Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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rescue

The 4th Annual Running of the Cows

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Past the wetlands, up the mountain, across the stream, between the scary gates, and through the forest to the upper pasture we go! It’s time once again for the cows to head to their summer pastures. And this year, they’re exploring a new part of the sanctuary’s 90-acre property.

As you may know, the cows actually moved a few weeks ago but I’ve only now gotten the chance to put a video together. They’ve really been enjoying the upper pond pasture and most nights they don’t even return to the barn.

We’d like to express our gratitude for your kind and generous comments on yesterday’s blog about Animal Sanctuary Caregiver Day. Diana and I, along with the Board of Directors, are grateful for the staff every day but you all have expressed our sentiments better than we ever could. Though we will be getting them food next week and it turns out you can actually say a lot with food.

Speaking of caregivers, we’d like to introduce you to our newest staff member, Jenna! Jenna interned at CSNW while attending Central Washington University and then gained valuable experience at other chimpanzee sanctuaries before returning to the northwest. I’ll let her more fully introduce herself next week in her first CSNW blog post.

Here’s Jenna getting in good with the boss:

Jamie’s surgery

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Yesterday, Jamie underwent surgery to repair an anal fistula. As I write this, she is bright, alert, and recovering well.

This is a problem we’ve been aware of and have been treating for some time. If you’re not familiar with fistulas, they are small tunnels that connect an infected gland within the anus to an opening on the skin outside the anus. They can be painful and may result in recurring infections and chronic discharge from the opening.

When Jamie’s fistula first appeared, Dr. Erin consulted with other veterinarians and several colorectal surgeons on a course of action. While we were prepared to perform the surgery at that time, and even got as far as purchasing plane tickets for a surgeon from Missouri that had worked on a chimpanzee before, in the end the consensus was that if Jamie was cooperative we could manage her symptoms without surgery. Most humans with the means to do so would probably choose fistula repair, but chimpanzees are somewhat different in that they don’t experience any stigma from fistula symptoms. If we could keep the infection at bay and provide pain relief, we could avoid the trauma of surgery and recovery as well as any potential complications. Jamie was incredibly cooperative – she would allow us (usually Diana, who was her positive reinforcement trainer) to irrigate the tracts with antiseptic solution using a plastic-tipped syringe.

While this had the desired effect at first, over time the infections became more frequent. After additional consultation with colleagues who were planning a similar surgery at an Australian zoo, Dr. Erin decided that it would be in Jamie’s best interest to have her fistulas repaired. Dr. Petty, a colorectal surgeon from Kittitas Valley Hospital in Ellensburg, volunteered to perform the procedure.

Jamie willingly accepts injections – everything from vaccines to anesthetics – so she was ready to go even before we were yesterday morning. She was wheeled into the clinic and masked prior to intubation.

The rest of the team prepared to give Jamie a complete exam while Dr. Petty performed the procedure.

Dr. Petty was pleased to find that most of the tracts were near the surface, which would mean a quicker surgery and faster healing. Fistulotomies, wherein the tracts are opened surgically to heal from the inside out, are often simple enough to be outpatient procedures for humans, but chimps don’t always follow the same level of post-operative care so we will be paying extra close attention to how she heals.

Sofia and Dr. Erin performed a head-to-toe exam while Anthony oversaw the procedure checklist and took photos and video.

Jamie was given an abdominal ultrasound using our Butterfly ultrasound machine. Though the chimps’ usual cardiologist couldn’t make it, she was also given an echocardiogram thanks to a donation of time and equipment from some very generous zoo colleagues.

After getting x-rays and other routine diagnostics, Jamie was wheeled back to the recovery room.

There she would be under close supervision until she was stable and alert.

Everything that we’ve learned from Jamie’s exam so far shows that she’s in good health and we’re hoping that she will not need to spend much time in isolation. For now, we’re trying to keep her enriched with peanut butter magazines and her favorite movies.

Her friends also visit and groom with her at the caging.

Jamie is not one to enjoy sitting around for long, so let’s all wish her a speedy recovery so she can get back to managing her group soon. Many thanks to Dr. Petty and the many other doctors and zoo and sanctuary professionals who helped plan for and carry out this procedure, which we hope will keep Jamie healthy and comfortable.

Mave’s 33rd Birthday

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Today, Mave celebrated her 33rd birthday! We’re so grateful to both Paulette Wrisley and Kenneth Reiter for sponsoring this day her her honor (in addition to Melissa Reed, whose sponsor post came earlier in the day).

One of the challenges of keeping the peace in a new group is to make things exciting for them, but not too exciting. Forages have a way of bringing out the competitive spirit in some chimps, if you know what I mean (see: B., William). So the key today was to ensure that Mave got some of her favorite foods without causing any unnecessary drama. And it was a success! We kept the forage fairly low-key and then made sure that everyone got at least one coconut and one mango. Honey B brought home the award for best coconut cracker, while Willy B had to watch some of the other chimps smash theirs open before figuring it out.

While Mave loved the food, her real present was the one thing money can’t buy, which she already received just recently – Dora! It seems that Mave has always wanted a Dora of her own, and now she has one. For her own birthday, Dora may want to ask for some personal space 🙂

Happy Birthday to an amazing chimpanzee.

A Trip to the Clinic for Negra

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The group of seven got into a fight yesterday and poor Negra sustained a significant laceration on her back side that required stitches. The staff got her isolated and Dr. Erin began mobilizing for the procedure. We are grateful to have been joined by Jim Repsher, PA-C, from Kittitas Valley Hospital who, with his background in surgery and emergency medicine, was able to tend to her wound while Dr. Erin, Sofia, and other staff gave Negra a full workup.

Negra handled the procedure well and got an ultrasound of her heart, x-rays, blood work, and a dental exam while receiving her stitches.

Diana ensured that Negra’s IV remained in place while Negra was repositioned for various diagnostics.

Sofia examined Negra’s teeth and gums.

Identification tattoos on each of Negra’s thighs serve as a stark reminder of her decades spent in various laboratories.

Negra’s caregivers often have to hold her arms to ensure that the various cuffs and catheters stay in place. These moments bring us some comfort, even if Negra is unaware of our presence.

Getting sutures to remain in place, especially in fragile tissue, can be a challenge with chimpanzees, who are prone to pick at them and pull them out. For this reason, we often employ distraction techniques so that they will direct their attention elsewhere while they recover. In some cases, we place shallow “distraction sutures” in areas away from the injury. Here, Sofia paints Negra’s fingernails so that she will have something else to pick at while she recovers. It’s a tip we learned from colleagues at another sanctuary and it certainly can’t hurt to try.

Before long Negra was back in the recovery room in a pile of blankets and stuffed animals, with her team of caregivers monitoring her closely.

By morning she was alert and ready for some juice.

She made a nest next to the caging and gave kisses through the mesh before eventually falling back to sleep.

That is, until Annie started spitting water on her to get her attention and make sure she was OK! Once Negra sat up, Annie was satisfied and let Negra go back to bed.

We’re pretty confident that Negra will have an uneventful recovery – after all, she lives her whole life on restricted activity! But she will remain isolated, with her caregivers watching over her and her chimp family next door, until Dr. Erin is confident in her healing.

The life of a chimp vet is never dull. For the last month, the staff have been taking turns doing overnight duty, sleeping on a cot in the chimp house foyer to monitor the newly integrated group of nine and respond in the event of a serious conflict. Friday night was Dr. Erin’s night, and I’m sure she was looking forward to a day of rest following her shift. The chimps had other plans, though. As always, we are grateful to have Dr. Erin caring for these sixteen chimps and four cattle and we hope she can get some rest today.

If you’d like to contribute towards the veterinary care of Negra and her friends, we have had (thanks to the folks who purchased these so quickly!) a dental scaler and a polisher on our Amazon wish list that would be a huge help the next time one of the chimps finds themselves in the clinic.

What’s Happening

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I know we’ve been uncharacteristically quiet when it comes to the integration of the two Waystation groups. Superstitious or not, none of us want to jinx it! But now that we’ve made it through the first three weeks, I thought I’d take this opportunity to fill you in on just a few of the things that have been happening with this new group.

Who’s the Boss?

One of the biggest questions we all had prior to integrating the two groups was who would maintain the alpha role. Willy B and Cy are both large, powerful males who held comfortable positions as alphas in their previous groups. Their initial one-on-one introductions had us all holding our breath due to the obvious potential for aggression, but they generally got along quite well and the relationship was promising. Once the entire group was together, however, the dynamics became a lot more complicated and neither showed any signs of submitting to the other. Willy B would engage in his characteristically lengthy displays that are seemingly designed to drive everyone crazy – he would find a metal panel or cage door that rattled and he shake it incessantly until everyone else started displaying. While chimpanzee dominance behavior is often viewed through the lens of Machiavellian strategy, Willy B seemed more like someone just bursting with nervous energy and nowhere to direct it. Cy would respond by crashing into the room, bashing on the walls and windows, and stomping his feet on the floor. Throughout the day and all through the evening, they would trade thunderous displays in the playrooms and front rooms, leaving the other boys displaying in their wake and the girls running and screaming. None of us were getting any sleep. Each episode felt like it could be the match that would ignite a larger fire, and though the two would regularly interact in friendlier ways, neither would confront the other directly during times of tension. Until last Sunday.

On Sunday afternoon, Willy B was engaged in one of his protracted displays and the tension was building within the group. Eventually, some smaller conflicts erupted and Cy decided that he’d had enough. He faced off with Willy B in one of the front rooms. Cy was on a bench below Willy B in Front Room 5, and after gradually building up a display he leapt directly at Willy B. Grace and Katelyn were just feet away, garden hose in hand, anxiously hoping that everyone would come away unscathed. As Cy came flying toward the upper bench, Willy B revealed a huge fear grimace and swung around, presenting his back side to Cy. Cy landed on the bench and embraced Willy with both arms. After two weeks of negotiation, Cy had put his foot down and Willy had submitted.

Since then things have seemed a little more orderly within the group. Cy is a patient leader and he doesn’t intervene unless he feels it’s necessary, but if he thinks Willy B is stirring the pot a bit too much, or if Gordo is pushing his luck with Willy B, he has no problem stepping in and quieting everyone down. For his part, Willy B seems a bit relieved to have someone else in charge. Now he can focus all that energy on playing with his new pal, Rayne. And Cy seems relieved to get back to his magazines. We often liken him to a father that tells the kids to play outside so he can read the sports section in peace.

Bosom Buddies

We always knew that Mave would do great in a larger group but we’ve been pleasantly surprised by how well Willy B and Honey B are getting along with their new family. Willy B adores Rayne – I’ve never seen him as expressive as when he is playing with his new pal. And while Honey B tends to be more of a loner in general, she is part of a new clique that Diana has dubbed “the mall walkers”. Each playroom has a second floor catwalk that extends around all four sides of the room and overlooks the main floor below, similar to those fancy indoor malls where people of a certain age do their speed-walking. Each morning, beginning around 7am, Honey B, Dora, and Rayne walk laps around the second floor of each playroom together, often playing but otherwise just getting their steps in.

Eight is Enough

Each morning we serve breakfast in one or more of the greenhouses and playrooms and attempt to close off an area for cleaning. Eight of the chimps happily cooperate. Honey B does not. This isn’t any different than when she lived in her group of three, but early in the introduction process there was a concern that we’d have to reintroduce her each morning if she was separated during cleaning due to her reluctance to shift. Despite the fact that she would have been living happily with the group just hours prior, these reintroductions had the potential to cause tension and hinder the integration process. Thankfully, she has been able to come and go as she pleases without issue, and a couple hours of alone time seems to give her a great deal of comfort.

Family Ties

It can takes months, even years, for two groups to become fully integrated, meaning that they no longer fall back on old, familiar patterns of association. Right now we are seeing two distinct patterns. During the day, the chimps act as though they have always been one big group. Willy B is often at the center of early morning grooming parties on the greenhouse tree structures, Honey B plays and walks laps with Rayne and Dora, and Mave is everywhere at all times doing everything with everyone. But at night, it’s back to three and six. Mave, Honey B, and Willy B make their nests in the front rooms – specifically Front Room 6 – while the others sleep on the catwalks and nesting platforms in the two playrooms. They are all free to sleep where they choose, but for now it seems there’s comfort in sticking with the old gang when it’s time to let your guard down and catch some sleep.

One Day at a Time

When it comes to group formation, there is no point at which we will pat ourselves on the back and declare victory. But whatever happens, I think we can celebrate the introduction process and these first three weeks that they have lived as a full group. Honestly, there have been many days over the last few weeks when the Cle Elum Seven bickered more than the nine. And they’ve lived together for 16 years! Still, chimps will be chimps, and there will be plenty of fights ahead. More importantly, however, there will also be plenty of playing, grooming, reassuring, even mall-walking – all the things we’d dreamed about when we first met Honey B, Willy B, and Mave and imagined them in larger family.

 

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.