Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
J.B. took a really good photo of Negra in profile yesterday and turned the photo into a silhouette. Last night I dreamed of creating the image below. I could try to make this an educational or thought-provoking post about evolution and facial features, but the truth is I just like the image. It looks especially good on a black background. Maybe this should be our next t-shirt…
Missy tends to speed up in the winter. I think she knows she won’t be able to stay outside as long so she has to cram all of her activities into ten-minute bursts.
Yesterday, she ran outside and immediately started to climb all of the structures.
Then she jumped off of them.
While climbing a structure at the top of the hill, she noticed something.
Ice is somewhat of a delicacy for chimps and Missy is good at finding it.
Of course, wherever there’s a Missy, there’s an Annie close behind, trying to catch up.
I love Jamie. I love how smart and inquisitive she is. I love that sometimes she gets a glint in her eye and I just have to wonder what exactly she’s up to. I love that she likes to use tools, even to groom her caregivers or hunt snakes. I love that she makes quiet moaning sounds when she is doing something she really enjoys (here’s a really old video that demonstrates that). I love how she watches us not-so-clever humans set out food puzzles or after dinner treats, and as soon as we open the door to let the chimps in, she approaches the task like a well-rehearsed football play, usually getting the most treats while the other chimps randomly move through the area looking for goodies. I love that she sometimes chooses the complicated course of action. Like today – instead of mundanely walking across the playroom, she climbed up on the white industrial food container and used the caging of the windows and doors to pull herself around the perimeter of the room.
I love her intense love of boots. On Wednesday, I gave a presentation about the chimps to the Rotary Club of Yakima Sunrise. I dressed up more than I normally do and wore some boots that I don’t wear very often. When I returned home, I thought I should go up and see Jamie to show her my boots. She was thrilled. Even though I was wearing pants that covered them up, as soon as I walked in the building Jamie ran down the stairs to get a closer look. I pulled up my pant leg to show her the whole boot and she ran to the greenhouse, and then she ran onto Young’s Hill, even though it was pretty chilly outside. I ran all the way around Young’s Hill twice, with her cheating a little bit on her side by bypassing the top of the hill, but meeting me at the bottom again. And she closely inspected the boots when I was back in the human area of the greenhouse.
In yesterday’s blog post, J.B. revealed that Jamie knows a thing or two about throwing poop. And we’ve mentioned in the past about how Jamie is a pretty insecure leader.
I told J.B. today that I was thinking about writing a post about how complicated Jamie is, and he said, “do you mean moody?” I said, yes, but I was going to call it complicated.
Even though it’s not fun to have poop thrown at me, I do love that I never quite know what to expect from Jamie. She might be in a goofy stand on her head mood, or a play all day with Foxie mood, or a no one else is allowed to play mood, or an artistic mood, or a destroy something mood, or a cunning tool-using mood, or a grumpy put you in your place poop throwing mood (sorry, no previous blog post to link to for that one).
She’s not one-dimensional, that’s for sure.
If you love Jamie too, consider supporting Team Jamie!
I recently recorded some footage of Jamie and Negra throwing toys and blankets at each other during a fight, so I thought I’d put together a short video of the different ways the chimps here at the sanctuary throw objects.
Free-living chimpanzees throw objects too. They might throw a large rock or branch into the water, for example, to make a splash as part of their display. Depending on the community, they also throw objects at predator and prey animals, as well as other chimpanzees, like Jamie does in this video.
In captivity, we see a lot of throwing during aggressive or agonistic behavior, for one obvious reason: Captive chimps can’t always physically get to the ones they are directing their aggression towards. This is why we see rock-, dirt-, and feces-throwing directed toward humans outside of the enclosure, and occasionally toward chimpanzees in other enclosures. Spitting works too, but believe me, it does not have the same impact on the recipient as rocks and feces. It’s unfortunate that feces-throwing has become a standard punch line about captive chimps because it’s actually a very intelligent behavior. Disgusting, yes, but also very intelligent. If you are a chimpanzee in captivity, this is the most powerful weapon at your disposal. And Jamie knows that very well.
I am always amazed to hear stories about, and on rare occasions see in person, chimpanzees using objects to test out something dangerous, like Jody does in this video. In this case, it was something truly harmless (a plastic chimpanzee doll) but the chimps also do this sort of thing with real, live snakes. They might throw an object to provoke the thing they are scared of and see how it reacts from a safe distance, or they might do it to see how the object fares during the encounter. In Next of Kin, Roger Fouts recounts the story of a time when Washoe was wary of a new doormat. Instead of stepping on it herself, she threw her doll onto it from a distance and later carefully inspected her doll for damage.
Today was full of play! It’s amazing what a visit from the sun will do.
The relationship between captive chimps and their caregivers is endlessly fascinating. Some chimps are very human oriented, and many even prefer the companionship of humans to that of other chimpanzees. Other chimps couldn’t care less about humans – we’re good for providing food and cleaning up, and that’s about it. Usually, it’s the chimps who were raised by humans who prefer humans, and it’s not hard to see why. We make more sense to them.
Take Burrito for example. He was born in a laboratory in New Mexico and, like many lab chimps, he was taken from his mother shortly after birth and reared in a laboratory nursery. At age 3 1/2, he was shipped to Pennsylvania where he lived in a human home as a pet. Six months later he was leased to Jungle Larry’s circus and a year after that, he was back in a lab cage, where he would remain for another 20 years.
He spent most of his life either alone or with humans. I think it’s a miracle that he can get along in a group of other chimpanzees.
Imagine if it was the other way around…if you were raised in a group of chimpanzees and then two or three decades later you were thrust into a group of humans. You might find that your new office mates don’t appreciate your loud dominance displays, or the way you stick your rear end in someone’s face when you are seeking reassurance.
In the 4 1/2 years that Burrito has been at CSNW, he has matured a lot. He is starting to understand the rules of living in a chimpanzee community. He loves to play with some of the other chimpanzees, and he is even starting to understand his role in the hierarchy. But I think that some human oriented chimps like Burrito feel a sense of relief when interacting with us. They understand us better than they do other chimpanzees. And they know that we won’t get upset or retaliate if they break one of the complex rules that govern life in chimpanzee society. Or maybe Burrito just gets sick of his chimpanzee family. Those reality TV shows always take seven people and stick them in an apartment for a year and that always ends badly.
We’re careful not to overstep our bounds with the chimps, however. Ultimately, we want them to rely on each other for support and in a social system as complex as the chimpanzees’, it takes a lot of work to build those relationships. But from the chimps’ perspective, it’s also good to have a positive relationship with the people you rely on. So we consider these little games of chase and tug-o-war just part of the job.
A few more photos from Thanksgiving day at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest…
Jody enjoyed the sweet potatoes:
Burrito tried to get every last bite of cranberries out of his cup and ended up coloring his face red:
Negra ate her Field Roast Grain Meat in the comfort of a nest:
Speaking of nests, the chimps made some nice ones after their big meal:
Annie was the big winner of the day. She was the only one who noticed that there were nuts and seeds in the decorations, so she quietly gathered them all before anyone else caught on. She also got the Thanksgiving pinata.
You know how can you tell when Foxie is happy with her food? She rubs her toes together.
It’s not hard to tell when Missy is having fun:
