick favor to ask: The chimps are once again running low on blankets, so we’d love it if you would consider donating a few from our wish list. Annie would be most grateful…and so would we! (Edit 8/21: The blankets have all been purchased off of our wish list – thank you all!)