Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

reflection

Sanctuary Community

by

I’ve been thinking about you lately.

Yes, you!

As a blog reader, you are part of an amazing community of curious, caring, clever, and compassionate primates.

The community that has developed around the blog is very special.

It’s one of my favorite things about being a part of this sanctuary. I often look forward to reading blog comments as much as the blog posts themselves. I love hearing from people who are “silent” community members too.

Being the social primates that we are, having a community is important to us humans. Just as important as it is for our fellow non-human primates.

The idea that a human community has formed around the stories and care of a special non-human community is pretty cool.

Screenshot

Like all primate communities, members join and leave, and the community shifts and adapts.

I have been thinking about this blog community and how to celebrate you more. How to bring us all together in other ways. How to inform you of community members who have passed on. How to celebrate you.

This season seems like the perfect time to ponder this, so please let me know if you have ideas.

As we look back on the year of CSNW, I wanted to share how much I value you. You bring inquiry, insights, and inspiration (I’m apparently into alliteration today) to the work that we do.

I can’t imagine this sanctuary without you.

Mirror Mania

by

Chimpanzee intelligence is well-known and a specific aspect of their intelligence that I find particularly fascinating is their awareness of self as separate from others, or ‘theory of mind’. A classic experiment used to test for theory of mind in animals is the mirror test whereby a mark is placed on the face or some other body part of an animals and then they are presented with a mirror. If the animal notices the mark and reaches towards their own face instead of the one in the mirror, this indicates that they are aware that the image in the mirror is themself and not another animal. This works on a number of species we all recognize to be intelligent like elephants, dolphins, and the great apes while, interestingly, other nonhuman primates like monkeys, will fail this test. Human children typically begin to pass the mirror test around the age of two.

I’ve always enjoyed watching chimpanzees look at themselves in the mirror. Some are more interested than others in their own reflections, usually picking at marks or scabs on their face and head, opening their mouths to inspect their teeth and tongue, and sometimes making faces at themselves. Are they amused? Are they curious? What’s happening in those minds?!

To celebrate this endearing behavior, I’ve decided to put together a compilation of photos and videos of the chimps at CSNW looking at their own beautiful faces. Enjoy!

How to Entertain a Chimpanzee

by

First up, here is your Honey B update! Despite our best attempts to keep her attention away from her healing eyelid and occupy her time with other activities, she did open up her incision slightly yesterday. Dr. Erin assessed her and for now, we are waiting to see how it continues to heal and consulting with other experts to be sure we have the best plan in place for her. We continue to provide her with extra enrichment, and today one of her enrichment devices doubled as enrichment for the humans who created it.

We have had a large cardboard tube in the Chimp House for the past several weeks without a use for it. Today it found its purpose! We drilled some holes in the tube, added chain through the tube, and clipped it to the caging of Honey B’s room. We added some of her favorite things to the inside of the tube (popcorn, shelled peanuts, raisins) and raspberries to some of the holes to peak her interest. We gave her a bamboo stick as a tool and sat back to see what she did with it.

The idea was that the small snacks would fall through the drilled holes when the tube rolled around the chain, and Honey B would use her bamboo stick to pull the snacks to her. Well…that’s not exactly what happened. To no one’s surprise, Honey B outsmarted our plan! She was able to tap and tip the tube in such a way that the majority of the snacks fell out of either end, so it did not take as long as I had thought it would to finish the puzzle. I would like to create a reusable version of this for everyone with PVC one day, and Honey B has helped me to identify some flaws in my plan! Thank you for the design assistance, BeeBee!

It was a very good day around the sanctuary today. It is warmer here today (not warm…but warmer!). Negra enjoyed a nap in her nest in the greenhouse which was quite cozy with the heater going. Her group enjoyed eating some of the remaining snow, which is now a perfect snow cone texture. Burrito loved looking at himself on my phone and was especially fascinated by his own tongue.

I feel so fortunate to be able to share in these moments with the chimps, and to get to share them with you all. I hope your Saturday has been just as good as ours!

 

Another Quiet Day

by

Today, Burrito was checking out his reflection in a plastic mirror.

Foxie enjoyed some bottled water (we’re still waiting on tests of our well water since it was contaminated during the fire).

Missy and Annie spent some time grooming. Missy likes to groom herself with a tool – in this case she ripped a splinter from a log. If you look closely you can even see some dandruff falling.

Annie likes to pick Missy’s nose. Missy tolerates it but doesn’t seem to enjoy it. I don’t blame her – Annie doesn’t bite her nails down like the other chimps do.