northwest

We’ve come a long way, baby!

May 27, 2010 by Jackie

In November 2008, volunteer Dakotta, of the High Mountain Sustainable Project, and myself came out to build the sanctuary compost boxes in preparation for a garden in the future.

The ground around the perimeter fence is nothing but fill dirt. But, in spring of 2009, we got serious and 96 wheelbarrow loads of compost, manure and top soil later…

And man o’ man, was last year’s garden successful!

But it just keeps getting better! This year, we’ve built up the trails around the beds so that the soil stays nice and warm. We are also in the process of tearing down the straw compost boxes and replacing them with wooden ones.

We’ve also added more beds around the south side of the building so that the chimps can get a closer view of what’s growing in their garden!

Royal City’s Cloudview Ecofarms have donated tons of starts for this years garden, including broccoli, kale, cabbage, onions, and lettuce.

Because of all of our hard work this year, I am now officially calling myself, Dakotta, JB, and volunteer Denice the “Garden Committee”. With the help of all these individuals, we’ve landscaped the area around the chimps’ outdoor area, which will soon also include more garden beds of fast-growing veggies, like carrots, lettuce, kale, etc…

Can’t wait to show you all the finished product! We’ve come a LONG, LONG way, baby!! Thanks so much Dakotta, JB, Denice, the awesome folks at Cloudview Ecofarms, and everyone one else that has contributed. You guys are awesome and are helping us provide the chimps with fresh (and enriching) food!

Photos of the day

May 25, 2010 by J.B.

Sperm Competition

May 18, 2010 by J.B.

If you watched the video from the previous blog post, you may have some questions about a certain part of the male chimpanzee anatomy. Think of this post as Everything You Wanted to Know About Chimp Testicles, But Were Afraid to Ask.

Burrito is not unique – male chimpanzees have rather large testicles compared to other apes. And there’s a very interesting explanation for this. Most people are familiar with the concept of males competing for access to females. For example, male gorillas will compete for control over a harem of females – whoever controls the harem has primary mating access. But female chimpanzees will regularly mate with multiple males during estrus (see this recent article for an interesting take on chimp mating behavior). Therefore, much of the competition between males takes place between their sperm within the female’s reproductive tract.

If you think of mating as a lottery, with the prize being a fertilized egg, then whoever can produce the most sperm is essentially buying the most lottery tickets. And whoever has more tickets has a better chance of winning. There are also other forms of sperm competition besides this sperm “arms race”. Chimpanzees also produce sperm plugs (also called copulatory plugs). After mating, some of the semen will coagulate to plug up the cervix, so that sperm from future mating (with other males) will be less likely to reach the egg.

So for chimpanzees, it pays to produce a lot of semen, and that requires large testicles. Now you know!