Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

primate rescue

You asked… let’s answer!

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Sofia asked you last week for suggestions for upcoming blog posts… and we received MANY wonderful questions and ideas. Thank you for all of them! We will do our best to answer or touch on those topics in the upcoming weeks.

There were many quick questions so I thought I’d answer as many as I can today!

Question: What are the alpha dynamics in each group?

As many of you already know, Jamie is considered the alpha in her group. For our newly integrated group of 9, Cy is treated as alpha by all of his group members.

Question: Are things quite settled between Willy B and Cy? Is it understood that Cy is the “top dog” so to speak?

I would say so! When the group of 9 first started living together 24/7, we were not sure if Cy or Willy B would be considered alpha of the group. Once Willy B began submitting to Cy, it was a dead giveaway that Cy was considered more dominant in the hierarchy. Despite this, Willy B and Cy are good friends and spend a lot of time grooming together daily. While we don’t know what their hierarchy looks like long-term, this is how it stands now.

Question: Do the chimps recognize their name?

Yes! With the chimps being in captivity for decades, they are used to being spoken to. They do know and respond to their names.

Question: How many hours total a day are spent on cleaning, food prep, laundry, feeding, meds, play?

This is a tough question because it varies day to day! Some days we start laundry at 9am and don’t finish until the evening. Some days we finish by the afternoon. However, cleaning typically takes us about 4-5 hours everyday. Other than pre-washing fruits and veggies, we meal prep directly before the given meal. It takes about 20 minutes to prep a meal for both groups. Serving the meal also takes about 20 minutes! Although some meals go faster based on how excited the chimps are! We do meds prep prior to each meal as well. This is usually a quick process, depending on the medical needs of the chimps. As for play, we play all day long! Even if we’re in the middle of scrubbing the Playroom floor, we will always stop and play with the chimps when they’re up for it!

Question: Have you ever given them a video on a big screen?

Yes! Movies are considered enrichment. We don’t do this all the time, but the chimps love movies when we do! Especially while recovering from a medical procedure.

Question: Are the chimps allowed to go out on the trails whenever they please, or are the times structured by the crew?

The chimps are not allowed out on Young’s Hill without caregivers in the chimp house! However, they do have 24/7 access to their Greenhouses.

Question: Do you inspect the hill before letting them onto it?

Yes we do! Following the answer from above, we do a perimeter check of the hill before letting them onto the hill. It is important for us to make sure our electric fencing system hasn’t been damaged overnight.

Question: Do they like music?

Some do! Just like how some really enjoy watching movies and others do not, same goes for music!

Question: What is the biggest challenge in creating enrichment for 16 individuals?

Some individuals have more restrictions than others. So we operate by group! For example, Jamie’s group may get different enrichment than Cy’s group. This is based on our knowledge of what the chimps break or eat, when they’re not supposed to.

Question: What happens with your beautiful facility someday when (hopefully) there are no more lab chimps in need of rescue?

We are constantly working on what the future looks like for us. Unfortunately, there is still a need for homes for lab chimps. Also, just primates in general. Not to mention, chimpanzees live a long time in captivity (there’s captive chimps in their 60’s!). I would love to live to see a day where there is no longer a need for sanctuaries, but unfortunately, I don’t think it will be in my lifetime.

Question: Does Cy share his reading materials?

I don’t want to exclude anyone from this, but I’ve also seen Rayne reading magazines lately! We provide enough magazines to Cy’s group so that anyone who would like, can help themselves!

Question: How do you make sure each one gets their share of the food?

Caregivers hand-serve the chimps their meals. This means we are handing each piece of food to the individual. From there, it is relatively easy to monitor what they eat and what they don’t. Most of the chimps will not accept a food they don’t like. Therefore, we don’t usually have to worry that they take the food from us and abandon it elsewhere. We also keep an eye on any food thieves, which happens from time to time! In those instances, we will replace what was stolen for the individual.

Question: Do they all go to sleep and wake up at the same time? Are there early risers that get the other ones going? 

The chimps usually are getting themselves ready for bed or are already in bed when we close the chimp house in the evening. The time varies but typically the chimps are early risers!

 

I hope these help! We will answer more soon!

 

Sweet Cy:

Gordo working on a raisin board:

Rayne working on a raisin board:

 

Mave’s Feminist Uprising

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Mave is currently living her best life. She seems to thrive in a larger group with more chimpanzees to interact with and look after. These last few days, she’s virtually never alone.

The video above is of a very fun play session between Mave and Rayne, but the blog post title is more about these two stories…

You may remember from a blog written by J.B. entitled “It’s Only Natural” that Terry and Dora are the only two chimpanzees who express a certain natural behavior. We know from their former caregivers at Wildlife Waystation that they haven’t always done this – they did it for a while, stopped for a very long time, then started again in recent years. Terry only requests that Dora mate when food is brought out for meals. Yep, food is VERY exciting for chimpanzees. From our observations so far, Dora is not always in the mood for Terry’s advances, but she eventually gives in to his requests.

Enter Dora’s new friend Mave.

Mave, apparently, is not willing to tolerate Terry’s behavior and will not only yell at Terry if she catches him requesting Dora to copulate, but will physically “protect” Dora. Chad wrote up the first instance of this the other day. To quote Chad, “Mave began screaming at Terry, and blocked Dora from him via hugging her.” She apparently spent the rest of lunch guarding Dora while also trying to reconcile with Terry. At that point, Terry was more interested in lunch. He did reassure Mave that all was okay, and did not make another attempt that day.

We’ll have to see how this plays out in the end, but I can tell you that the female humans at the sanctuary were feeling a certain feminine solidarity with Mave.

 

The second story is from last night when everyone was getting ready for bed. I was watching on the remote security cameras. Every night prior to last night, Mave, Willy B, and Honey B have slept in one of the Front Rooms while the six chimpanzees from the other group spread out among the two playrooms.

Last night, Cy was still up taking some alone time (or so he thought) in the Mezzanine. I watched as Mave gathered some blankets from the Marmot Mountain Playroom. I expected her to take her large pile of blankets through the Mezzanine and down through the door in the floor that connects to the Front Rooms. What she did instead was make a nest right in the “cubby” of the Mezzanine, blocking the door that connects it to Marmot Mountain. She made a beautiful nest and lied down.

A few minutes later, Cy approached where she was lying down. It was clear to me that he wanted to vacate the Mezzanine. Mave, however, remained lying down, not moving a muscle. He got a little closer and patiently waited again. Still no movement from Mave. After about ten minutes, he climbed over her to get out the door. She still didn’t move.

Mave is a female figure that we all can admire. She’s a friend to everyone but is strong and confident in her position.

If you haven’t already, I suggest you celebrate Mave by getting a Mave hoodie. I will wear mine with even more pride and admiration now.

Cy Solves a Fire Hose Puzzle

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Cy has been trying out different ways of retrieving the walnuts out of the fire hose knot puzzles over the last few months. The last few times that I’ve been in the chimp house when Cy’s group has gotten fire hose knots, I’ve seen him chew the nut while it’s was still in the fire hose, then suck on the fire hose, I suppose getting some essence of walnut out of that process.

Last night, however, I was lucky enough to get this video of Cy’s new, and more fruitful, method of getting that sweet, sweet walnut reward.

Here for the Show

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Burrito spends a lot of his time spying on the neighbors, especially when said neighbors are in the Chute, which is close to his playroom’s windows. But he can even get glimpses of other chimps when they are in Lupine playroom.

What was catching his attention this afternoon was a lot of displaying from both of the other groups.

You probably know Cy by now as more of the quiet bookish type, but he’s also a large male chimpanzee who is more than capable of putting on an impressive display:

It’s not clear if Burrito wishes he were in the mix or is merely entertained/enriched by focusing on the goings-on of the other groups.

He’s certainly not the only one.

Missy was also keeping a close eye on things this afternoon, bounding up and down as a greeting when she glimpsed Terry in the Chute.

While we won’t be doing any introductions with Burrito’s group in the near future, it’s clear just having neighbors has added a very enriching element to their lives.

Friday Eve

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Today was a very low-key day at the chimp house where everyone seemed to be very much OK with doing their thing, even if it was absolutely nothing.

Missy on the top platform of the green house

Missy grooming a resting Jody

Burrito, wooden toy in hand and wearing a slinky as a sock

Cy and his version of random patty cake through the glass

Rayne with her favorite enrichment: Raisin Boards!!

Terry winding up for a display

A Willy B thread

Perspective

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I didn’t have a blog post planned for today. Sometimes when I’m in this blank-slate situation, I look back on the blog at previous years of the same date to see what was happening in the hopes of inspiring an idea.

I chose January 15, 2019 to find out what was up. It was a literal walk down memory lane. Then staff caregiver/now volunteer caregiver Elizabeth gave an immersive behind-the-scenes view into what a morning was like at the sanctuary. The post featured then staff caregiver/now Chimp House Manager Anna with a supporting role from then intern/now Veterinary Assistant Sofía.

Elizabeth described the medical clinic trailer, explaining that it would soon be replaced by the stationary clinic that was a big part of the first phase of the expansion at the sanctuary.

Some things haven’t changed a bit from that post three years ago. Like then, the first thing the lead caregiver does is greet the chimps and work through a brief checklist while breakfast is being prepared. Negra can still almost always be found huddled under a pile of blankets.

Some things have changed a lot, though.

Burrito no longer displays every morning, but that’s not to say that he’s completely mellowed out. Today we witnessed a conflict where he swung and ran throughout his side of the building and chased after Foxie with an impressive amount of agility, determination, and energy (conflicts are a part of chimp life and everyone is fine).

The biggest change, of course, is the number of chimpanzees in this house.

Mave, Willy B, and Honey B arrived in August, five months after that 2019 blog post was written, and Lucky, Cy, Gordo, Rayne, Dora and Terry arrived in June 2021, almost seven months ago from today.

The building has expanded accordingly, with many more spaces for the new chimpanzees to enjoy and for the humans to clean up every day after they’ve been thoroughly enjoyed.

The new playrooms and greenhouses really are chimpanzee playgrounds, but it is quite challenging to get good photos of the chimps immersed in them.

Chimpanzees appreciate being up high, and their spaces were built with that in mind. Rayne in particular spends a lot of her time on the “leaves” of the artificial trees in the playroom.

Dora and Rayne were high up grooming on one of the leaves this afternoon. Normally, I would delete photos like the ones below, but I’m presenting them to show how difficult it is to get good photos of the chimps in these enriching spots.

Meanwhile, Honey B was inviting me to a game of chase in her greenhouse, where, despite the feet of snow outside, the grass and bamboo are still green.

I had to physically count on my fingers to verify that 2019 was just three years ago and to take a moment to appreciate all that supporters of Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest have made possible. I’m in awe.

Included in this post is the featured (top) photo of Honey B that I also took today to demonstrate that the camera and the camera person is capable of taking a decent photo.

If the chimpanzees choose to be in private spots of their home that we can’t quite reach with our cameras, that’s okay with us. We can all be certain, even without frequent photographic evidence, that they value every  aspect of their home that’s been carefully designed and built to chimpanzee specification.