primate rescue

out of the shadow

January 16, 2021 by Diana 30 Comments

In the past, we’ve described Burrito as being tentative and unsure about things.

It took a while for him to join Jamie on her perimeter walks of Young’s Hill. In July of 2013, about ten months after the 2-acre enclosure was complete, J.B. writes that Missy, Annie, and Jody were often seen taking part in Jamie’s adventures at the top of the hill and all around the perimeter, while Burrito, Foxie, and Negra tended to stick to the lower half of the enclosure.

By October of that same year, Burrito was occasionally joining Jamie on her perimeter walks, On these walks, he was always the follower.

In March of 2015, Katelyn describes how Burrito was joining more perimeter patrols, and even relaxing a bit. A few days later, Burrito started to invite caregivers to go on walks without Jamie, which J.B. excitedly wrote about (read to the end for one reason he was excited).

Jamie’s walks still far eclipsed Burrito’s in quantity, and most of Burrito’s were with other chimpanzees with him following behind.

Burrito would often appear to be hesitant when Jamie veered off the usual pathway. Katelyn described Burrito gingerly following Jamie as she effortless climbed the Twister structure in September of 2016.

Today Burrito took twice as many walks / runs as Jamie around the perimeter. Some with just him and me and some with a chimpanzee group.

He was the occasional leader, sometimes even waiting for Jamie to catch up.

He and Jamie appeared to decide at the same time to climb up Twister.

But Burrito was the only one to go to the very top.

Before going back inside, on his own, he took a path less traveled to explore a different part of the hill.

Choices, opportunities, and space that allow for gradual gains in confidence and incremental steps towards discovery – this really is what sanctuary is about.

what to my wondering eyes should appear

December 19, 2020 by Diana 22 Comments

I don’t want to bury the lead here – something newsworthy and heartwarming happened today, but I do feel that it requires a little bit of set-up…

The morning greeted us with calm and fair weather after a very windy night, so J.B. decided we should take advantage of the unseasonable warmth and throw a little early impromptu Christmas party for the chimpanzees.

He and Kelsi decorated the trees of Christmases past that are planted on the hill. Anna came up with cute and yummy “ornaments” by cutting out heart shapes in pieces of pineapple using a cookie cutter.

If you know anything about Negra, it’s probably that she’s not an early-riser, generally preferring to linger in bed. This morning, however, she was the first out of the raceway to investigate the breakfast party.

She marched right up to the trees, and we all remarked to one another that she was further up on the hill than she’d been all year.

Perhaps she overheard us and thought, “hold my pineapple.”

What she did next was without precedent.

Missy had grabbed a pineapple ornament, a book, and a pineapple top from the tree and climbed up high to Jamie’s Lookout, joining Foxie and Jamie:

Foxie and Jamie soon departed.

Anna saw J.B., who was taking photos on the other side of the fence, run up the hill. Then we all heard him exclaim over the radio that Negra was climbing up the ladder to Jamie’s Lookout.

The Towers: Jamie’s Lookout and Carlene’s Tower were conceived of and built by founder Keith LaChappelle and friends in the summer of 2015 (I had to search for this blog post to find out the exact timeline).

Negra has never been to the top of this structure.

But today, five and a half years later, she climbed right up and sat next to Missy as though she had done it a hundred times before.

Perhaps you can discern her motivation and feel the subtle pressure she is asserting over Missy in this photo:

Missy soon finished her pineapple ornament and took Negra’s cue, leaving the pineapple top behind. Negra stayed up there, on top of the world, for a wonderfully long amount of time.

And then she climbed down holding the pineapple top and book (which she no doubt hoped contained peanut butter between its pages) in her mouth.

Through a Window

December 13, 2020 by Anthony 6 Comments

Windows are cool.

They let us keep an eye on the residents but, more importantly, also serve to give the chimpanzees a current view of their surroundings. The chimps use them to socialize with the neighbors, survey the property, and monitor human activity.

Today, I took some photos of the chimps from outside their areas.

On snowy days like today, the windows are even more crucial. Why step outside and get cold toes when you can just spy on everyone from a warm blanket nest? Their logic is irrefutable.

I also stepped into the new playrooms (under construction but almost finished) and looked through all the windows to imagine what the new chimps will see when they get here. J.B. is still rigging the overhead LED lights and some of the windows are still covered, but the windows and skylights fill the space with soft sunlight even on cloudy days. Of course, Honey B watched me the whole time from the reinforced window that looks into the new addition from the Mezzanine.

Honey B and Mave (fore- and background, respectively)

Like Mother, Like Daughter?

December 5, 2020 by Diana

I stand by Katelyn’s post from the summer that there is no doubt that Honey B is her own unique person, quite separate from her biological history of having been born to Missy. But just as time shows us her own special uniqueness, new similarities between mom and daughter have also revealed themselves.

These two formidable and intelligent beings were tragically separated from one another at the Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP), shortly after Honey B was born on June 11, 1989.

Missy was forced to continue her life of servitude as a laboratory test subject and breeder and Honey B went to the lab’s “nursery” where she was raised by humans in preparation for the same future. Unlike many other chimpanzees at LEMSIP who moved to a notorious laboratory in New Mexico called the Coulston Foundation, Honey B escaped that future when she and dozens of other young chimpanzees were moved to Wildlife Waystation in California as LEMSIP closed permanently.

Missy and Honey B were only reunited here at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest 30 years after their separation.

As Katelyn mentioned in her post, there were no signs of particular recognition or even fondness between the pair when they met face to face before we abandoned the introductions of the two groups last fall.

Though they do not share the same rooms or have close interactions with one another, they do still see each other every day.

Just today, I spied Missy in a window of the playroom spying on her daughter as Honey B snacked on some lettuce in the Chute.

To be clear, there are shared preferences, quirks, and other similarities among some of the unrelated chimpanzees (the stand-out example is both Honey B and Annie wearing stretchy headbands around their waists), so who’s to say if the similarities between Missy and Honey B are inherited or simply coincidental. If you’ve ever taken a psychology or biology class or just on your own pondered the “nature vs nurture” question, you know the answer is almost always “both”.

Yet, it’s fun to consider that some of these traits just might have an element of heredity to them.

Similarities were brought up by other staff earlier this week, so it seemed a good time to reflect on what I’ve noticed that seem to characterize both mom and daughter.

Athleticism

Kelsi’s and Chad’s posts earlier this week that included the videos below clearly showed that Honey B and Missy are both quite quick on their feet and run for sheer enjoyment. That is not really the case for the majority of the other chimps.

It’s not just running that defines their love of movement. On any given day we see both of them climbing, swinging, leaping, and balancing.

Playing Ghost

This was again inspired by a post earlier this week, this time Anna’s. Check out Missy’s ghost play with Annie from a few years ago compared to Honey B playing with Mave this week in the two videos below:

Playing Ghost is not specific to Honey B and Missy. Notably, Jamie sometimes ghosts around too:

Even when by themselves, Honey B and Missy seem to enjoy their version of ghosting.

A Love of Tomatoes

If Missy could have one food for every meal for the rest of her life, that food would be tomatoes. I have never known another chimpanzee to like tomatoes with the sincerity and fervor of Missy.

Honey B, however, comes a close second, though she is pickier about the quality.

Headstands

Perhaps this goes along with athleticism? I’m really not sure. Either way, both mom and offspring seem to like being inverted, both during play and sometimes when making a nest.

The photo above of Missy comes from a blog post that I wrote over ten years ago. For some reason I remember putting it together like it was yesterday.

Socks

The photo of Missy above with a sock on her arm is from the first month that the seven arrived at the sanctuary. You can still see Missy’s shaved belly from the medically indicated hysterectomy she had before coming here. Our photography equipment and file saving procedures were in their infancy – that’s why I couldn’t find a larger photo.

To be fair, Mave and Jody are also pretty into socks:

Jody’s style is to wear the sock just over her toes

I was reminded of one other similarity today as I was shifting the chimpanzees during meals to make it safe for us to enter a space for cleaning; if you were a betting person and you had to bet on which chimpanzee in each group would hold up shifting, it would be very safe to put your money on Missy and Honey B (Willy B’s more recent bout of rebellion notwithstanding). Missy is generally the last person in her group to leave a space and the least motivated by food. Her daughter? Pretty much the same.

Fun Inside, Outside, and In-between. Subtitle: Caging is OK

November 28, 2020 by Diana

With the right camera lens and the right distance, we can “focus through” the fencing that surrounds the outdoor habitats so the fencing disappears or turns into blurs in the foreground.

It’s a trick of the camera. The fencing doesn’t actually go away.

But our eyes perform the same trick. This is roughly where Willy B was looking in the photos above and exactly what that hillside looked like to my eyes too.

We love sharing the sanctuary with loyal supporters and new interested folks too. One comment that people often make when they see a video from us for the first time on Facebook or Instagram is that the chimpanzees shouldn’t be indoors or “in a cage.”

I tried to answer this years ago in this blog post, but I felt it needed an update.

It is helpful to begin as that post did with the image of the type of cages that many of the chimpanzees at CSNW spent the majority of their lives:

That is a cage.

At the sanctuary, there is also caging.

Caging makes people uncomfortable. They want to see chimpanzees outside “where they are meant to be.” They want to imagine that they are free and close to nature.

I’m not immune to it myself.

Just yesterday, I noted what a lovely afternoon it was and tried to implore Jamie to go outside. The voices of my parents echoed in my head as I said, “you should be outside, it’s beautiful.”

When my parents issued similar sentiments, I’m not sure if I ever responded out loud “well then why aren’t you outside?” If Jamie could speak, she would have been right to ask me the same question. She was perfectly happy making a nest by the window in that moment.

We all have individual preferences, and how we want to spend our time can change from one moment to the next. The chimpanzees are the same.

They like different spaces for a multitude of reasons. I hope the video above illustrates both the utility of caging and also how the chimpanzees might view it differently than we do; without all of the symbolism that we humans put on it.

It took us a little more than three years from the time Negra, Burrito, Jamie, Foxie, Missy, Annie, and Jody arrived to give them Young’s Hill – their two-acre habitat surrounded by double electric fences.

In those three years, the chimps were not unhappy. They played, foraged, nested, and spent lots of time in the indoor/outdoor greenhouse.

We knew they should have more, and we wanted to see them truly “outside.”

I can’t imagine Jamie not having Young’s Hill now. She loves it. She owns it.

Negra, on the other hand, can take it or leave it. Seeing her outside in the spring, though, still takes my breath away.

We can’t get inside the heads of the chimpanzees. We can’t ask them what they are thinking. But we can observe them and watch where they choose to spend their time and how they utilize different spaces.

We can (and should) do things to encourage them to GET OUTSIDE, but it’s worth asking ourselves if we are doing that for their sake or for our own – to fulfill the vision we have of what chimpanzees in captivity should be doing instead of what they want to be doing.

These chimpanzees cannot live in the wild. Our job is to give them the best possible captive life possible, with lots of choice and variety, based on their individual needs, personalities, and quirks.

We’ll continue to blur the fencing out of some photos and put the cameras up to the caging for an unobstructed view, but it’s not because we want you to forget that it’s there; it’s so you can fully see the unique and wonderful chimpanzees who are choosing to do whatever they are doing in the moment when the camera shutter closes.

man of mystery

November 21, 2020 by Diana

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

October 17, 2020 by Diana

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:

out of the shadow

what to my wondering eyes should appear

Through a Window