Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary for primates.

Primates

A Break in the Action

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Nothing exciting or noteworthy happened today.

That’s an exaggeration. We do, after all, have to manage a newly integrated group of chimpanzees and even the most stable groups of chimps have their drama.

Compared to the last few days, however, today was quite calm. There were some short bouts of screaming and slapping and lots of pant-grunts, but the arguments weren’t as loud and didn’t last as long. Honey B tried to extend one of the arguments by spitting water in Jamie’s face, but Mave acted as the referee long enough for Willy B to scatter everyone with a charge and a display. This situation, along with all the other conflicts, deescalated quickly. I don’t know if this stabilization marks a shift towards acceptance or if it is merely an aberration. It wouldn’t be a surprise if the chimps return to a more boisterous and confrontational state tomorrow.

Either way, today felt like a break and I’m taking what I can get.

Here are some photographs from today, along with a few from the past week. I hope that you all enjoy them.

Jamie grooms Mave this morning.
Honey B takes to the railing while playing with Negra this morning.
Jamie and Willy keep an eye on the Greenhouse today.
Jody pant-grunts at Willy B as he walks by.
Mave gently touches and grooms Jody.
Mave reassures Willy B during last week’s integration event.
Missy watches breakfast from her perch in the Greenhouse this morning.
Nutmeg
Meredith
Betsy
Honey

Honey B’s Style

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As highlighted in a recent post, Honey B is already known for her intelligence, energy and creativity. Not only is she an engineer and a philanthropist, but she is also a fashion enthusiast.

Yesterday, she decided that the cloth headbands we provide as enrichment are better suited as waistbands. Interestingly, she isn’t the first chimp to have this innovative idea! As caregiver Kelsi showed us last month, Annie has been wearing headbands around her waist for years.

It would be tempting to suspect that Honey B learned the behavior from Annie, which would be great evidence of cultural transmission between groups of chimpanzees. In the wild, chimpanzee communities across Africa have cultural traditions (i.e., their own ways of doing things) that spread among individuals via social learning. Chimpanzee cultures are rich and fascinating, but may be disappearing. This year, scientists published a paper about the negative effects that human activity may have on the cultural diversity of wild chimpanzees. As chimpanzee numbers dwindle and we degrade and fragment their forested habitats, their capacity for culture catastrophically decreases.

Although the process of cultural transmission certainly exists among groups of captive chimpanzees, it has been difficult to document and is seldom reported. In the case of Honey B and the waistband, it seems unlikely that she learned it from Annie. Annie only wears the improvised belt for a few days or weeks and then ignores them for the rest of the year, and she had already stopped wearing this summer’s edition before Honey B and her friends arrived from Wildlife Waystation last month. It is possible that one of the many videos we showed to the new trio features a scene of Annie sporting the headband-waistband look, but it’s more likely that they both just have similar taste in enrichment and utilize what we give them in novel ways.

With that being said, it will be interesting to see if any behaviors do cross over from one group to the next! Chimpanzees are brilliant and creative, and never stop surprising us.

 

Summer’s End Begins

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The rain today did not feel like a passing summer shower. It felt like summer’s end.

Besides the rain, many smaller changes have become evident this weekend. As the temperature dipped, the mountains shrouded themselves in chilly fog and gray drizzle. The larches are abandoning their greenish hue in favor of warmer tones. The bucks that inhabit the woods around the sanctuary are showing off their new antlers, while this spring’s fawns are losing their spots and grow more independent by the day. The tourists in nearby Roslyn are sporting flannels and hoodies, not sunglasses and flip flops (and our staff and volunteers had to say a sad goodbye to this year’s edition of the Roslyn Farmer’s Market). In neighboring Ellensburg, new students are flocking to campus to begin classes next week; a handful of them will compose our next cohort of interns starting at the end of this month. The air itself seems to call for coffeehouse folk music and pumpkin spice everything. Autumn has made its first appearance of its three-month residency.

Meanwhile, the chimps are embracing the cooler surroundings in their own way.

Jamie spent this morning huddled under a makeshift tent of blankets, taking in the crisp morning air and watching the caregivers go about their morning rounds. She even snoozed for a bit before breakfast (as did Annie, in the background).

Over in the new wing, things went similarly. Lately, the new three have been chilling out in the new archway tunnel almost constantly. However, today’s weather made the uncovered chute less appealing and the trio spent more time grooming and nesting in their sheltered indoor spaces. From her secluded corner in one of the bedrooms, Mave made sure to keep looking out the window at the surrounding pastures, passing rail cars and two-lane highway far below.

Because of the drizzle and dew, we only scattered a small portion of their lunch on Young’s Hill. Even so, the seven long-term residents made the best of the conditions and found all of the carrots and walnuts that Level II volunteer Dusty placed among the tall grass and wooden structures. Of all the chimpanzees, Annie seemed to enjoy foraging in the damp prairie grass, always watching her surroundings for potential competitors and new opportunities to obtain more food.

Today’s only drama was centered around corn. Erin and Miranda, two of our dedicated Level III volunteers, served breakfast and lunch, respectively. All went smoothly until Jamie decided to get upset every time one of the lower-ranking females received an ear of corn-on-the-cob. Either she was being possessive (likely) or she’s terrified of things on cobs (slightly less likely). She kept her eyes on everyone else while she munched on her own corn, as well as poor Foxie’s.

Annie, Foxie, and Missy all processed their remaining corn and potatoes with trepidation, frequently pausing to monitor Jamie’s expression.

Missy even had a swollen eye this morning. It was not a grievous wound by any means, but served as a potential artifact of recent conflict within their social group (Note: Missy didn’t seem to care and even made J.B. playfully chase her around the Hill in the rain).

Only Negra and Burrito were left out of the corn fiasco. Negra opted to sift through her chow bags from the safety of her fleece blankets, while Burrito spent more time gazing over at the adjacent tunnel and neighboring chimps.

 

Negra Time

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Negra isn’t featured on the blog as much as some of the other chimpanzees because she’s often not part of “the action” at the chimp house (unless it’s spring and she’s outside eating grass – we can’t wait for those days!).

Negra seems to prefer solo quiet time. She also spends a lot of her time high up where it’s not as easy to get good photos and video.

And she operates on her own schedule. While the rest of the group might eagerly line up by the raceway in the morning to get the first pick of the snow, Negra instead chooses to go back to bed.

But then, an hour or so later, we’ll see her with some snow of her own – maybe she ventured out and retrieved it herself, or many she convinced one of her friends to hand over some of their haul (she can be very convincing). Either way, she doesn’t miss out on what each day has to offer, she’s just on Negra Time.

Annie’s Birthday Extravaganza!

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Today is Annie’s 43rd Birthday! We are so fortunate to know Annie – she is a sweet, playful, and loyal friend to humans and non-humans. We celebrated her today with a fun forage full of veggies, chow, roasted onions, and smoothie in the greenhouse and Young’s Hill.  Annie also really LOVES kale especially from our garden. It was quite the party!

Annie standing bipedally while foraging on the hill:

Annie found some delicious kale from our garden:

Burrito scored a few presents:

Burrito (wonder what he found inside):

Annie enjoying a plate of corn and broccoli with a side of socks:

Jamie drinking smoothie:

Jamie unwrapping a present:

Jamie holding some boots in her pelvic pocket:

Negra basking in the sun and foraging:

Birthday girl (Annie):

Missy:

Jody eating some leeks from our garden:

Annie enjoying her kale:

Foxie eating chow:

Annie found one last plate:

A Chilly Fall Morning

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It is a beautiful, chilly fall day here at the sanctuary, and the chimpanzees spent some time on Young’s Hill enjoying the crisp air. We have a lot of help with cleaning this morning, which means Jamie has many walking companions to choose from!

Here is Jamie on her second walk of the morning:

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Jody also ventured out:

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Missy and Annie spent a lot of time climbing on the hill, and then settled in the greenhouse to groom. Missy:

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Annie (with Missy behind her):

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I wonder if this view may be part of the reason why Jamie goes on so many walks:

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Ah, fall!