Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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Sanctuary

Spring-Time Sundays… Snake Edition

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When I pulled into work this morning, my plan for the blog was to talk about how it officially feels like spring-time on Jamie’s side of the building. Some panels were taken off the Greenhouse last week and this opens up the opportunity for caregivers to serve meals outside, to better see the chimps and their interactions, and participate in enthusiastic games of chase with a certain someone (ahem, Burrito). It was going to be beau-ti-ful. This all changed, though, when caregiver Katelyn and myself were cleaning the playroom and heard the tell tale sign of something slithery and sinister.

We heard Annie alarm calling and went out to see what was wrong. The chimps (except for Negra, who was in the greenhouse) were all out near a platform on Young’s Hill. We could tell they had discovered a snake and we even saw Jamie grab and throw it. Thankfully, our team has worked on recall with Jamie’s group for this exact reason and we were able to get all 7 chimps off of Young’s Hill. This was my first ever snake-on-the-hill scenario and I have to be honest- searching through tall grass for an unidentified slithery someone is not on the top of my list of preferred activities, but we grabbed the snake catcher and were on our way. Anthony and I took part in the snake search and it involved many renditions of “Who ya gonna call? Snake-busters!”.

Anthony snagged this photo of myself on the hill with our snake catcher, our tool that allows us to humanely grab the snake while we get the tote in place.

After a little while searching, we spotted the two (!) slithery fiends. Can you find them? Extra points if you can, the photo is from my phone and is very pixelated.

When we got off the hill, Jamie and Annie were waiting to see whether we had been successful.

And we had been! I was able to catch one of the snakes, while the other one went sprinting up the hill. We continued the search, but it had sped up, off, and away. Anthony took our little friend and released it away from the chimp house after I snagged this photo of it from the top of the snake capture tote. Thankfully, it was a non-venomous racer (Coluber constrictor)… and I am officially adding snake catcher to my list of skills. 

While this isn’t the first snake we’ve seen this year, and it won’t be the last, it is reassuring that it was non-venomous and that we were able to get it off the hill. Since it was such a beautiful day and we were already on the hill, we decided to make the most of it and have a hill forage!

Burrito enjoying some avocado on Young’s Hill.

Jody brought her loot back into the Greenhouse, where she could watch the rest of the group participate in the forage.

Jamie with a mouth and hand full of peppers, climbing to the top of a Young’s Hill structure.

Annie having a quiet moment after foraging.

Happy Sunday, everyone!

Honey B’s 33rd Birthday Movie

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How lucky are we that we have so many celebrations in June!

Also, how lucky are we to have such amazing supporters?! Your comments about caregivers for Animal Sanctuary Caregiver Day will be read over and over again. We are all so grateful to have you all behind us all, providing so much encouragement and sharing your kind words.

Speaking of supporters, Paulette sponsored Honey B’s birthday today. It seemed like an extra special celebration in my view because she had more friends to share in her fun. I hope you enjoy the video, and I hope you enjoy this photo of Honey B looking into your eyes the way she looks into the eyes of her caregivers each day ;).

 

The 4th Annual Running of the Cows

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Past the wetlands, up the mountain, across the stream, between the scary gates, and through the forest to the upper pasture we go! It’s time once again for the cows to head to their summer pastures. And this year, they’re exploring a new part of the sanctuary’s 90-acre property.

As you may know, the cows actually moved a few weeks ago but I’ve only now gotten the chance to put a video together. They’ve really been enjoying the upper pond pasture and most nights they don’t even return to the barn.

We’d like to express our gratitude for your kind and generous comments on yesterday’s blog about Animal Sanctuary Caregiver Day. Diana and I, along with the Board of Directors, are grateful for the staff every day but you all have expressed our sentiments better than we ever could. Though we will be getting them food next week and it turns out you can actually say a lot with food.

Speaking of caregivers, we’d like to introduce you to our newest staff member, Jenna! Jenna interned at CSNW while attending Central Washington University and then gained valuable experience at other chimpanzee sanctuaries before returning to the northwest. I’ll let her more fully introduce herself next week in her first CSNW blog post.

Here’s Jenna getting in good with the boss:

Playing with Missy

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As many of you know Missy is what we call a chimps’ chimp. She will have these amazing long play sessions with her chimp friends. But as for us human friends she will bless us with a play session from time to time. So when you get to play it doesn’t matter how long it lasts, it’s just special that it happened!

Bonus photos!

Jody enjoying some yellow goats beard flowers:

Negra foraging for grass:

Gordo was hanging out in the sunny warm Riverview greenhouse. Look how handsome he is!!

Gordo grooming himself:

 

 

The Boss Has Returned

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First thing is first. I want to apologize to you all! With all the excitement of planning, setting up, and watching Dora’s birthday celebration yesterday, I forgot to provide all of you, our wonderful supporters and followers, an update on Jamie’s recovery. Dr. Erin said she was recovering so well that she could be reunited with her family, and just in time for the Tiny Forage Celebration yesterday. I will take the blame on that one.

Yes! The boss has returned and it was as if nothing had happened during her absence. She seamlessly reestablished herself in her group with no fuss from the others. We are still monitoring her recovery sites to make sure everything continues to heal properly and no one messes with it too much. *ahem*Dr. Missy*ahem*

With Jamie’s couple day absence, she has been eager to get back to her morning patrols around Young’s Hill.

While we were on our first patrol of the day, I watched as both Missy and Annie foraged for morning prickly lettuce.

With it being such a nice day, Missy and Annie’s morning foraging made it seem like it was a great day to hold a lunch forage. Since we had some leftovers from yesterday’s celebration, and they seemed excited for that menu, we included that into their lunch! (With the addition of bok choy.)

As they went onto Young’s Hill, Jamie was carrying a bag of primate chow that was given to her earlier. As she made her way up the hill, she decided she couldn’t be bothered carrying around her bag of chow. Once she left her bag behind, there was a very exciting food grunting of the one who snatched it up. It was none other than Negra!

Jamie seemed to think carrying around her chow occupied her hands, which she needed to grab as much food as she could:

Missy made her rounds collecting as many tomatoes as should could:

Jody made off with a nice haul:

After finishing the extra bag of chow she “found,” Negra’s eyes were set on bok choy:

And then there’s this guy:

He was enjoying his forage and got a good amount…

Until this…

After having his fill, he noticed this caregiver taking photos.

And the Bronx cheers began:

It was off to the races for us and that ended my photography duties on that side of the Chimp House for the day.

It was a pleasant day all around!

*Bonus Photos*

Willy B, Dora, and Mave in a grooming line:

Rayne eating her dinner corn:

Once again, I want to thank everyone involved in making yesterday possible. Without your support and donations, we wouldn’t be able to throw such a successful party! There are other way to help as were continue our day-to-day tasks and prepare for our next celebration (Honey B’s birthday June 11th!). Be sure to check out our wishlist to see what we need to continue providing the best care that we can for these 20 (bovine included) unique personalities.

Dora’s 33rd Birthday!

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Today we celebrated Dora’s 33rd birthday! When trying to think of a theme for a party that fits each individual, it has been a tad difficult to think of themes for the new group who arrived almost one year ago(!). And since then, the two groups from the former Wildlife Waystation have come together to form a group of nine. Parties can sometimes be a very high arousal situation, which can result in some fierce competition, which in turn can sometimes lead into fights. So as with Mave’s party last month, we wanted to keep it exciting, but not too exciting. And as caregiver Grace just said passing by as I was trying to think of how to explain it to you all, “It was a big party of the tiniest things, for the tiniest person with a big personality.” What that means is we had tiny everything!

On today’s menu was: baby bananas, mini bell peppers, grape tomatoes, brussel sprouts, baby and mini carrots, baby beets, fingerling potatoes, mini cucumbers, and kumquats!

Even the other Tiny and her group were able to celebrate with tiny foods in honor of their neighbor, Dora!

And a huge thank you to Paulette Wrisley for sponsoring Dora’s big day and helping make today’s celebration possible!

Here are some photos from the celebrations!

Gordo foraging during the party:

Mave enjoying a mini cucumber:

Willy B foraging around:

Foxie with a mouthful of mini peppers:

Today’s birthday spread:

The Birthday Girl, Dora!

Dora and a peering Terry:

The birthday girl seemed quite pleased with her party:

Playtime with Honey B:

Happy Birthday, Dora!!!!

[Terrible art work was brought to you by a mysterious person and definitely NOT the enrichment coordinator ;)]

Jamie’s surgery

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Yesterday, Jamie underwent surgery to repair an anal fistula. As I write this, she is bright, alert, and recovering well.

This is a problem we’ve been aware of and have been treating for some time. If you’re not familiar with fistulas, they are small tunnels that connect an infected gland within the anus to an opening on the skin outside the anus. They can be painful and may result in recurring infections and chronic discharge from the opening.

When Jamie’s fistula first appeared, Dr. Erin consulted with other veterinarians and several colorectal surgeons on a course of action. While we were prepared to perform the surgery at that time, and even got as far as purchasing plane tickets for a surgeon from Missouri that had worked on a chimpanzee before, in the end the consensus was that if Jamie was cooperative we could manage her symptoms without surgery. Most humans with the means to do so would probably choose fistula repair, but chimpanzees are somewhat different in that they don’t experience any stigma from fistula symptoms. If we could keep the infection at bay and provide pain relief, we could avoid the trauma of surgery and recovery as well as any potential complications. Jamie was incredibly cooperative – she would allow us (usually Diana, who was her positive reinforcement trainer) to irrigate the tracts with antiseptic solution using a plastic-tipped syringe.

While this had the desired effect at first, over time the infections became more frequent. After additional consultation with colleagues who were planning a similar surgery at an Australian zoo, Dr. Erin decided that it would be in Jamie’s best interest to have her fistulas repaired. Dr. Petty, a colorectal surgeon from Kittitas Valley Hospital in Ellensburg, volunteered to perform the procedure.

Jamie willingly accepts injections – everything from vaccines to anesthetics – so she was ready to go even before we were yesterday morning. She was wheeled into the clinic and masked prior to intubation.

The rest of the team prepared to give Jamie a complete exam while Dr. Petty performed the procedure.

Dr. Petty was pleased to find that most of the tracts were near the surface, which would mean a quicker surgery and faster healing. Fistulotomies, wherein the tracts are opened surgically to heal from the inside out, are often simple enough to be outpatient procedures for humans, but chimps don’t always follow the same level of post-operative care so we will be paying extra close attention to how she heals.

Sofia and Dr. Erin performed a head-to-toe exam while Anthony oversaw the procedure checklist and took photos and video.

Jamie was given an abdominal ultrasound using our Butterfly ultrasound machine. Though the chimps’ usual cardiologist couldn’t make it, she was also given an echocardiogram thanks to a donation of time and equipment from some very generous zoo colleagues.

After getting x-rays and other routine diagnostics, Jamie was wheeled back to the recovery room.

There she would be under close supervision until she was stable and alert.

Everything that we’ve learned from Jamie’s exam so far shows that she’s in good health and we’re hoping that she will not need to spend much time in isolation. For now, we’re trying to keep her enriched with peanut butter magazines and her favorite movies.

Her friends also visit and groom with her at the caging.

Jamie is not one to enjoy sitting around for long, so let’s all wish her a speedy recovery so she can get back to managing her group soon. Many thanks to Dr. Petty and the many other doctors and zoo and sanctuary professionals who helped plan for and carry out this procedure, which we hope will keep Jamie healthy and comfortable.