It felt fitting to have today’s blog be about enrichment! There are so many different ways to enrich the chimps lives! The video highlights a few of the many ways to add to the chimps day to day life. Thank you to Comfort & Joy auction winner Emily H. for the giant stuffed dolphin for Jamie’s group! We put it out on on Jamie’s side this morning!
Sanctuary
A Few Handsome Guys
It has been an uber busy day in the chimp house today with cleaning, general tasks, staff meetings, and more! The day has flown by, so for this blog I went through my phone for a few ‘photos from the vault‘ and found some great ones of our handsome chimp gentlemen. They really are just the best guys around!
We’re off to serve dinner to the chimps now, so I hope you enjoy! 🙂
Terry, eating a snowball earlier this week:
Willy B, enjoying a quiet moment:
Gordo enjoying an avocado for dinner this past fall:
Cy, taking a moment to look through his magazine before diving into his coconut during a party this summer:
Burrito, finding out what we stuffed pineapples with during a party on Young’s Hill this summer:
Happy Tuesday!
My Favorite Subject
On busy days, we often look through the photos on our phones to see if we can piece together a blog post worth sharing. As I was doing this today, it became apparent that I have a fondness for a certain subject.
The photos are all slight variations on the same theme: Negra, nesting atop the greenhouse climbing structure under a mountain of blankets. Throughout the spring, summer, and fall, when I arrive for work and walk through the chimp house to say good morning, this is where I know I will find her. And it seems I am compelled to snap a photo each time. How could I resist?
Theme of the Day
The theme of the day: a little bit of play and a WHOLE lot of grooming! Since the weather wasn’t very nice out (mostly rain), what better way to spend the day than grooming and playing with your friends? It was fun to see all the different pairings branching off to groom today. This afternoon, I found Cy and Gordo grooming, which is not a common occurrence in comparison to Cy and Willy B, or Cy and Terry.
Bonus photos!
Rayne:
Terry series:
Gordo series:
Superhero
Two things to note before you watch the video below:
- The video shows the chimps fighting. If that’s not your cup of tea, we understand.
- If you choose to watch, you must do so with the sound on so you can hear the narration that attempts to explain some of what you will see. The chimps will be loud at first but we’ll turn down the volume on the screaming and pant-hooting early on in the video.
Showing the chimps in your care fighting may not be what they teach in nonprofit PR/fundraising school, but I’m always hopeful that people can learn to understand and appreciate chimps as they are while continuing to support them and the sanctuaries that care for them. Sanctuary life is filled with fun, happy moments. To a lesser extent, it also contains unsettling, even terrifying moments. They are still chimps, after all.
As I mention in the video, we are often of two minds in this job. First and foremost, we are caregivers, fretting over each bump and scrape the chimps receive and agonizing over every decision we make with regard to their care. This is the mind we inhabit in the midst of a conflict. But we are also primatologists and enthusiastic observers of chimp behavior. We are the people that, like many of you, were glued to Jane Goodall documentaries as kids and who find the complexities of chimpanzee social dynamics endlessly fascinating. And as I watched the footage of this conflict, I felt my 20-year-old self, just entering the field, marveling at each and every interaction. Perhaps you will feel the same.
If by chance you are new to Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, this group is the result of the integration of two smaller groups: A group of six, led by Cy, and a group of three, led (mostly) by Willy B. Almost immediately after their integration in 2022, Willy B accepted Cy’s dominance and established himself as the #2. But Willy B does not have Cy’s social skills, and from time to time that can get him into trouble with a few others in the group.
Similar to what is seen in the literature, the rate of conflict in this larger group hasn’t gone down all that much since the initial integration; it ebbs and flows and at times it may even be higher. But the conflicts are shorter and result in fewer injuries (I don’t believe in jinxes, I don’t believe in jinxes, I don’t believe…). This conflict was unlike most in that it lasted a long time; as I say in the video, this is likely because of Gordo’s unique inability to calm down. Prior to the integration of these two groups, Gordo would occasionally get this upset with Cy. Cy, having nearly unlimited patience, would just let himself be chased by Gordo until Gordo eventually wore himself out. But that was a low-ranking male venting at the alpha, who clearly felt no threat to his own safety or status. Here, the relationships between the lower-ranking males is less well-defined. And thus the stakes are higher.
There’s an important caveat that I should mention here: I describe some of what I think I’m seeing, but any time I read a matter-of-fact description about relationships and behaviors as complex as those in chimpanzees, my BS detector starts to go off. Half the time we just don’t know or we drastically oversimplify things. So let me admit that up front. And this, I should add, is with the benefit of instant replay and slow motion—now maybe you can see why we say we don’t always know what happened in real time when the chimps get in fights.
Oh, and another one: Cy gets top billing in this blog post and he certainly has the most influence over the outcome, but boy that Honey B has some guts. And there are so many other interesting interactions that I didn’t touch on, many of which are also influential. Alpha males always get the headlines while the females quietly do much of the work. But this alpha sure did put on a show.
This video also doesn’t include what happened after the fight, which in some ways is the most interesting and important aspect of chimpanzee relationship formation and maintenance.
I could probably go on all day about this so I’ll stop here. Feel free to ask questions!
Honey B & Co.
It is so fun to watch a chimp like Honey B, who has always preferred human interactions, to seek her chimp friends out instead. Watching Honey B and Dora both flourish socially in their group has been one of the most rewarding parts of my job, as well as witnessing Mave find her soulmate, Dora. Please enjoy this video of Honey B, Dora, and of course, Mave!
Chimpmas is right around the corner! We have started to add enrichment and items that we need around the chimp house on our wish-list!
Mora:
The beautiful Rayne:
Thankful Every Day
It’s the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, which means… it’s Giving Tuesday! 🙂
If you haven’t heard of it before, Giving Tuesday is an internationally recognized day of giving as it aims to promote generosity as a part of every day life. Which, if you ask me, is just a sincerely lovely & comforting thought.
We rely on the generosity of you, our supporters, to do the work we do. All our residents deserve sanctuary and you are what makes that happen. We are grateful, every day, for each of you.
If you find yourself wanting to participate in Giving Tuesday, I would encourage you to donate by clicking the link here. There are so many ways to donate- from sponsoring a day of sanctuary, to donating directly to our produce fund, becoming a Chimp or Bovine Pal to one of our residents, or donating stocks– I can confidently tell you that every donation is felt and appreciated. Today, and every day, no donation is too small.
There are also the non-monetary ways to support the sanctuary, which I feel like sometimes get overlooked but are just as important! Sharing our posts, for example, to your social media or with your friends and family help us increase our reach. Which, in turn, helps us connect and share our residents stories with more people. That is so, so important to us. We owe it to our residents to share their names & stories as far & wide as we can. A simple share helps us do just that!
On that note, I hope you enjoy the short & sweet video today of best chimp friends Missy and Annie. 🙂
Annie, from the photo vault, during a sweet summer forage:
Also, in the honor of giving thanks, look at this amazing pile of donations from a week or so ago! Thank you so much to everyone who donates items from our wish lists or who sends us chimp-approved items. We are currently adding items that we need for our upcoming Christmas celebrations to our wish lists, so please check it out if you’re interested in helping us celebrate! 🙂