Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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Human Problems

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Earlier, Diana and I were discussing how serving meals to the Seven has changed over the years. It used to be that you would grab the first course – tomatoes, for example – and serve each chimp his or her portion until that course was done. Then you’d move on to the next course. It’s not that they never became impatient but there was at least a logical and orderly process. But the chimps have turned everything upside down. Missy now has to eat her tomatoes first. Negra, on the other hand, has to have her chow first. Meanwhile, Jamie is going to have her leeks first and that’s not a request that’s an order. It’s not just a simple matter of preference – if they don’t get their desired food first, it’s a full-on hunger strike. So now we’re just grabbing food from this bowl and that bowl amidst a frenzy of Bronx cheers and spit. Sometimes I feel like it’s my first day as a waiter in a busy restaurant. OK, Table 2 wants water with no ice, Table 6 wants a large salad but in two small bowls, Table 9 is still waiting for their entree, and wait…was it no ice or extra ice for Table 2??

I used to be able to write down exactly who ate what and how much, but now it’s all a blur. Today’s log:

Lunch:

Chimps ate food.

Perhaps it has less to do with the chimps and more to do with the natural affects of aging on the brain. But I swear, somehow the Californians are even pickier! The problem over there is that Willy B can be a bully at mealtimes and Honey B is the Slowest Eater On The Planet. The number one rule for lower-ranking chimps is to consume your food as fast as possible. But Honey B doesn’t play by anyone’s rules. And who are you calling low-ranking, anyway? By the time Willy B is done and starting to get antsy, she’s still sitting on a pile of food just licking a piece of fruit and staring into your eyes.

Of course, these fall into the category known by the chimps as “Human Problems”, which as you might guess, are of no concern to them. As it should be.

We’re hiring!

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This spring we get to do something special, we get to hire 2 new employees to join our team! It’s extremely rare we get to actually create new positions, but as you might know, we are expanding our world to make more room for Honey B, Willy B and Mave and provide a new home for Cy, Lucky, Rayne, Terry, Dora, and Gordo!  An additional group of chimpanzees living at the sanctuary means we need more staff to help provide the excellent level of care we strive to achieve.  An added bonus for blog readers is that you’ll get to read stories from new blog authors and hear about the sanctuary from their unique perspectives.

Our first position we get to advertise for is for a Full-Time Chimpanzee Caregiver.

 

Feel free to help spread the word about this opportunity and stay tuned for our second job posting. We will also be advertising in the near future for a Full-Time Vet Tech/Caregiver position (job description coming soon). Looking forward to all the new exciting changes this year has in store for us!

Five Ways to be Cool Like Jamie

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Jamie is a complex individual. She is serious, but she has a sense of humor. Jamie is assertive, but also a little insecure. She has these amazing moments of tenderness, but will remind you she is someone not to mess with! Jamie remembers everything, she is also not one to forget. She isn’t afraid to speak her mind. And she is always doing the unexpected.

One of the things, well one of the many, I appreciate about Jamie is her decisiveness. Jamie is a person who knows what she likes. I personally, like to surround myself with assertive, bold, and unapologetic female figures. Jamie is all of those. So as a person who is never sure if they are making the right decision and not very assertive, you could see why I admire her so much.

I thought I would write up an easy 5 ways to be cool like Jamie.

1.) Find your passion!

Jamie, as we all know, loves boots, construction, walking on Young’s Hill, and flipping through her books!


2.) Never apologize.

Jamie isn’t afraid to tell someone they have stepped out of line. Don’t be afraid to share how you are feeling, but maybe out of for respect social norms, use words instead of projectiles ;). Also never apologize for being yourself, Jamie wouldn’t.

3.) Face you fears.

Jamie is always finding ways to push herself!

4.) Don’t forget to do your cardio.

Jamie is probably the toughest fitness instructor I have ever had. No excuses in her gym! If you want to be Jamie’s friend, you got to keep up!

5.) Always do what people won’t expect.

Jamie loves to surprise us. If you feel like wearing a scarf, do it! If you feel like randomly flipping upside down like a bat, do it! If you feel like putting your head in a box, why not! Or in today’s case if you just feel like being silly and laying on some firehose while your caregiver jumps up at you, she says do it!

Here is Jamie laying on some firehose!


She would lay on it and then have me jump as high as I could to reach her.

Jamie doesn’t let anything hold her back in life and you shouldn’t either.

Sleight of Hand

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One common question that we are asked right here on the blog, as well on Facebook and Instagram is how do we know what the chimpanzees are trying to tell us, or how do we know what they’re requesting. A lot of it has to do with gestural communication.

Throughout the years, studies have been conducted to study to what length nonhuman apes can learn a human language, specifically American Sign Language. Washoe and her chimpanzee family, Koko the gorilla, Chantek the orangutan, and even Kanzi the bonobo has learned to communicate using a Lexigram. But what about those who didn’t learn a human language or other human form of communication? What about just natural gestures?

All of the large-bodied apes use gestural communication. This includes chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans, gorillas, and of course us, humans. So hopefully it won’t come as a surprise there is some overlap. Not just within the gestures themselves, but how he learn and use them.

In some of the more recent studies, researchers have been looking for the intentionality of gestures. They adapted some methods child behaviorists look at in infant’s ability to learn and communicate using gestures. The some of the key things researchers look for are audience checking, response waiting, and persistence.

Audience checking is just as it sounds. Is the person who is about to try to communicate aware the intended recipient is paying attention to them? If so, they will proceed to gesture. If not, the communicator will adjust their position to ensure the recipient sees them, or do an attention getter. There’s no point in trying to do a visual form of communication if the recipient isn’t looking at you, right? In the case of some of the chimps here, the attention getting comes in different forms. For instance, Burrito will usually blow Bronx cheers or start kicking the caging. Honey B will blow Bronx cheers or clap her hands loudly. Jamie will sometimes throw things such as toys, alfalfa cubes, cowboy boots, etc.

Response waiting is when the communicator waits to see if you got the correct message. Did you fulfill their request?

If that message is not received correctly, then persistence comes about. Maybe you didn’t understand the first time, so the communicator will give you the gesture again or modify it to some degree to make sure you understand, which may include the use of additional gestures.

Most of the gestures the chimpanzees here use toward human caregivers are requests. And one of the simplest gestures to look for is pointing.

When Jamie wants to go for a walk around Young’s Hill, she will deploy her attention getter. Once she has our attention, she will point until we get whatever combination of caregiver and boots she has in mind. When a caregiver comes back with a pair of boots, but they are the wrong boots, she will proceed to continue point and waving her fist again. As we get closer to her perfect walking combination, her gesturing slows down. However if we are way off mark, it speeds up and usually includes her patting her own head and/or stomping her foot. Once the combination is found, she races to the Hill, with caregiver and boots in tow.

We, as caregivers, don’t just look for the pointing. We have to put into consideration the context of the situation. As some of you know, Jamie also loves Gator races. About half way up Young’s Hill, Jamie will stop, look at us, then turn to point in the direction of the Gator. This is one of the easiest ones caregivers caught on too because it’s unmistakable. The second we take a step in the direction of the Gator, Jamie stops her gesturing, and prepares to get a running head start.

Here is her Gator request in play.

Burrito, when he’s on his snowy treat kick, starts his Bronx cheers and points in the direction of snow.

This is another one we have come to understand very quickly. When I first started here, I would ask him what he was pointing at. As I would head outside looking around, his Bronx cheers would become louder, and he would point in different directions (if snow was everywhere), or if there was only a single patch of snow, he make sure he is pointing to that patch and start nodding his head. Once I give him his snowy treats, he will *usually* stop because his request was fulfilled.

However, as some of you know, Burrito’s snow addiction sometimes knows no bounds.

He will only stop until he has the right amount he is requesting.

One of the other easiest ones we know is when we are about to serve a food item that isn’t as high on there priority list. Negra and Foxie are masters at this one. Four fingers will protrude through the mesh to sort of push away the item.

If we attempt again to serve that item, the gesture occurs again and sometimes with a little swipe to let us know this is not what they want right now. Today, Kelsi was serving onions, both Negra and Foxie did the same gesture to let her know it was not time for onions. The time was for sweet potatoes.

 

There are many resources to learn about chimpanzee gestures. One of the most informative is The Great Ape Dictionary created by gesture researchers from the University of St. Andrews.

There is also a great NOVA Wonders documentary episode on PBS called What Are Animals Saying?

 

The Wolf of Walnuts

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Chimpanzees are experts at playing whatever hand nature deals for them.

In this weekend’s case, most of the chimps took advantage of the unusual warm weather by choosing to recreate outdoors. (If you’re wondering, Cle Elum’s average high temperature is 35F for January.) For the seven chimpanzees living on one side of the building, that meant another day of frequent romps around Young’s Hill with caregivers. Burrito, in particular, has been racing around the Hill with a new fervor lately.

Around mid-day, we closed the door separating Burrito’s group from the Hill and let the other three chimps have access to the Courtyard. Currently, Willy B is the only one of the three who ventures beyond the enclosed chute, initially doing so in pursuit of food. We don’t always scatter food out in the Courtyard now that he seems to go outside just for the sake of going outside, but I thought that an impromptu scavenger hunt might make the day a little more interesting for him. I tossed some raw, hard-shelled walnuts and tiny pieces of chewing gum over the fence before opening their door. Willy B immediately began his Courtyard ritual; he loped out onto the raised boardwalk, grabbed an easy walnut, and sat down to survey the landscape.

Surprisingly, Honey B was also extremely interested in the forage and eagerly scanned the Courtyard from the safety of the chute. This is a rare occurrence; both Honey B and Mave usually hang further back in the chute while Willy has the Courtyard to himself. Today, Honey B was almost certainly after the small tablets of sugar-free chewing gum, one of her favorite snacks. She eagerly collected the two pieces of gum that were closest to the doorway and grunted as she popped them into her mouth. Willy, on the other hand, was narrowly focused on the encapsulated legumes. Then, Honey B noticed a hidden walnut that Willy B had missed, just within reach. She slowly extended an arm out into the grassy Courtyard…

… but at that exact moment, Willy happened to turn towards the chute. He coincidentally saw Honey B reaching out from the chute and scolded her with a sharp sputter. Their relationship has been tested lately, so I was eager to see how the two strong-willed individuals would handle this conflict of interests. On Wednesday, Honey B furiously retaliated against Willy for stealing part of her breakfast and even won her food back. Such reversals are uncommon; subordinate chimps tend to respect the dominance hierarchy because compliance is both easier and safer than resisting. In general, maintaining stability is more important that whatever temporary reward is at stake.

As you can see in today’s photos, the two friends still have a few cuts from last week’s scrap but the normal dynamic seems to have returned. This afternoon, Honey B decided to not test Willy’s tolerance over a single walnut. Instead, she retreated, leaving Willy B the undisputed Walnut King.

While Willy was methodically gathering all the walnuts, the chewing gum was still available and unguarded. Honey B, who is still uncomfortable with the idea of leaving the chute, used the available tools to pull the gum closer and then scampered off with her due reward.

A visit from a friend

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You’ve probably heard by now that several members of a gorilla troop at the San Diego Zoo began exhibiting respiratory symptoms and later tested positive for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. This is a moment that we’ve all been fearing, and to a large extent expecting, since the pandemic began. From what we know, the gorillas’ symptoms are still mild and zoo officials are hopeful that they will fully recover. But there’s so much we still don’t know about the pathogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 in nonhuman apes.

The coronavirus isn’t the first airborne pathogen transmitted by humans to threaten the health of captive apes. Historically, one of the greatest concerns for captive ape populations has been tuberculosis, which is why most facilities, including CSNW, require staff and volunteers to be tested at least annually and avoid the sanctuary when exhibiting any new respiratory symptoms. But in rare cases, even something as seemingly innocuous as the common cold can have devastating effects on other apes, as we saw in the death of an otherwise healthy chimpanzee at the Lincoln Park Zoo in 2009. Incidents like this, and the lingering unknowns surrounding COVID in great apes, have led most institutions to further strengthen the precautions they take to protect the apes in their care. In the case of the gorillas at the San Diego Zoo, there’s nothing at all to suggest that a lack of adequate precautions contributed to the transmission. But it’s a stark reminder that we cannot let our guard down too soon.

Like our colleagues, we’re still doing what we can to protect the chimps from COVID based on the best information available. We wear masks at all times and don scrubs, gloves, and boots when around the chimps and when cleaning their enclosures or handling food and enrichment. We take the chimps’ temperatures as well as our own each morning. We’ve invested in several commercial air scrubbers, which have been shown to help filter the air of large airborne particles that may contain the virus. And we rely on a mix of natural ventilation via open doors and windows and our industrial ventilation systems to maintain fresh air in the building. We’re always thinking about what more we could do but there’s just no way to isolate captive apes from their human caregivers entirely.

One of the most difficult changes we had to make as a result of the pandemic, both for the staff and the chimps, was suspending our intern and volunteer program. Only two volunteers, Patti and Lisa, were able to meet our strict criteria for COVID precautions in their lives outside of the sanctuary, and we and the chimps are incredibly lucky to have them. But the chimps are missing many of their other friends.

Thankfully, spring-like weather has made socially distanced walks around the hill possible all winter long for our other local volunteer caregivers. And now, with our new building, we have several locations where the chimps’ friends can visit with them through glass without sharing the same air space. Long-time staff member turned volunteer, Elizabeth, came by this afternoon to see her chimp friends. Everyone was so excited to see her – Burrito even did his happy dance.

As COVID continues to challenge us all, we’re thankful for bright moments like these.

Honey B eagerly waits in the medical enclosure for Elizabeth to enter the new building
Honey B always gazes directly into your eyes
Mave saves her gazing for special occasions
The gang of seven heads out on a walk with an old friend
Burrito and Elizabeth walk off into the sunset