Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Negra weighing the cost of getting out of bed versus the benefit of eating breakfast:
Foxie’s first stroll around the hill:
Negra got plenty of sun today:
Annie preferred the shade:
Jody bringing her lunch forage haul back to the greenhouse:
Annie blowin’ in the wind:
Jamie dissecting a cucumber. Why do the humans keep leaving the peels on?
Jody laying down to eat while watching the rest of her family forage on the hill:
Burrito loves food, but there are times when love doesn’t adequately describe their relationship.
With hands full and mouth stuffed, he retreats,
to a quiet, still place.
In these moments, he looks heavenward in a state of transcendence,
and with each bite slips further the surly bonds of earth and time.
Suffering and desire cease to exist. The boundaries of self begin to dissolve.
In these moments, there is only one thing. There is only food.
Unfortunately, every meal has to come to an end.
A while back we noticed that a black spot had developed on Burrito’s gums behind one of his upper incisors. He would let us examine the spot during positive reinforcement sessions, but because of its location we were never able to conclusively determine what it was. Unfortunately, that meant we had to get him into the clinic. This time, however, we would be using our brand new clinic in Phase 1 of the new expansion.
Any time a chimpanzee is anesthetized, we try to get as much information on their health as we can, so in addition to enlisting the help of our secondary veterinarians, Jen Wallace, DVM and Erika Nelson, DVM, Dr. Erin also invited some specialists.
Stephanie Moore, CRNA, managed Burrito’s anesthesia throughout the procedure.
Lynn Nelson, DVM, DACVIM came all the way from the Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine to do Burrito’s cardiac and abdominal ultrasound. This was her second evaluation of Burrito’s heart.
Diane Carle, DVM, DAVDC and Sara Kessler, LVT from Animal Medical Center of Seattle and Jessica Reed, DVM from Seattle Humane came to take dental x-rays and to do a full dental evaluation and cleaning.
You’ll be glad to hear that everything went great! Dr. Erin removed a small foreign body from Burrito’s gums which should heal in no time. Burrito’s teeth look good and while we’ll have to wait for his full cardiac report, all signs were positive (for a guy of his condition and age, anyway).
The new clinic is larger and better equipped than our mobile unit, and being just steps from the chimps’ indoor enclosures, it is both easier and safer to transport the chimps back and forth.
When procedures are done, we put the chimps back into a recovery room with plenty of blankets to keep them safe and comfortable as the anesthesia wears off. Dr. Erin monitored his heart with a bluetooth stethoscope that records to a phone so that the data can be reviewed and shared.
Curious George kept Burrito company.
Our thanks go out again to everyone who donated to our Phase 1 expansion and to the amazing group of nurses, technicians, and veterinarians who have ensured that Burrito gets the best medical care possible.
Jody was quite busy this morning harvesting plants from a mound on Young’s Hill. This particular mound has been producing more and more edible vegetation each year.
We call Jody “Farmer Jo” mostly because she collects the fruit and vegetable forages that we spread all over the hill and brings her collections in to the greenhouse in large armfuls, but today she was harvesting the natural plants and eating them as she harvested. And she looked quite beautiful while she was doing it.
The chimps are constantly snacking on grass this time of year. Despite having access to two acres of the stuff, the best grass seems to grow just outside the greenhouse, which means that the humans have to do all the work and the chimps don’t have to get up and walk anywhere.
Convenient, isn’t it?
Missy requested a couple of bunches this afternoon and proceeded to make a nest on the greenhouse platform. This is quite common – when the chimps receive something they know they will enjoy, like when Jamie gets a new book or pair of boots, they often choose to make a nest before settling down with their new treat.
Sometimes the chimps shove handfuls of grass into their mouths all at once, while other times they take a more delicate approach, carefully separating each blade from the stem and eating them one by one.
Using their lips and tongue, they fold the blade up like an accordion and swallow it with minimal chewing.
As we’ve mentioned before on this blog, this is very similar to the way some chimps in the wild ingest certain plants for medicinal purposes.
We do routine checks for parasites so it’s unlikely that they are self-medicating the way wild chimps do. But who knows? Maybe its preventive medicine. Or maybe it’s just a snack. Whatever the reason, the prescription is always the same: More of that grass, please.
Things have been quite busy around here lately with construction and the usual springtime projects so like any rational person I prioritized my task list, divided it into manageable pieces, and proceeded to tick them off one by one in a steady and methodical manner. Just kidding. Instead I became consumed with an unrelated and largely unnecessary project: decorating the new sanctuary bathroom!
We decided that the bathroom should be filled with photos of wildlife taken on the sanctuary property so we went about searching through our archives. I enjoyed this so much I thought I’d share them with you. Long-time blog readers will recognize most of them.
Above is a photo of one of a pair of coyotes that built a den in the old irrigation canal just below the sanctuary residence. For a few months we would watch them return to the den with freshly caught rodents and the occasional chicken from our careless neighbor’s house.
Below are a couple of mule deer fawns. The deer on the sanctuary property are unbelievably tame. Some of the does will even challenge our 85-lb pit bull to a fight through the fence, which to my mind seems just a bit reckless. The herd doesn’t travel very far from our 90 acres so we get the pleasure of watching them year after year and seeing them grow up, sometimes to have fawns of their own.
The sanctuary has a number of distinct wetland areas owing to several springs that flow year round. In an area that doesn’t receive any measurable rain for the summer months, these become oases for many species. But some animals have discovered the benefits of moving into the irrigated gardens surrounding the chimp house. This guy found a perfectly nice grape leaf that gets a light rain every night from 2:00 to 2:15 a.m. As long as he doesn’t go in the chimp house, it’s the perfect set up. If he goes in, he will be Negra’s dinner.
The fence posts and wildfire sprinklers around the chimp house are popular spots for many birds like this blue bird pair. Here, the male sings his song and boasts of his athleticism and his many achievements.
Some birds take up residence in our barns, like the pigeons, swallows, and this fledgling Steller’s jay who wasn’t angry that I was taking his photo, just disappointed.
The sanctuary’s compost system is now the Grand Central Terminal to a vast network of ground squirrel tunnels. In the spring they are lithe and svelte. After a few months of compost scraps this guy is going to need to widen his tunnel.
The skies are always filled with raptors, including bald eagles and red-tailed hawks, keeping us under constant surveillance.
No collection of sanctuary wildlife photos would be complete without a photo our beloved and not-so-wild friend, Ellie.
And while cows aren’t wildlife, we’re using the term loosely to mean “not chimps”. Betsy, Honey, Meredith, and Nutmeg are the first four cows to call our sanctuary home and will soon be moving the lush, green pastures surrounding Young’s Hill. We’ll see how they get along with the chimps.
There are a number of animals on the property that we haven’t yet photographed, like cougars, bobcats, and bears, who are typically more elusive. But the plump hoary marmot that lives beneath the front porch of the upper cattle barn is just begging for his picture to be taken. We’ll have to find some room in the foyer for the rest of our wildlife family.
This morning, volunteers Rose, Ray, and Fred set out an early lunch forage for the chimps. Negra spent much of her time on the Escher climbing structure – I don’t know if she has a special fondness for this structure or if she just thinks we put more food up there. Either way, it’s great to see Negra climbing so high and enjoying the sun.
Afterwards she showed that in spring you don’t always have to rely on humans for your food. There’s plenty of wild lettuce out here, thank you very much.
Jamie was deep in dreamland after the forage (no doubt dreaming about boots and books and books filled with boots) when she was awoken by some activity out back.
These people look like they need to be supervised.
The welders had arrived with some of the caging that is being installed next week.
While we are still several weeks away from having the new chimp areas up and running, we have already begun putting the human areas of Phase 1 to use. Here’s a shot of the foyer which houses the computer workstation and break areas. I can’t tell you how exciting it is to have so much space after working for over a decade out of a one-room kitchen/laundry/enrichment/office workspace.
More important than the new foyer is the new clinic, which has twice the square footage of our mobile unit and includes much more storage space.
Once everything is done, we’ll put together a video tour of the whole facility. And then it’s on to Phases 2 and 3!
