Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary for primates.

primate protection

man of mystery

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If you tuned in yesterday, you read that Willy B has been asserting his desire to disrupt the routine and, instead of shifting for meals, he has one thing on his mind – keeping tabs on the neighbors, we suspect Annie in particular.

Today was a continuation of this trend. Anna, J.B. and I put our heads together yesterday to attempt to problem solve and try to give Willy B what he wants but also ensure we are able to clean their house.

I think I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago, but I have a blog post percolating in my brain all about how much of what we do in caring for captive chimpanzees is balancing different aspects of welfare and safety.

I don’t know if I’ll ever write that grand post. There’s a hundred examples of this sometimes difficult balancing that we do throughout each day. Rarely are there clear right or wrong answers.

Willy B’s new defiance to the routine illustrates several examples.

Because of the construction happening right now that will give Willy B, Mave, and Honey B more space and variety, we decided to not give them access to the courtyard when construction workers are on site.

There are a few reasons we landed on that decision, but mainly it was about safety. Willy B is still getting used to the courtyard and Honey B and Mave are still curious but not curious enough to take steps outside. The Courtyard is right next to where the construction is taking place. We certainly don’t want any incidents while strangers are in the vicinity.

So, this means that Willy B’s Courtyard time has been lessened and we aren’t actively working on encouraging Mave and Honey B to be adventurous, but rather leaving it up to them for the time being.

Also, the Courtyard was a bit of a quick construction project. It’s not their final outdoor space, rather it’s a stop-gap that we created after the integrations didn’t work out so that Willy B, Mave, and Honey B could have an open-top outdoor space while we continue to work on the expansion for them and for another group of chimpanzees coming from Wildlife Waystation.

In order to create the space quickly, there’s just one electric fence running between the Courtyard and the rest of Young’s Hill – the outdoor habitat that the group of seven access. With just one fence between them, we don’t have both groups outside at the same time. This means we have to balance the needs, desires, and welfare of each of the individuals in the two groups when allocating outdoor access.

This is temporary. Both groups will one day have large open-top habitats, but right now we have to work with what we have. And there’s always the possibility of Mave and Honey B never (or take years to) get accustomed to the big open outdoors. So, part of our future plans include a large enclosed outdoor space too. Balancing. Balancing.

Our routine lately has been going along swimmingly for the most part. There was that one day a couple of weeks ago when Willy B decided to camp outside. Anthony’s post that day covers some of this same material I’m relaying here. At the time, that incident was an anomaly and didn’t impact the cleaning routine. Willy B’s decisions this week, however, are putting a wrench in the routine.

Today, I opened up the Chute first thing in the morning, hoping that Willy B would get his fill of monitoring the other group / watching Annie, and would then come in for breakfast so we could clean. I realized at the time, of course, that this was wishful thinking. He chose not to shift for breakfast. And today Honey B decided to join him in his keeping-the-humans-on-their-toes mission. Mave had a fabulous breakfast and was in high spirits all day, inviting the humans to play chase whenever she could catch our eye.

Based on Willy B and Honey B’s decision, I changed up the routine a bit, eventually closing Willy B in the Chute so that we could clean all of the front rooms. Happily for everyone, it was a beautiful sunny day, and he was quite content napping at the top of the Chute.

With the construction crew off, I decided to wait until after lunch to open up the Courtyard so that Willy B could have some extra time out there, if he chose.

He chose.

Anna and I took turns hanging outside with him most of the afternoon.

It wasn’t so much that he wanted to be in the Courtyard as he did not want us to eliminate the option of him being in the Courtyard, so the few times Anna or I approached the controls to close the door, he would move from the Chute to the Courtyard.

It was nice to be able to give him this choice and it allowed me to do a little photo study of this man of mystery.

Eventually, he let Anna close the door and he came inside just before dinner. Whew!

I had a decision to make now. It was right before dinner, but the seven hadn’t been outside on the hill since this morning. They probably would have been just fine getting dinner and ending the day, which would make things easier on the humans. On the other hand, if they could have twenty minutes or so of outside time, that would be nice.

You can probably guess what I decided to do.

The question now was whether Jamie would allow me to close the hill after dinner. Jamie is controlling by nature and often chooses when the caregivers go home by sitting in the doorway to the hill, knowing full well that we won’t leave until all of the chimps are inside for the night.

After dinner, Jamie looked at me and ran outside. The gig was up, there would be no closing of the door; we were going to walk. Actually, a walk was not exactly what she had in mind. I had to get the gator from the barn so we could race.

I have to hand it to Jamie, she knows how to end a day.

Willy B also did not want a door closed during dinner – the door to the Chute. Eventually his stomach and curiosity made the decision for him and I closed the door while Anna passed out grab bags.

Now everyone is tucked in and sleeping soundly, and I’m awake-dreaming about the new spaces taking shape for Willy B, Mave, and Honey B and new chimpanzees and all of the ways they will be able to choose to keep the humans on their toes.

Here’s some exciting progress on the construction.

Doors!

Stairs!

Thanks for tuning in to today’s blog! Happy Thanksgiving week to everyone.

Inviting your questions

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This is apparently blog post #5316. This blog is pretty unique. In the beginning, we didn’t know how it would go. To be frank, we didn’t know how anything would go. We just knew we needed people to get involved and donate so that we could care for the chimpanzees, and we had a desire to share the chimpanzees and their stories so people would know what was happening to chimpanzees in the world, particularly those in captivity.

A lot has transpired at the sanctuary and in the world since starting the blog in 2007. A LOT! If we were starting today, I am not sure we would choose to have such a frequent and deep form of communication. It’s really quite a lot of work, and for that reason not the most efficient of marketing tools. But it has become much more than a marketing tool. It’s the diary of Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, and we hear from you readers/followers how much it brings to your lives, particularly when other things in the world are contentious and uncertain.

One thing that I love about the blog is that all of the staff caregivers, past and present, have contributed regularly. Each person has a different perspective with different thoughts rolling around in the back of their brains, and sees different things that the chimpanzees do on any given day; having a variety of writers makes the blog all the more interesting.

Posting daily and including the troubling events like fights and injuries as well as private reflections about the individual chimpanzees and chimpanzees in captivity in general, in addition to the hours of play, foraging, nesting, grooming, and eating that make up the chimpanzees’ day, has naturally lead to a more intimate and transparent look at life in a sanctuary.

I imagine, given unlimited time and resources, each of the caregivers could post multiple times a day. There’s just always something to say about chimpanzees (and bovines too!). I know I’m biased, but I think they are endlessly fascinating and endearing.

I know there are a handful (maybe more than a handful?) of people out there who have gone back and read every single blog post since the very beginning in 2007. That is mind blowing to me. You all are in a exclusive club!

Most people jump in at a specific time and try to catch up, learning about the chimpanzees’ quirks and our plans for the future as each new post is published.

Whether you are new to the blog or are in that exclusive club, I know you have questions.

So, today I invite you to post those questions in the comments – the ones that you’ve been wondering about for a while or the ones you just thought of a second ago.

I will not answer them in the comments, but rather the staff will use the questions to build future blog posts upon. I am not making any promises; we likely won’t get to every question posed to us, but I imagine we will see some trends and your questions will spark future blog posts.

This whole blog experiment has been a rewarding interactive process. I know I’ve met, both virtually and in person, some of the most thoughtful and kind people I will ever meet because they happened upon this blog and fell in love with the chimpanzees.

No doubt many posts have been written based on comments. This is just a more formal process. So, feel free to come back to this post later and pose more questions. I think it will be really interesting to see what you want to know!

In another take on intimacy, you may know that there’s a spot in one of the front rooms that we call the “Portrait Studio” because of the natural light that comes through the window, creating opportunities for photos that bring out the gorgeousness of the chimps. Below are a few I have taken recently.

Jody:

 

Jamie:

And for a slice of today, here are some photos of J.B. giving Anna and I the tour of the expansion in progress, with Honey B and Willy B looking on:

Tuesday is the Big Day + Feeling Good

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First, a reminder to all that Tuesday (just a few days away!) is Giving Day for Apes.

In addition to our main fundraising page, if any one person or group out there wants to create their own fundraising page to raise funds for the sanctuary, you can do that! It’s pretty easy. Just go to our Giving Day for Apes page and click on the big “Fundraise” button and it will walk you though the steps. To see pages that others have created, scroll down on our page and look under “Campaigns supporting this organization.” All donations made on any of those campaigns will go directly to the sanctuary and will be eligible for the cash prizes offered!

Did you go look? Okay, good, now here’s the blog for the day:

Yesterday during the video event with Senator Tom Udall hosted by Animal Protection of New Mexico, animal welfare scientist Dr. Katie Cronin said something that really struck me. She said that having an enrichment program is not about what you provide but rather about how the animals feel about it. This is obviously true and yet somehow profound because it is not historically the way enrichment programs have been talked about or evaluated.

Enrichment is all about engagement and finding things that interest the individuals in your care, so if you give some type of enrichment to an animal and they don’t engage with it all, well, it’s not enriching for them and that means new things should be tried and evaluated.

So, fast forward to today. Kelsi and I were cleaning the greenhouse and I looked up at an eye bolt that Anthony had put under the top platform of the structure last year sometime. I said outloud that we should hang something there, so Kelsi and I talked about it for a bit and she mentioned wanting to get another hay feeder like the one filled with lettuce that Mave and Honey B enjoyed so much recently.

That made a dim light bulb go off in my (above my?) head, and I got to work filling the hay feeder with layers of blankets and lettuce to hang from the aforementioned eye bolt. I admit that I thought I was being quite clever. I had to stand on a step stool to hang the feeder and thought to myself that this was going to be a great challenge for the group of seven.

After letting the group into the greenhouse, I anxiously turned the corner to spy on the chimpanzees to see if they were engaged with the hay feeder. I was presented with a very rewarding scene: Annie was on top of the platform lying down to reach the lettuce and Missy was down below standing as tall as she could to reach the enrichment.

I left, once again feeling very clever.

I returned just a few minutes later, and Missy had solved the puzzle her own way, beating me at any contest for cleverness.

Soon, Negra came out to the greenhouse from the playroom and discovered all she had to do was sit below and wait for the lettuce to fall down as Missy picked through the blankets.

Meanwhile on the other side of the building, Mave and Willy B enjoyed some enriching social time in the outdoor chute in between rain showers:

While Honey B performed magic tricks with some new scarves:

All in all, I would say today was enriching for both the chimpanzees and me, and now I hope for you too.

If you enjoy the blog, please do consider making a donation to our Giving Day for Apes page. To get the most bang for your buck, donate between 10-11am PT on Tuesday, October 13th, but any donation at any time helps! Thank you for helping enrich the lives of the chimpanzees!

Moments with Jamie

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I had approximately 25 ideas for a blog post today, from the flighty and frivolous to the deeply profound (at least in my head).

This video is neither. Or perhaps it is both.

As one of her caregivers for more than twelve years, I can tell you that some of the best days in the chimp house are when Jamie is in a good mood, which seems to be the case more and more lately.

Not all of the clips in the video were from today. The one from today is the opening clip with Jamie wearing a troll scarf;  the others were moments with Jamie that I had recorded on my phone that I have been hanging onto.

Right now, while the other chimpanzees are eating the last scraps of dinner, working on their food puzzles (nuts in kongs tonight), and gathering up their blankets for their nests, Jamie is sitting in the doorway that goes out to Young’s Hill, the outdoor habitat.

She might be waiting for the rain to subside so that we can go on another walk, or maybe she’s just making sure I remember that she’s the one who runs this place.

I just love Jamie.

Happy One Year Anniversary from Monica!

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If you’ve been following the sanctuary for any length of time, you’ve definitely heard the name Monica Best. She’s a generous donor who loves to encourage other generous donors by setting challenge pledges whenever we have a fundraising initiative. She played a large role in the expansion construction that’s happening right now. The sanctuary wouldn’t be what it is today without her support.

Of course she didn’t want the significant one-year anniversary of the arrival of Mave, Willy B, and Honey B pass without her sponsor-a-day acknowledgement and donation.

Monica has personally been through a lot these last several years and the chimpanzees and blog have provided some solace during tough times. I know many of you can identify with that.

I have been thinking a lot about the role of hope in our lives, both related to trying to help chimpanzees and getting through to the other side of difficult times, which is something we are all grappling with right now.

I found a quote that reminds me of Monica for a few reasons, and I thought it appropriate to share on this day that she has sponsored which was full of hope one year ago as the van pulled up to the sanctuary with three chimpanzees we barely knew:

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.

― Emily Dickinson

To put it mildly, not everything has gone according to plan this last year, but so much of the hope for the new lives of Willy B, Honey B, and Mave has already been realized as we have watched them play, explore, and relax in their new sanctuary home.

There are more chimpanzees at Wildlife Waystation who we must hold hope for as we collectively work to help them.

The construction crew is currently toiling away at the continued expansion so that we can welcome another group of chimpanzees to the sanctuary with Mave, Willy B, and Honey B supervising their labor that will also provide those three with more space.

Watching that scene this morning, and knowing it is possible because of Monica’s support and the support of so many of you out there, I found myself full of hope for the future, despite the current moment of unpredictability.

Happy arrival anniversary! Thank you, Monica, for sponsoring today and for inspiring hope.

The Great Watermelon Haul on Foxie’s 44th Birthday

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This video above of Foxie’s 44th birthday celebration has a little something for everyone. Well, except we did not get any photos or video of Mave or Honey B enjoying their watermelon boats. They did enjoy them, rest assured.

In addition to the watermelon bowl forage, which was a tradition began many years ago by volunteers, we also served smoothies (normally a breakfast-only thing) at both lunch and dinner. Foxie was appropriately appreciative.

Foxie’s was the first birthday we celebrated when the chimpanzees arrived in 2008. We knew her exact birth date because she was born in a laboratory and we had scant records of her years as a biomedical test subject that included her birth date, place of birth, and the number they assigned to her and tattooed on her body.

Those days must feel very, very far behind her today as she celebrated her 12th birthday in sanctuary.

What a gift to have all of these chimpanzees in our lives and to be able to give them good days.

Raise your watermelon bowl to many more!!

In honor of World Chimpanzee Day!

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Today is World Chimpanzee Day! And this amazing day was sponsored by Erin Yuhas and her incredible colleagues at Hartford Healthcare Medical Group Norwich! Erin shared this wonderful message about their generous gifts for the chimpanzees:

“Our medical office wears “Jeans for a Cause” every Friday and my cause for the month of June was your sanctuary and these special chimps. Together we raised over $300 and, in addition to sponsoring a day, we also sent the chimps many items from their wish list–including tons of blankets for nests! With all of us having worked in the medical field for many years, we can appreciate all these chimps went through in the name of science. I was happy to be able to share my knowledge of chimps and of your sanctuary with my coworkers helping to create awareness. I’m not sure my coworkers really liked my fact sheets and quiz, though! (This made us smile, Erin! 🙂 ). Thank you for all you do for these beautiful chimps and for the ones still to come!”

To everyone at Hartford Healthcare Medical Group Norwich, thank you so much for your generous hearts, your willingness to share your knowledge of, and learn more about, chimpanzees! You couldn’t have chosen a more perfect day to sponsor. Always, but especially during these uncertain times we all face, your support means the world to us, and most importantly, to the chimpanzees. From our hearts to yours, thank you!

You can learn more about this special day and hear a message from Dr. Jane Goodall here: “July 14, 1960, is the day Dr. Jane Goodall first stepped foot in what is now Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania, to study wild chimpanzees. In honor of humankind’s closest living relative, World Chimpanzee Day is a celebration of chimpanzees and an opportunity to raise awareness about the vital need for worldwide participation in their care, protection, and conservation in the wild and in captivity.”

Jamie:

Jody:

Mave:

Annie, Missy, Foxie and Jody:

Honey B:

Burrito and Negra:

Willy B: