Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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Try Something New Today

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Jamie decided that she would start Year Two on Young’s Hill by trying some new things. She started by testing out a small structure we built this summer.

Then she moved on to the bamboo. I don’t know if it’s a difference in skill or just a difference in weight, but Missy made it much higher before the whole thing toppled over.

Either way, she seemed to be having fun.

Earlier this summer, when Ben and the Boy Scouts were building the new bridge, I put up some log posts around the enclosure. Some of the logs were far too heavy to lift with our tractor, so I cut them up into smaller pieces and made little stumps for the chimps to sit on. Brilliant idea, J.B., I thought to myself, as I patted myself on the back. And then three months went by without the chimps even looking in their direction.

Well, today was the day that stumps became cool. Everybody was doing it. First up was Foxie:

Then Annie:

And then, farther down the hill, Missy and Annie together:

The chimps are funny that way. They require you to be patient.

When we built Young’s Hill, I had dreams of the chimps going out in the morning and not coming back until evening. But they weren’t ready for that. To them, Young’s Hill is an exciting playground, a wide open space that is both exhilarating and frightening. But they can only take so much excitement before they retreat to the greenhouse to relax in the comfort of something more familiar to them.

Over the last year, they’ve pushed their boundaries and conquered some of their fears. Each day they try something new.

This morning, a year and a day after going outside for the first time, the chimps went out onto the hill in a group and many of them didn’t come back until lunch time.

That’s progress.

Wildfire update

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Just a quick update to let you know that the sanctuary is not in any danger from the wildfires currently burning across Washington State. However, the fires are creating hazardous air quality in some areas, including around the sanctuary on occasion. During these times, we have been keeping the chimpanzees indoors with the ventilation system recirculating and filtering the indoor air. Fluctuations in local weather patterns mean that the smoke conditions can change by the hour. Thankfully, the chimps are able to go outside most of the time.

Our thoughts are with the people affected by the current wildfires, including the heroic firefighters. For once, we are really looking forward to winter.

 

 

Objects of Desire

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First of all, I would like to direct your attention to the right side of this page. If you scroll down, past the announcements and look just past the e-newsletter sign-up, you will see a newly added feature to our blog! You can now plug your email address into that box over the “subscribe” button, click “subscribe,” then check your email. You should receive a notice from wordpress.com very quickly (check your spam folder if it doesn’t show up in a few minutes), then you just follow the directions in that email and, voila – you’ll receive blog posts by email as soon as they are posted! And there’s a button right at the bottom of the email when you get a blog post to click in order to comment on the post. It’s pretty cool. You should try it out.

Now, I’d like to direct your attention to Jamie…

Jamie’s love of boots shows no signs of fading. As we’ve mentioned before, her favorite pair switches frequently. Because I’ve had a cold, I haven’t been in the chimp house much in the last couple of weeks, so I wasn’t sure which pair were at the top of her favorite list. When I saw the tall wooden heel of a new pair, I suspected those were her current loves. I was correct, as you can see by the photos below:

Jamie hugging boot 1
Jamie hugging boot 2
Jamie hugging boot 4
Jamie hugging boot 3

Our not-quite-alpha male

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It’s amazing how much Burrito has changed in his time here at the sanctuary. When Burrito arrived, he was afraid of everything. And who could blame him…he was taken from his mother shortly after birth, put into a biomedical research study as an infant, then raised as a pet in someone’s home, and then sent off to perform in a circus. After all that, he was forced to spend 20 years in a lab cage as a hepatitis vaccine research subject. He never learned to be a chimp, and that left him with an extreme lack of confidence in social situations. But he has grown so much over the past four years.

This morning, the chimps rushed out onto Young’s Hill to face off with a dangerous intruder. OK…it wasn’t so much a dangerous intruder as it was a couple of puppies barking from our neighbor’s property. But the chimps were on high alert! In the past, Burrito might have hung back and let Jamie and some of the other girls take care of things. But this morning, Burrito was determined to be part of the team.

For Burrito, this was not the most comfortable situation. First, he had to venture to the very top of Young’s Hill, an area he has only been to a couple of times. Second, he had to do this with everyone else in a state of high arousal. When chimps are in a state of high arousal, group dynamics can be fluid and unpredictable. Aggression towards someone else can easily be directed back at you if you aren’t careful.

Burrito seemed determined not to let that stop him. But before he went up the hill, he needed some reassurance, which Missy was happy to provide.

This is a typical reassurance interaction. Burrito stands bipedal and waits for Missy to approach. The two hug, and then quickly extend their arms over each other and groom each others backsides.

After the barking stopped, Burrito continued to walk around the top of the hill. When he needed more reassurance, Foxie was there to give him a hug.

It’s important to note that reassurance like this is not just hugs and kisses between friends. When Burrito is in a state of high arousal, he is a loose cannon. In addition to lending their friend a helping hand, the girls are trying to diffuse a potentially dangerous situation.

A calm Burrito is in everyone’s best interest.

Link to King 5 story from today

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Here is the link to the King 5 story that just aired: http://bit.ly/PyfMes

and here’s a photo of that sad relic from the fire:

burned troll doll

We are so grateful to the firefighters for all they did making sure everyone was safe and for all of our volunteers and supporters who have gotten us through the last few weeks in so many ways. I think the burned but still smiling troll doll will be a reminder of the fire for years to come.

Chimps back on Young’s Hill

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We opened the door to let the chimps back onto Young’s Hill for the first time since the Taylor Bridge Fire hit the sanctuary property on August 13th. Gary Chittim and Ken Jones from King 5 were here to do a story today. You can see footage of the chimps’ excitement and steps out on the hill on King 5 News at 6:30pm in Seattle and online after the story airs (we’ll be sure to share the link once it’s on the web).

The chimpanzees  haven’t been asking to go out much since the fire, which is a surprise, since they generally “remind us” in the mornings to open the door by standing by it and getting our attention or luring us over and sticking their fingers through the caging where the door opens.

J.B. and volunteers Brian and John have worked to clean up the hill by removing burned logs, reinforcing a damaged fence post, and dragging (tilling, in effect) the charred ground that covered half of the enclosure. J.B. found a sad relic on the hill that Gary Chittim will show on the King 5 broadcast tonight.

All of the staff joined in a final check of the hill yesterday afternoon so we were ready and anxious to give the chimps access after setting up a breakfast forage.

The chimps mostly stuck to the unburned areas.

Below is a photo of Jamie bringing a wrench out with her on to the hill. Maybe J.B. forgot to fix something?

Jamie with wrench

 

And here she is with the burned ground in the background:

jamie yh burned ground background

 

Annie did inspect the burned grass a bit:

annie exploring burned grass

 

And Missy ventured into the starkness of the top of the hill that was charred in the fire. You can see a ring of green grass coming up – that’s where the underground irrigation lines run to water the bamboo. We lost about half of the smaller bamboo in the fire:

missy on burned ground