northwest

Chimpanzee Strength

January 16, 2016 by Diana

Chimpanzees are naturally incredibly strong. This physical strength, combined with their tendency towards sudden aggression that J.B. touched on in his blog post yesterday, cautions humans who work around chimpanzees to be very, very careful. This is why when you do a quick internet search on “chimpanzee muscle strength,” the resulting articles are often tied to a report on a human who was attacked by a chimpanzee.

The text of this article from 2012 after an attack is particularly helpful in providing information about why chimpanzees are so strong, explaining that the muscle fibers closest to the bones are much longer and more dense in chimpanzees than humans, presumably making those muscles much more powerful.

When the chimpanzees arrived at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest in 2008, their muscles were atrophied or had never fully developed from lack of use, but all of the chimpanzees were still stronger (in many ways) than any of us humans could ever hope to be.

Jody Before — Jody on the day she arrived at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

I often wonder what it felt like to use those muscles exploring their new sanctuary home. To feel them engage while running and climbing and displaying, and then to feel their strength building over time.

It must have felt both strange and exhilarating.

Here’s a tribute to respecting chimpanzee strength with some muscle shots of each of the chimpanzees at the sanctuary:

Annie’s shoulders:

We got a clear view of Burrito’s chest muscles after he was shaved for his medical exam this past summer:

Even petite Foxie has incredible upper body strength:

Hanging like this doesn’t take much effort at all by Jamie:

Jody’s certainly not the most athletic chimpanzee, but, when motivated, she uses those muscles to get her where she wants to go:

Same with Negra – she doesn’t tend to exert any more energy than necessary, but she’s pretty buff even under her more “squishy” parts:

And then there’s Missy, who uses her muscles, particularly her strong legs, as often as she can:

Who’s in charge?

January 15, 2016 by J.B.

One of the first things you realize when you begin working with chimps is that you are not in charge. We humans may have larger brains, but believe me, the chimps are just not that impressed.

On a good day, they graciously allow us into their world as friends or playmates. On a bad day, we are unwilling participants (usually the victim) in their constantly unfolding social dramas. But most of the time we are merely spectators, forced to watch impotently from the sidelines.

Fights are a good example of this. If you’ve worked with chimps for a while, you can forget what it was like to witness your first fight – the piercing screams, bodies leaping and rolling and flailing across the enclosure, the huge canine teeth bared for all to see. The first time you see it, you wonder if anyone will come out alive. But after a while, you get used to it, and you start to differentiate between regular squabbles and the more serious fights based on the tenor of the screams alone. You get so immune to it, in fact, that during minor fights you don’t even bother looking up from your computer until you notice a new volunteer breaking out in tears and wondering how a group of people so heartless and unsympathetic could have ever been placed in charge of a sanctuary.

The thing is, even if we wanted to intervene in a fight, there’s not a whole lot we could do. When chimps are fighting, they are intensely focused on the task at hand. When the potential for a life-threatening fight is high, as the case may be during social introductions, caregivers might try to break up a fight by spraying the chimps with a hose or firing a CO2 extinguisher into the air with the hope that the noise will distract them just long enough to get them separated. But most of the time, all we can do is stand by and assess the damage.

We often joke that it’s the chimps that run the sanctuary, not us, but there’s more than a bit of truth to that idea. Within these walls, we have no choice sometimes but to play by their rules.

Sunny Spirits

January 14, 2016 by Anna

This morning as we shoveled a pathway to one of the platforms on Young’s Hill, I could tell it was going to be well worth the effort. The sun was so warm and comforting that I knew there would be chimpanzees out on the hill the moment I gave them access to it. There is a certain infectious energy that spreads around the building when the weather is nice. The humans and chimpanzees alike thrive with this kind of atmosphere.

This morning a line quickly formed and everyone but Burrito (who later followed) and Negra (who basked in the greenhouse sun instead) were out on the hill at once.

They all headed for the closest platform.

Missy took up post at the top of the ladder with Jamie, Annie and Foxie underneath.

Missy:

Jamie:

Jody spent a lot of her time on the ground eating snow. Here she sports a relaxed facial expression with a very drooped lip (classic Jody face).

Missy and Annie were last to come in for lunch because they were too busy spending time together on Young’s Hill. Here’s to great moods and more sunshine in 2016!

The Winter’s Calm for One Chimpanzee

January 9, 2016 by Diana

I think that of all of the seven chimpanzees at the sanctuary, Annie could be described as most like a poet. She can frequently be seen in serene moments by herself, seemingly lost in thought.

Today, while I was busy filming Missy in the greenhouse, I realized that Annie had been outside for quite some time alone, so I ventured into the snow to see what she was up to.

To highlight her inner poetic nature, I found this poem to pair with the photos of Annie below:

Winter is the slow-down
Winter is the search for self
Winter gives the silence you need to listen
Winter goes gray so you can see your own colors…
~Terri Guillemets