Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

sanctuary northwest

All Work and Lots of Play

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As Anna mentioned yesterday, the humans are hard at work getting ready for our new arrivals. The quarantine area is almost done, with just a few items remaining on our punch list. The big project we’re working on now is the installation of an overhead chute that will connect the indoor quarantine enclosures to an extension of Young’s Hill. This will accomplish two things: First, it will give the new chimps a way to get some fresh air while they’re still under strict quarantine, which prohibits sharing access to the existing enclosures for health reasons; and second, it will provide the new chimps with a way to access Young’s Hill after quarantine but before they are fully integrated into the existing group. This second point is important, because successful introductions are never guaranteed and even successful intros can stretch on for many months.

The reason for elevating the chute is to maintain access for people and equipment around the building, something that gets trickier as sanctuaries grow and get more complex. Plus, chimps just seem to love overhead chutes.

The team behind the project is led by Gary McInnis of Sage Mechanical (pictured above with a section of the new chute outside his workshop). We were first introduced to Gary through our good friend Ozzie at Spencer Fluid Power, who generously donated a hydraulic unit to power the chimp doors we inherited from the former Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute. Gary visited the sanctuary with Ozzie last fall to help advise us and before long he had offered to donate all of the labor and materials required to hook up the doors. He then asked about the caging we were building and offered to do that job for 25% less than the lowest bid we receive. All told, Sage Mechanical has donated $35,000 worth of materials and labor this year to help us create a home for Honey B, Willy B, and Mave. It’s rare for us to get to work with a group as generous and committed to the sanctuary as Gary and his team.

While the humans are working hard to get everything ready, the chimps are free to do as they please. For Missy and Annie, that often means playing. For Negra, it usually means a good nap. But once and a while she will get a little playful, as you can see in the video above.

Day Nests

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At the end of each day, free-living chimpanzees build elaborate nests and go to sleep for the night. These night nests, typically built high up in the crown of a tree, are thought to serve a number of functions including thermoregulation, protection from predators and parasites, and shelter from the elements. According to one researcher who spent time sleeping both on the ground and in chimpanzee nests, they may also simply provide a more comfortable night’s rest. Chimpanzees spend considerable time selecting the proper trees and branches on which to build their nests and then weaving smaller branches and leaves together to form a mattress or basket. This investment of time and energy makes sense; after all, once they are asleep, it is only the quality of their nest keeping them from falling to the ground below.

Day nests, by contrast, are hastily constructed and typically far less structurally complex. They are also more likely to be made on or near the ground. Day nests are simply a place to relax for a moment before the group moves on to another spot.

The chimps at CSNW tend to follow a similar pattern when it comes to the elevation of their nests. Jamie and Foxie in particular regularly make their day nests on the floor of the playroom or front rooms but will make their night nests almost exclusively on elevated benches or catwalks (while Foxie doesn’t build elaborate nests like the others, she does engage in rudimentary nesting behavior). The biggest difference between the nests of the Cle Elum Seven and those of their wild counterparts is that the Seven’s day and night nests are equally complex. Perhaps this can be explained by the fact the the Cle Elum Seven don’t travel very far during the day, and thus they are free to spend as much time in their days nests as they’d like or even return to them throughout the day if they so choose.

In fact, it’s possible that Jamie’s day nests are even more complex than her night nests. This afternoon I watched her make a nest on the playroom floor. With her new favorite boots tucked into her “pelvic pocket,” she twirled fleece blankets in circles around her for several minutes, pushing and pulling each one to form the perfect shape. Then she carefully wove the ends of those blankets through nearby caging, as if to anchor the otherwise unstable nest to something sturdy. She pulled two of her new books close by, one on tractors and another on the chimpanzee children of Gombe, so that she could flip through them as she drifted off to sleep. To top things off, she pulled the last blanket over herself. With each step of this elaborate process she let out a low moan – a sign of contentment.

Happy 4th!

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Volunteers Patti, Lynn, and Andrew put together a great feast for the chimps’ 4th of July celebration. It all started with a lunch forage on the hill. Then for dinner, they had corn, potato salad, watermelon, and Field Roast veggie dogs in the greenhouse. Throw in a couple of pinatas and some inappropriately dressed troll dolls and you’ve got a real 4th of July party! You should have heard the food squeaking and screaming as we were setting up the forage in the greenhouse.

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Burrito:

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Jody:

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Missy:

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Annie:

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Foxie and her new trolls:

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Negra:

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Jamie:

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Another New Lens!

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We received a new telephoto camera lens from a wonderful supporter and friend of the chimps. We’re still trying to get the hang of it (it’s heavy!), but we managed to snap a few photos today as the chimps enjoyed a break in the gloomy weather we’ve been having lately. We are so grateful for donations like these that help us share the chimps’ stories with the rest of the world. Thank you Kathy!