Play

A Little Peace of Spring

May 3, 2024 by Ellen Brady-McGaughey

Today has been quite the perfect spring day at the sanctuary. The day started with Negra at the front of the line for the door to Young’s Hill, ready to lead her group to forage for grass on the hill, so I had a feeling today was going to be a great day. Annie and Burrito stayed outside foraging for those tasty spring grasses right up until breakfast was served, as did Gordo, and the sanctuary was quiet save for the sounds of staff preparing for the day.

We have all enjoyed a steady breeze and plenty of sunshine, and had forages for both groups during lunch. There has been plenty of play – among the chimps and between chimps and humans – with chimp laughter and the sounds of stomping feet during games of chase filling the chimp house. Today has been a perfect example of some of the things that bring me compassion satisfaction: the quiet moments of contentment among the chimps, hearing breathy chimpanzee laughter as they play with each other, getting to see them enjoy new enrichment items, and being invited to play with them. I also found myself feeling extremely grateful for this place that the chimpanzees and cattle get to call home as I watched the grass sway, listened to the aspen leaves shake against each other in the wind, and appreciated the beauty of the river and mountains in the distance. I hope the video and pictures from the day can convey a little bit of the peace we all felt today, and bring you happiness wherever you are as well.

Burrito and Annie foraging for grass

Burrito with a handful of freshly picked grass

Moment of Zen

April 27, 2024 by Sabrina

There’s nothing we at CSNW love more than a nice, peaceful day in the Chimp House. And lucky for us the group of nine blessed us with one this week. In today’s video enjoy breakfast, mid-morning grooming sessions and pre-dinner play time with Cy’s group.

How do you know when Burrito wants to play?

April 21, 2024 by Diana

We are always thinking about how we portray the chimpanzees. It’s easy to forget that our videos and social media posts reach people who don’t know much about the sanctuary, or sometimes much about chimpanzees in captivity in general.

When I was starting to put together today’s video, I had that in mind, and instead of just sharing a charming and playful Burrito, I decided to put some context around my interaction with him.

What do you think?

A Special Game of Tug

April 5, 2024 by Ellen Brady-McGaughey

One of the most special parts of my job as a caregiver is being able to build relationships with the chimpanzees. This can be a slow process, with most of the first steps being them testing you and seeing how you react to things they do. Sometimes these things are not so pleasant for you, like poking at items you are serving, spitting at you, jumping at the caging to try to startle you, or even throwing poop. But all of that is so worth it for the friendships to come. It is incredibly rewarding when they start to let their walls down with you, and you start to get to see the chimpanzee person behind the tough exterior they first put up.

When I was first starting as a caregiver here, I admittedly struggled with “being the new guy” with the chimps more than I had expected. I had worked with many chimps as a caregiver at Chimp Haven, and had helped to welcome in many new residents to the sanctuary over my years there so working through those initial steps of relationship building was not new to me, and the hazing by the chimps was to be expected. But a big difference, which I quickly noticed, was that I was greatly missing my reliable, constant friendships that I had built over years of working with specific chimpanzee friends. I could always count on having a grooming session with Keeli, Maxi’s excitement when I showed up to train with her, and a good game of chase with Hamlet, but now I was working to build new friendships without those old ones to lean on, and remind me of all that is to come.

But thankfully, the weeks and now months have passed by quickly, and while I do still miss my old friends, I remain very excited for all of the new relationships I have and continue to build with my friends here. There is something extra special (as I mentioned in a previous blog post), about being able to have safe ways to touch and be touched by the chimpanzees that has allowed for an even greater level of trust and friendship that I have not been able to experience before.

I don’t want to spoil anything in the video for you, so you’ll have to go there to see who I got to share a few extra special moments with recently! I’m so grateful to be here, and to be able to build friendships with these very special chimpanzee people.

Bonus photos from the day:

Honey B resting in Riverview

Jamie flipping through an extra large magazine sent by a donor – it was a HUGE hit!!

Negra napping in her nest after a busy morning

Ain’t No Foolin’

April 2, 2024 by Chad de Bree

Happy Day After April Fools Day! Hopefully nobody pranked any of you too bad!

I apologize for this very brief blog! Caregivers had their biweekly staff meeting, and today’s went a wee bit longer than anticipated. So please forgive me.

I do have photos though! I hope they paint a better picture of today than any words I could conjure up!

Negra

Of course a morning snack of grass was to be had!

Missy

Can you find the trespasser in this photo?

Crow

Jamie

Foxie

Annie

Burrito

Rayne

Mave

Friday Festivities

March 29, 2024 by Ellen Brady-McGaughey

I am usually lead caregiver on Fridays, and part-time caregiver Krissy and I have come to love celebrating Fridays, or Fri-YAYs as we call them. It is a lovely reminder each week of how lucky we are to be here, and to celebrate the little moments we get to share in each day with the chimps. Today was no exception, and we celebrated with some gatorade pools for the chimps, as well as a forage on Young’s Hill at lunch.

The weather was perfect today, with the sun shining and a slight breeze. The chimps were all in a great mood, and there was lots of chimp laughter that could be heard throughout the chimp house.

Enjoy today’s video from our Fri-YAY celebrations, and some bonus photos included below. I hope you all have enjoyed just as lovely of a day as we have!

Negra at the gatorade pool

Jamie at the gatorade pool

Handsome Cy relaxing

All Play and No Work Makes an Interesting Day

March 21, 2024 by Chad de Bree

A recent study conducted by researchers from Tufts University and Harvard University analyzed play and its importance in wild chimpanzees from Kibale National Forest. They found when food is scarce, adult chimpanzees cease to play with other adults. Adults in the wild are not inherently prone to play as is, so this finding wasn’t too surprising for researchers. What they did find interesting was though adults stop playing with other adults and focus on survival during hard times to find food, mothers will continue to play with their offspring even though they too are in a struggle to find food.

Play is important to chimpanzees, especially for the children. Playing with not just others in their same age bracket, playing with adults help juveniles to build social skills as well as it’s just a good form of exercise. This finding mirrors the what has been found in humans. Play with their parents is important to children. By playing with parents at a very early age, children, both human and chimpanzee, learn what is socially acceptable as play and the correct way to interact with others.

Though play amongst adults in the wild is sparse, in captivity, it is a whole different story. As you know, the chimpanzees here love to play, both with each other and their human caregivers. It is one way they manage their relationship with each other. Some even use play as a way to reconcile after a fight. Granted things would probably be completely different had they been able to be born in the wild and raised by their mothers. That is a scenario I earnestly wish was the scenario even though I would not be here today had that been the case. You would be hard pressed to find any sanctuary caregiver who wouldn’t wish they didn’t have their job if that meant those in their care were born wild and free. Reality, however, stinks sometimes. I can’t ignore the fact this is their lives.

Diana once wrote about the internal struggle caregivers face caring for chimpanzees. Though we love our jobs in taking care of them in a setting away from biomedical testing, we can’t help but feel a sadness that this is it. They won’t be able to travel miles upon miles a day. The won’t be able to fission off and go on adventures with those whom they choose from a community anywhere from 10 to 200 individuals, and return to the group at large when they wish. That is why enrichment is a crucial component in caring for captive chimpanzees. It helps provide variety and entertainment. It helps break up the monotony from day to day.

That being said, I hope you enjoy the video of some of the ways the chimpanzees are kept busy. And yes! I am over the moon Missy has decided to play with me more. I used to only get one good interaction with her a year. Two if I am really lucky. In fact, Missy has just been playing with everybody more; both chimpanzee and human. Not naming names, but there is one individual who seems jealous when she does decide to play with me and other caregivers.

Second note about the video. YES! That is indeed Honey B you see out on the Bray. Though it was a disagreement with Gordo that brought her out there, it was her own free will that kept her outside. All together she was outside a little over 10 minutes, most of which was by herself. There is some hope that she will decide sooner rather than later to go outside with out the chaos of a fight bringing her out there.

Here are some bonus photos from today’s lunch forage on Young’s Hill!

Missy