Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
We had our hands full this afternoon with the virtual tour for the Chimps in Need Campaign, but Anna somehow managed to snap a few photos of the Seven enjoying their Love a Chimpanzee Day celebration.
Don’t forget – you can help us welcome six more chimpanzees to Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest this year by donating on Monica and Diana’s GiveBig fundraising page or the sanctuary’s main GiveBig page.
Missy:
Jody (with banana leaves):
Annie:
Negra:
Burrito:
Foxie:
Jamie:
In the greenhouse, there’s a small bench with a digital scale inside.
When a chimp sits on the scale, we can look up at the display panel and record their weight. This is important for overall health management as well as for dosing medications.
While the bench might seem to the chimps to be like any other bench, it is not. It is serious business.
The scale is a bonafide medical device. One does not play games with medical devices.
The most important thing to remember is that the entire body must be kept on the platform for accurate weight measurement.
Never stand on the scale.
Remain still during the entire process.
Do not, under any circumstances, taunt the scale operator.
Remain upright at all times! I can’t believe I even have to say that.
OK, I get it. You think this is funny.
Are we finished?
Right, then. As I was saying, this is a serious medical device.
With the exception of the occasional snow flurries, we’re welcoming the arrival of spring here at the sanctuary.
For the small herd of rescued Jersey cattle that resides here, the onset of spring corresponds with green pastures for grazing and warm sunshine for sunbathing. They’re already nibbling at the carpet of new growth that has emerged from the muddy winter paddock and we’ve begun to catch them delving into the creek to eat the vegetation. Soon, we’ll open the path to the summer pastures so they can roam the hillsides on either side of the chimpanzee enclosures, grazing and napping the long days away until next winter.
The cattle may require less attention than the chimps, but they’re not entirely independent. In fact, they require a bit of maintenance, especially in the spring and fall. Each year, there are a few things that need to happen before the cattle can go on summer vacation.
First, we need to make sure the pasture grass is ready for cattle. Domestic cattle aren’t native here and turning the herd out to pasture too soon can damage the vegetation and terrain (and can also be harm their sensitive guts).
We also need to check the pasture fences and make sure nothing was damaged during the winter storms and freezes.
Then, we have to wean them off of the supplemental hay that we provision through the colder months.
Finally, we prefer to have their annual veterinary exams completed while they’re still hanging out in the winter paddock.
We’re gradually working our way down that checklist. Even though the pastures aren’t quite ready yet and we’re still giving the bovines a bale of hay each morning, we were able to do their annual exams last week.
To facilitate these procedures, we closed the cattle in the Bud Box and then did a quick exam on each individual before letting them back out into the larger paddock. Dr. Erin led the exams as J.B. and I took notes and provided a little extra muscle (although even the two of us are relatively useless when the rowdy patient weighs over a thousand pounds).
The routine exams consisted of full body check-ups, hoof inspections, annual vaccinations, and follow-up diagnostics related to any minor health issues that caregivers had previously documented (e.g. Meredith’s brief “ain’t doin’ right” in January). As usual, Dr. Erin worked quickly; even the tamest of domestic cattle don’t particularly enjoy being confined and restrained for very long, which can cause them to grow fractious in a hurry.
Fortunately, we successfully completed the essential tasks and the cattle resumed their normal routine almost immediately. In addition to our meticulous documentation of the exam procedures and findings, we also managed to take some quick snapshots to share with you all.
We’re happy to report that everyone looked great and seems to be in prime physical condition. (Nutmeg, especially, is the epitome of health and oozes masculine confidence. If you’re not yet convinced, check out some of our past blogs about him. You’ll be in awe of this majestic lad.)
Now, the cattle only need their annual hoof trims and a little more growth in the pastures before they can resume their summer landscaping duties!
Negra was kind enough to let me take photos of her while she thought about lunch, got impatient about lunch, shouted at the kitchen staff about lunch, became overwhelmed at the sight of lunch, turned giddy in anticipation of eating lunch, and – at long last – ate lunch. It was a harrowing 2 minutes and 45 seconds.
A side note: I thought this would be a good opportunity to educate our readership about the somewhat arcane primatological term bed shoulder, which is a trait exhibited by a small number of apes that roll out of bed just before meals. Often accompanied by bed head unless cranial pelage is lacking.
Kelsi and I were cleaning the playroom this morning when Jamie got Kelsi’s attention and requested a walk (we’ve learned to read Jamie’s behavior pretty well, and she’s insistent until we figure out what she wants). It’s not unusual for Jamie to want to pull someone from cleaning to do her bidding. That’s what sanctuary is all about, right?
When Kelsi came back from the patrol around Young’s Hill, she was grinning – I could tell even with her mask on. She said she got some great video of Missy and Burrito playing while patrolling.
She was not wrong! It was a joy putting this video together.
Later in the day, during a lunch forage, Missy and Foxie scaled Negra’s Cabin at the same time (Burrito down below).
Foxie made it to the very top and secured some beets before climbing back down to where she had left her doll.
Soon enough, they were both off doing their own things separately.
Here’s a bonus photo of Spring Queen Negra:
On the other side of the building, Willy B laid down on the boardwalk, just as he did yesterday, soaking in the sun and taking cat naps. Spring is good!
Annie had a big day today. When her walking partners scattered in different directions halfway through their trek around the hill, she found herself alone at the bottom of the Twister. Rather than turn around to head home, she decided to head to the top of the tallest structure on the highest point of Young’s Hill. Yes, she’s climbed it before, but getting back down seems to have induced a certain amount of panic in the past. This time, she was as cool as a cucumber.
OK, climbing down is still a bit daunting.
But she’s got it under control.
On the other side, Willy B was engaged in courageous act of a different kind – more modest in scale (and about 22 feet closer to the ground) but no less heroic. For some chimps, just going outside requires a level of bravery that most of us could only aspire to.
This got me thinking about when the Cle Elum Seven first set foot on Young’s Hill back in 2011, and how Annie couldn’t have done it without help from her best friend, Missy. It’s inspiring to see how brave and independent she’s become and I have no doubt that Willy B will one day be following in Annie’s footsteps.
This morning, I was sweeping paper and other garbage into a pile in the playroom when Jamie started gesturing towards to me. It’s typical of her to ask for drinks from the hose while we clean but we hadn’t pulled the hose out yet. I soon realized that she was gesturing towards the pile of garbage, and upon closer inspection I saw that I had swept up some torn out and crumpled pages from one of her boot books. She wasn’t done with those yet! I picked them up and she ran excitedly to the day nest she had made in the corner of one of the front rooms. As I handed the pages to her, she emitted a low moan and stuffed them into her pelvic pocket.
Later, while scrubbing the floors, Diana pointed towards Jamie in the front rooms and suggested that I come take a look. She had filled a bucket with water from the lixit fountain, dumped her primate chow into the water, and was stirring the concoction with a plastic tube. She then used to tube to sip the chow water from the bucket and emitted a low moan each time she popped a soaked chow biscuit into her mouth.
She’s definitely her own person. So it should have come as no surprise when Diana caught Jamie taking carrot-peeling matters into her own hands the other day.
