Sanctuary

One Queendom Two Queens

October 22, 2022 by Sofia Castro-Loza

Here in Chimpanzee Sanctuary, we have a member of true chimpanzee royalty. Negra, first of her name, Queen of the Chimp House. The first 30 years of Negra’s life, after being captured in the wild, were filled with laboratory procedures, an unjustified prolonged period of isolation time, and general despair. Since 2008 Negra has been ruling the Chimp House with an iron fist, determination and self assurance. That said, in this Queendom, there is room for two queens. In the past, Jody was crowned Queen of Nest Building and Relaxation for her love of building amazingly intricate nests to rest in, and then carrying them around the Chimp House. But today, I want to officially add another tittle.

Humans, I here present unto you Queen Jody, your undoubted Queen of Nest Building, Relaxation, and BUBBLES.

There is enough space for these two queens. Negra in the back, Jody in the front.

Queen Negra herself.

Video: The Chimps are Back on the Hill

October 20, 2022 by J.B.

As you may have seen in yesterday’s blog post, the Seven are back on the hill! Here’s the video, as promised.

In case it’s not clear, we had to take down the original fence so that we could expand the overall habitat area and split it into two enclosures. The Young’s Hill side, which belongs to the Cle Elum Seven, was pushed further up the hill and to the north and grew by an additional half acre to 2.4 acres. This was only possible because we purchased the surrounding lots and no longer have to worry about encroaching development (after closing on another parcel yesterday, the sanctuary now owns approximately 110 acres). More space means more room for climbing structures, irrigation, and plantings, and we still have a lot of work ahead of us in that department, but we wanted to get the Seven back out as soon as the fence was complete. Perhaps more important than the expansion in habitat size, Young’s Hill now includes a stand of pine and fir trees, which Missy has already conquered. Who will be next?

One thing to note: Negra is not in the video as she did not go outside on the first day. Too many people and too much excitement, perhaps. But she just went out for a lunch forage this afternoon, so the Queen is also back on the hill.

Now that they are back out, we can turn our attention to completing the Bray. The Sage Mechanical crew is welding the remaining gates and post assemblies now and it will be at least a few weeks before we can complete the fencing on that side. We were fortunate from a construction standpoint to have a prolonged summer but fall weather arrives this weekend and winter won’t be far behind. So the timing for Cy’s group to learn about electric fencing and explore their new enclosure is somewhat up in the air. Whatever happens, we’ll work as fast as we can to keep our options open.

Our thanks go out to all of the donors that made this project possible. I also want to thank Dustin and East Slope Earthworks, Katie, Sean, Dusty, Ben, Karen, Richard, Elizabeth, Tom, Gordy, Steve, Debbie, Donna, Laurie, Kurt, Kristin, Jeremy, Liz, Michael, Lisa, Jesse, Adam, Kyle, Grace, Ryan, Jacob, Nolan, Karen, Claus, Logan, Kyle, Jan, Chet, Sabrina, Brenda, and Chelsey for volunteering their time and energy to help build the habitats. My apologies to anyone I accidentally left off the list. And of course we are grateful to Gary, Aaron, and Jose of Sage Mechanical for all of their hard work on this project. There’s something about the fact that these habitats are built by a community of supporters that makes them even more special.

Let Tree-dom Ring

October 19, 2022 by Kelsi

Well, we have some exciting news! I am not sure if anyone picked up on Anthony or Chad’s very subtle hints, but today Jamie’s group received access back to the new and improved Young’s Hill! For those who might be wondering about Cy’s group, the Bray Hill isn’t quite ready yet.

This afternoon, watching the seven go back out into their outdoor enclosure was a spectacular event to witness! I will share a few highlights of the day and tomorrow JB will have a video with more details to share!

Annie trying out new structures:

Burrito exploring:

Fearless little Foxie:

Missy and Annie inspecting:

Jody:

Jody and Foxie checking out their new structure:

Chad took this photo of Jamie. To me, this photo is the epitome of sanctuary:

Also this photo of Jamie, she looks so happy:

Maybe one of the best highlights of the day is Missy being the first to climb the trees! We humans and probably Jo were all holding our breath, but also so excited to watch Missy agilely climb a tree for the first time EVER!!!

Jody watching Missy climb a tree:

Jody and Annie monitoring Missy closely from the ground:

“Here I sit beneath a tree. Heartbeat calm. Soul hums free.”

– Angie Weiland-Crosby

Go Nuts For Coconuts

October 18, 2022 by Chad de Bree

When caregivers get done cleaning the playrooms, we usually put a forage inside to convince the chimpanzees to take up our invitation to go into the newly cleaned area and leave the one we want to close off to clean. These forages are smaller than the lunch forages and more often than not made of greens like lettuce, cabbage, kale, etc. But every so often we like to surprise them with something a little more exciting. Today, their invitation was made for them to go nuts! It was coconuts!

The chimpanzees seemed to really love it. Especially Burrito! As you can see in the video, sometimes the anticipation is the best part of the of the excitment of things to come!

Here are some photos of Negra with the pieces of coconut she got during the forage:

And Jody and Jamie enjoying a browse of cornstalks in their Greenhouse:

And this guy (Burrito!) playing with caregiver Kelsi!

And as a reminder, the Countdown to Jamieween has begun! There are still some items on the wish list we think she and her family would like!

Spectators

October 17, 2022 by Anthony

The chimps in Jamie’s group have been supervising the expansion and renovation of their outdoor enclosure, Young’s Hill.

It’s been a few months since J.B. gave this detailed progress report on the project, and it’s been several weeks since Chad posted this update that the chimps would be temporarily without access to The Hill. J.B., volunteers, and the team from Sage Mechanical have been working around the clock since then to quickly make the necessary additions and improvements (including moving the lookout tower to a new home). Staff have tagged in this week to help put up the last few sections of fencing and clean up the area in preparation for chimpanzees.

The chimps remain interested in all the work, but they seem to be less anxious and more curious now that Young’s Hill appears ready. We still need to conduct a comprehensive safety and security check, but it won’t be long before we let them go out and explore their new backyard.

Jamie viewing the new enclosure:

A new path leading to the Young’s Hill perimeter:

Ponderosa pines next to the new fences:

The new access gates:

Annie watching Chad and J.B. working:

The shady new location of Carlene’s Tower:

New vegetation planted in an irrigated section of Young’s Hill:

The driveway up to the new Young’s Hill gate:

The view from the new perimeter:

Foxie watching curiously:

You may have noticed the construction materials scattered around outside the enclosure. There is still much work to be done on the other side of the hill, and we’re not really “cleaning up” as much as we are migrating to the other side. From their south-facing greenhouse enclosures, the chimps in Cy’s group monitored the construction of the sanctuary’s second open-top enclosure, lovingly named The Bray.

The Sage Mechanical crew shifted their focus to The Bray as soon as they finished their work on Young’s Hill, so they were working right in front of the chimpanzees today. The chimps acted like spectators, bringing their breakfast chow up to the platforms in order to get the best view. Some of them even asked their caregivers to serve them their meals out there instead of in the interior hallway.

Katelyn serving Terry outside:

The unfinished Bray containing a few familiar structures:

Jose from Sage Mechanical working within view of the chimps:

J.B. working with Chad to install the final section of snake exclusion fence:

Gary’s arsenal of power tools:

The crew transporting fence posts with the telehandler:

Gordo watching Gary’s telehandler go by:

Ryan’s Lookout, a new installation that will be a keystone structure in The Bray:

Keep a close eye on the blog this week for further updates!

Language of Sanctuary

October 16, 2022 by Grace

Sanctuaries are unique places, built out of the necessity to provide nonhuman primates that have endured years in biomedical research a satisfactory place to retire & live out their life with as much autonomy as possible. While this grounds us in everything we do & every decision we make, it also lends to a unique work place and culture. One of the factors of this unique workplace is the language that gets used!

We’ve talked before on the blog about specific phrases that get used often, i.e. “The chimps are off the hill”, but there are also specific ways we talk about the chimps throughout our day. This is one of the most interesting aspects of sanctuary culture, at least to me, and although we’ve likely covered it in a blog before- I thought it was time to bring it back. 🙂

One of the phrases that is used, maybe most often, is that we are serving the chimps a meal. While a lot of us come to the sanctuary using the phrase “feed the chimps”, serving is a more inclusive term that encourages thinking about the chimps as equals. Just as we go to a restaurant and get served our meal, the chimps also choose to come to a meal to get served items from the menu!

Another commonplace term used around here is referring to the chimps as people! Chimps are not human, of course, but they are people with unique personalities. So, you will often hear caregivers say things like “there are a few people being really playful in playroom one!”.

When shifting the chimps or when we are about to serve them a meal, we use the term “inviting” when referring to a certain space. So, if I was about to give Jamie’s group access to the greenhouse and try to close the front rooms off for cleaning, I would say “I am going to invite Jamie’s group into the greenhouse and try to close off the front rooms”. The term invite is appropriate here, because we are giving them the choice- if they choose to leave the front rooms I would close them for cleaning. If not, and someone (likely Jody) has decided that I should not get the front rooms that day, then so be it! We will clean them tomorrow. 🙂

Along with these specific phrases, there are the little ones used so commonly throughout the day that they’re not coming to mind. Foxie or another chimp asking for someone or something, for example.

These terms and phrases may take a while to roll of the tongue, but once they do you realize how natural it is- and then you discover that you have a hard time explaining why they’re used! At the end of the day, our priority is giving our residents (ooh, there’s another one) as much autonomy and choice as possible. This includes giving them the respect they deserve, which lends itself to the language that we use. The language of sanctuary is truly special and it helps put everything into perspective when we think about how we are guests in their home, and should act accordingly.

Here’s some photos of some awesome people in their home! 🙂

Jamie, this morning with her DIY Bolo-Tie in the greenhouse:

Cy, resting his head in his hand:

Foxie, enjoying the morning in the greenhouse:

Gordo, during a lunch forage:

Jamie, resting with her favorite bonobo book:

Missy, trying to talk me into snagging her some tomatoes from the garden:

Lucky, being her sweet-self:

Terms of Endearment

October 12, 2022 by Kelsi

Most of us grew up having a nickname or two. Here at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, we have quite a few nicknames for the chimps! We have shared their nicknames over the years, but with new chimps comes new names! I have gathered what I think are most of the nicknames from staff that we call the chimps. Some names are cute while others are silly, I know I am missing a few, but here they are!

Terry: Terrance, Sir Terrance, Tare Bear, T, Terry the Tongue, Teeny Tiny Terry (it’s funny because he is not tiny, but is a gentle giant)

Honey B: Little Bean, Bean, Chickpea, Chicky, Chickabee, Honey Badger, B, BB, HB, Beezus.