It’s so hard to get any work done around here with all of these distractions.
Honestly, though, Burrito is as playful as I’ve ever seen him lately. So if I get a little behind on my other work, you know who to blame.
rescue
Racing at Sunset
The other night, Jamie was walking around Young’s Hill with Diana (and Meredith) after all of the other chimps had gone to bed. As I went to put the Gator back into the barn, she signaled that she wanted to race. So we did. And we were lucky enough to do it with one of the most beautiful sunsets as our backdrop. Strange job, indeed.
As a bonus, here are some photos our our man Willy B from this morning. He dined in on the first level of the platform with the lettuce he’d picked up along the way, but he took the orange on the second level to go. Mave reached out to grab some lettuce from the boardwalk but she has yet to come all the way out. And Honey B is content for now to watch from above in the chute. All in good time.
Band of Mothers
This sanctuary is full of mothers. We spent the day honoring them.
For those of you who may not already know, five of the sanctuary’s ten chimpanzee residents (Annie, Foxie, Jody, Missy, Negra) were used for breeding in their past lives as biomedical research subjects. All of their children were taken from them immediately after birth, thus denying them the ability to care for and raise their offspring. Their infants were raised in laboratories as a scientific resource, but this practice was incrementally brought to a halt. Some of their sons and daughters made it to sanctuaries where several are still enjoying their retirements.
Missy’s daughter, Honey B, was transferred to this sanctuary last summer when the facility that previously cared for her, the Wildlife Waystation, permanently shut down. It was unfortunate that so many individuals lost their homes, but it was serendipitous that we were finishing a new wing of enclosures exactly when Honey B and her companions needed it most. (Note: The sanctuary community is currently raising funds that will care for the Waystation’s remaining chimpanzees and help create new homes for them at reputable sanctuaries. You can visit this page to learn more!) Missy and Honey B were able to meet, but it’s unlikely that they recognized each other. Amid the drama of attempting to integrate their two groups, their face-to-face meeting was relatively uneventful. Still, we sometimes notice that Honey B has a tinge of Missy infused in her personality and appearance. There are many ways in which they differ, but Honey B occasionally behaves with a Missy-like flavor. Notably, they both play chase the same way. Today, Chad managed to capture portraits of the two in the same pose and posted it on the sanctuary’s Instagram, so you can all see it for yourselves.
Today’s festivities weren’t centered around that relationship alone. Every year, we celebrate Jody‘s birthday on Mother’s Day. Nobody knows Jody’s real birthday, but we do know that she gave birth to nine infants during her time in the laboratory. All were taken from her. We would never allow the chimpanzees to breed since we would be furthering a practice that we aim to end and condemning yet another chimpanzee individual to a life of captivity. Nevertheless, Jody possesses a tender maternal spirit and serves as a guardian and peacemaker within her group of seven adult chimps. It seems like Jody was born for motherhood and, despite her tragic past, she has found a new way to fulfill that duty with enthusiasm.
The chimps aren’t the only ones who have brought new life into this world. The sanctuary’s small herd of four cattle consists of two mother-offspring pairs; the enormous steer Nutmeg is Betsy’s son and Meredith is Honey’s daughter. Among the humans, current staff members Erin and Anna are mothers to children of their own when they aren’t busy caring for chimps. Recently, we received the good news that our friend and former coworker, Keri, joyously welcomed her second child, Skyler, into her family. This is just one of the many ways by which the CSNW family continues to grow.
For all of these reasons and more, today is an important day to celebrate mothers of all species, whether they were allowed to raise their own children or not.
Chad, our Enrichment Coordinator, assembled a celebratory forage of lilac flowers, corn, bell peppers, and sweet potatoes. Honey B and Mave tried lilacs for the first time and loved them, although Willy B wouldn’t even give them a taste and seemed way more interested in climbing the outdoor structure yet again. Of course, Jody savored her floral snacks while her six companions scoured the Hill for caches of food. As a whole, the chimps thoroughly enjoyed the midday celebration and spent most of the afternoon resting and foraging in the warm sunshine of late spring. I have included some photographs of today’s events (taken by Katelyn, Chad, and I).
Whether you are a mother or not, we hope you enjoyed this celebratory Sunday and showed appreciation for the people who shaped you into the person you are today.
Go, Willy B, Go!
I was listening to a podcast yesterday about negativity bias. The idea, put simply, is that negative information has a greater effect on our emotional state and perception of the world than neutral or positive information. There are good evolutionary reasons for this asymmetry. Learning how to pick the ripest, sweetest fruit is certainly helpful, as anyone who has bitten into a mealy apple can attest, but you may not get a second chance to learn what a venomous snake looks like. The salience of negative experiences means they are more easily seared into our brains and resonate longer. Though it may be adaptive, this bias is often ill-suited to modern life. These days we are awash in information and there’s no shortage of negative experiences to choose from, a fact made clear whenever I am foolish enough to read comments on the sanctuary’s YouTube channel before going to bed.
Which is why we all need Willy B right now.
Granted, watching adult chimpanzees overcome their fear of the outdoors is a painful reminder of their tragic pasts. My heart aches as I watch Willy B make false start after false start while he works up the courage to venture out under open skies. Or when he clings desperately to familiar objects, stretching as far as he can to reach into the grass without taking his foot off of the boardwalk that is his lifeline. Or when he climbs clumsily up the ladder, searching for his footing, in a way that is completely uncharacteristic of a species so powerful and agile and for whom climbing should be as natural as breathing.
But we are so fortunate to witness his determination. To feel his courage. To share in his wonderment as he discovers the world around him and beneath his feet.
There could very well be setbacks to come, but Willy B’s efforts this past week have been deeply inspiring. To be honest, I have had trouble doing anything other than sitting quietly by the fence to watch it all unfold. There are so many other things to do and so much going on in the world deserving of attention. But Willy B is the story I need right now. And it’s been amazing to share it in real time with you, knowing that we are all cheering him on together.
Small steps
One of the ongoing and typically lengthy discussions at our weekly staff meetings involves coming up with ways to encourage Honey B, Willy B, and Mave to go outside. Would a forage in the courtyard help motivate them or lead to frustration? Does the presence of staff reassure them or do we make them nervous? How can we modify the chute or the courtyard to put them more at ease? While we are willing to try anything and everything within reason, we also know from experience with the Seven that it often just takes time.
I’m excited to share that Willy B’s time may have arrived because this morning he took a few small steps outside.
During his first few attempts, he clung with one hand to the inside of the chute, leaning out as far as he could without losing his connection to something safe and familiar. Once back in the chute, he would psych himself up for another go while tapping his knuckles on the floor, all while keeping his eyes on the prize – a handful of grapes, scattered just outside the door. Eventually, when he had retrieved all of the grapes within reach, he released his grip on the caging and sat squarely outside of chute on the boardwalk. It was then that he stopped reaching for grapes altogether and just sat for a moment to look around. Over the course of about 30 minutes he did this again and again, until he decided that he’d had enough for one day and returned to the building. Sometimes we make progress in small steps.
You wouldn’t know it now, but many of the Cle Elum Seven were just as terrified to go onto Young’s Hill when they first had the chance. Missy and Jamie took to it almost immediately, but Annie, Burrito, Foxie, Jody, and Negra were extremely hesitant (click the links for blog posts we wrote at the time). It took time – in some cases months or years – and plenty of encouragement from friends for them to overcome their fears.
Here’s Jamie, back in 2011, throwing her arm around her pal Foxie to encourage her to walk further outside.
And here’s Foxie again, this time with a little extra motivation…
We hope that Willy B will step further and further outside each day. Who knows, maybe one day he can be the one to throw a reassuring arm around Mave or to lure Honey B through the grass by carrying her favorite scooter or fanny pack. And just as it was for the Seven, the once-terrifying great outdoors can finally start to feel like home.
Growing Old(er) Together
Today I turn 47. On June 13th we will celebrate Queen Negra’s 47th birthday.
I hope you will consider honoring us both today, as well as supporter Monica Best, who had her own birthday last week, by donating to our GiveBIG page.
In truth, we don’t know exactly how old Negra is or what day she was actually born. No one celebrated her birthday before she came to the sanctuary. This year, however we are inviting all of you to join her birthday celebration.
We chose June 13th to celebrate her because it was the day she and her six friends arrived at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest in 2008. It marked a new birth for her and for all seven of the chimpanzees.
When Negra and her friends arrived, I was the Director of Outreach for the sanctuary and J.B. was the Director of Operations. We had met the chimpanzees at the Buckshire Corporation months previously and wrote about those early meetings when this blog was in its own infancy.
I absolutely do not have a favorite chimpanzee. I truly love them all. There’s something unique about each of them that makes me admire and appreciate them. That said, it didn’t take me very many visits to confess my love for Negra.
Back in 2008 when so many people were working incredibly hard to get the chimpanzees to CSNW, I never would have guessed that I would still be here twelve years later. And I definitely would not have guessed that Negra would still be here.
Supporter Kathleen Corby, in wishing me a happy birthday today, reminded me of this blog post I wrote about Negra a couple of years ago.
There’s probably a common theme to many of the posts I’ve written about Negra, who was the oldest of the group. The theme, whether written explicitly or just implied, is the limited amount of time Negra might have to experience her sanctuary life and therefore, indeed, every single moment was invaluable.
Witnessing Negra do even the simplest things brings me immense joy, like when she was eating scraps in the greenhouse last week:
or swinging from the fire hose Super Negra style the other day:
Not bad for a 47 year old, if I do say so myself.
Two days ago, Kelsi and Chad were attempting to close up the chimp house after dinner. J.B. and I live in the residence on the property, a stone’s throw from the chimps’ home. I had gone outside to take some trash out, and I noticed Kelsi and Jamie on a walk. Jamie noticed me too and insisted I join them.
One walk turned into a few walks. After a bit, Chad went home and Kelsi went back inside to finish up some tasks.
It was the most beautiful evening I have ever experienced at the sanctuary. The weather was perfectly comfortable, with very little wind, which is unusual in the spring. The grass had taken on that almost unbelievably green luminescence, there were flowers, birds, and squirrels in every direction, and the fruit trees were attracting thousands of pollinating insects. Life was literally everywhere.
The cows were grazing on one side of me while Jamie slowly sauntered on the other side. She was picking dandelions, eating their stems, and discarding the flowers.
There was a magazine article that came out several years ago that described the sanctuary property as bucolic. At the time, it made me laugh. Only a writer who lived in a big city would use that word to describe the grounds. But the other night as I looked around, listening to the cows happily grazing, watching the swallows flitting by, and walking ever so slowly on the other side of a fence from a chimpanzee, the word came back to me. If ever there was a bucolic scene, even with the unusual addition of a chimpanzee, it was this.
Jamie’s walking ritual has always presented opportunities for me to reflect. It’s ironic, in a way. Jamie can be a very intense individual. No one would describe her as laid back. But her need to walk and her desire to have a human join her has helped me on multiple occasions tamp down my own moments of intensity, allowing me to relax and be in the moment.
And so it was the other night as we walked or just stood and took in the bucolic scenery around us.
When she was finally satisfied with walking, we settled in the greenhouse so she could groom the boots on my feet, as that is perhaps the most important part of her ritual.
I took this photo of her hand holding the stick that she poked through the mesh to groom my boot:
I’ve been noticing those hairs on Jamie’s hands for about a year. Like humans, as chimpanzees age, sometimes their hair loses pigment and fades to gray.
Foxie too has been collecting gray hair these last few years. Here’s a photo I took of her the day after her exam as she lie perfectly content with her purple haired doll. In addition to the gray hair, we know from Foxie’s radiographs from earlier this week that she has arthritis in one of her hips. Other than those normal signs of aging, she seems to be in tip-top shape.
We’ve long described the chimpanzees as aging in reverse. They really did gain years on their lives when they arrived at the sanctuary. There is no denying now that they are aging in a forward direction.
Just like me.
Just like all of us.
Every moment is precious because there are a finite number of moments, and we don’t know what that number is. It’s both the tragedy and also the incredible beauty of our own lives and of caring for other living beings.
Who would have guessed that we would be so lucky to have had so many moments – coming up on twelve years worth of them – with these special seven chimpanzees, and now with three more special chimpanzees and four very cool cattle.
What a privilege to be getting older with all of them. And what a privilege that you are here too, a part of all of our lives.
An exam for Foxie
As I type this, Foxie is recovering uneventfully from anesthesia after a full workup.
Diana mentioned a while back that Foxie hadn’t been feeling well, and while she did get her appetite and energy back it took longer than we would have liked and thus warranted further investigation. As many of you know, we’ve long referred to Foxie as “Tiny” due to her diminutive stature. She simply can’t afford to get too much tinier.
As always, we are grateful to Dr. Erin as well as the medical and veterinary professionals that volunteered their time and expertise to help ensure that Foxie stays well.
We’ll know more once we run labs and consult with other specialists on the imaging, but so far we haven’t seen anything alarming. And her recovery from the procedure has been great – before she had even regained enough balance to walk, she managed to find and hold onto a Dora the Explorer doll. For the rest of the afternoon she’ll sip Sprite and rest up, and then hopefully get a good night’s sleep so that she can rejoin her family in the morning. Jody, in particular, did not want to leave her side this morning and will be relieved to be with her again.
