I could listen to the crunching sounds of lunch all day!
Sanctuary
The Eternal Dilemma
Each morning, Negra is forced to choose between her two greatest loves: food and bed.
The arguments in favor of food are myriad. Let’s start with the obvious – we all need to eat to survive. So put a point on the board for breakfast. In fact, maybe this isn’t such a difficult decision after all.
On the other hand, bed is really soft and comfortable.
But food is so much more than just sustenance. Nothing tastes better than fresh fruit, peanuts, and a hard boiled egg from the caregivers’ rescued hens.
Bed is warm.
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Skip breakfast and you’ll get off on the wrong foot.
But you’re already in bed! And you know, Newton’s first law and all…
A little sunshine along with breakfast doesn’t hurt either, does it?
Outside has snakes and the sun shines perfectly well through windows. That’s the whole point of windows.
The longest we go between meals is the time between dinner and the next day’s breakfast. By morning, our bodies need to refuel.
Bears go a whole winter without eating…
Front Room Play Sessions
Despite having additional larger indoor and outdoor spaces to choose from, most of the chimpanzees absolutely love hanging out in Front Room 7. This space has a nice view of the human hallway (so you can be the first to spot the next meal service) and we almost always find someone nesting or lounging in this area. This morning, Front Room 7 was the prime play spot for members of Cy’s group.
She’ll Let You Know
This video is a perfect example of how Jamie gestures to let you know what she wants. If you couldn’t tell Jamie was a bit busy managing the humans today, as per usual. I love Jamie because she isn’t afraid to let you know what she wants. She obviously has no problem telling us what boots she wants us to wear, what books to give her, which piece of pepper she wants, or get the gator now! Most of Jamie’s communication is through gestures like pointing or slight head nods. In the video you can see I had picked out a boot in hopes that it was the one she had in mind. Sometimes we get lucky on the first try, other times you have to keep trying them on. She usually has a favorite pair that we try first! If she doesn’t like the boot, book, or whatever it is Jamie wants she will keep pointing until we get the right one. Occasionally she likes the boot, but wants a different person to put it on! It’s the best feeling when you have been trying to figure out what Jamie wants and then all of the sudden you get the combo! It’s a total rush because all we want to do is please her! Finding out what Jamie wants is just a small way to make her life better and we are happy to do it.
It’s December 1st which means we will start slowly adding Christmas items to the wish list, so keep your eyes peeled!
Foxie with Dora the Explorer:
The Nifty Fifty
I’m sure all of you are familiar with the Lucky Six by now, but do you know the Nifty Fifty?
Before I get any further ahead, I need to clarify something. Y’all may be disappointed, but we don’t currently have any plans to rescue a group of fifty chimpanzees. (Not anytime soon, at least.) The colloquial term “Nifty Fifty” refers to something a little less exciting.
The Nifty Fifty is a type of camera lens.
More specifically, photographers refer to 50mm prime (fixed) lenses as “nifty fifties” because they’re relatively inexpensive, versatile, lightweight and sharp (id est, nifty).
By sacrificing the mechanical components required to zoom in on a subject, prime lenses can be built with a larger aperture* (usually f/1.4 or 1.8) while retaining their relatively affordable price and compact size. This trade-off is particularly beneficial in poorly-lit conditions, but it also creates a shallow depth of field that can produce a bokeh effect (an aesthetically-pleasing background blur that makes the subject stand out). Given all these qualities, the 50mm prime is a staple of event, travel, studio, and street photographers. It’s not bad for shooting landscapes, either!
*For those of you who may be new to this topic, aperture, shutter speed, and ISO/sensitivity are the three main variables that photographers adjust to get the desired exposure. The aperture setting is the camera’s equivalent to the dilation of your eye’s pupil; when the aperture is opened wide, more light reaches the sensor at any given shutter speed or sensitivity, resulting in a brighter image.
Normally, the first lenses we caregivers reach for in the morning are the heavier telephotos that let us zoom in on the chimpanzees from afar. These lenses are particularly useful when the chimps are lounging on the upper decks of the greenhouse enclosures or foraging outside in Young’s Hill. They’re not quite as effective indoors, however, since they have comparatively small apertures that limit the passage of light to the sensor.
Last week, the weather was foggy, chilly and wet, and the sanctuary’s primate residents chose to spend more time lounging and socializing in the heated indoor areas. With the chimps hanging out in close proximity and limited sunlight coming in through the windows and overhead skylights, I decided to use the 50mm “nifty fifty” lens to get some portraits for the blog. Fortunately, some of the chimps let me photograph them while they perused their daily enrichment and made blanket nests in the cozy front rooms.
When we’re holding the camera lens (or smartphone) flush against the caging, it’s easy to forget that there’s steel mesh between us. For some perspective on this, I recommend revisiting one of Diana’s posts from long ago: Caging is OK.
Safely shooting through the caging is one of the most difficult aspects of photographing chimps. One benefit of the wide aperture on the aforementioned Nifty Fifty is that it can blur out a barrier even when sections of it are obstructing the image. Sometimes, this effect even creates a halo-like frame around a chimpanzee’s face. In my opinion, it’s a cool way of highlighting each chimps’ unique expressions while subtly reminding you that the barriers are there. In these photos of Jody and Annie, you can see the caging but it’s not drawing your attention like it would if it was sharply in focus.
One slow afternoon, I sat with half-sisters Lucky and Rayne for a few minutes and let them each observe their reflections in the camera lens. They were both enthralled by the shiny iridescence of the optical pieces, the bizarre motion of my fingertips around the camera’s other controls, and the absurd positions I put myself in to get the compositions I wanted. Their inquisitive stares led to some striking “eye contact” with the lens, and I was pleased with how each series captured pieces of their quirky personalities.
Lucky was the first to approach and spent the whole session looking down at me with skepticism. Typical.
Rayne was munching on a paper wadge when we started, but she eventually spit it out so she could examine her own teeth in the reflection.
Finally, here are a couple more shots I took with the 50mm this past week. Thanks for scrolling down this far!
We Made it!
Hooray, we made it to the weekend! I for one am exhausted this week, between the chimp’s Thanksgiving and the human’s we are all wiped. I was asked a lot this week what I am grateful for. So I thought I would share a few things that I am especially grateful for.
1. I am grateful for our expansion to be able to take in more chimps. It has been an extraordinary experience to get to know these six incredible chimpanzees!
2. I am thankful for the chimp’s health. This pandemic has been overwhelming and very stressful. The lengths that we go to protect these chimps are obviously working and we are so fortunate to have such a dedicated group of people to help protect them.
3. I am forever and always grateful to be able to care for these sixteen remarkable chimpanzees. To help provide a safe and enriching life for them is a true honor.
4. This year I was extremely thankful to be surrounded by the people that I loved. So many of us were not able to do that last year, which makes this year even more special!
Enough mushy stuff, let’s look at some photos! I was able to capture some photos over the last week. Not all the photos make it to the blog, fit the theme, or sometimes we capture a moment throughout the week!
I think this photo perfectly captures Jamie. She is beautiful, extremely intelligent, funny, always thinking, and has moments of letting her guard down.
This photo of Burrito was taken last Friday when it had just snowed. So, of course Burrito’s mouth is full of snow!
Negra sleeping peacefully in her nest.
Sleepy Rayne napping in the front rooms.
Willy B laying down watching his soaps having a nice afternoon!
Cy, I mean look at this guy!
Cy and I were playing chase the other day, we had to take a break and play with the foot box a little!
Gordo stopped to check himself out through the camera.
Her firehose is only fit for a queen. Let us all hail Queen Lucky!
Out of the Fog
When I set out on my perimeter walk this morning, the sanctuary was blanketed in a dense fog.
Climbing the 80 or so feet in elevation to the top of Young’s Hill was all it took to escape into the first rays of morning sunlight.
This morning’s walk was particularly enjoyable because I got to imagine myself walking through the expanded outdoor habitats, which are just now beginning to take shape. The first of the massive steel corner posts were set this week by our friends at Sage Mechanical.
When we started building Young’s Hill back in 2010, we were working under a number of constraints, the most significant of which being that we didn’t own any of the vacant land beyond the pasture above the chimp house. In order to avoid any problems with future neighbors, we kept the fence line far away from the property boundaries. Since then, however, we’ve bought up all of the adjoining land and that has allowed us to push the fence line out as far as topography and underground utility easements will permit.
While most of the area we’re expanding into is also pasture, we were able to cut a little slice into the woods so that the chimps can enjoy the shade of a few tall pines, in addition to the less mature trees that we will be planting.
Those trees that had to be cleared for the fence line will become part of the numerous climbing structures we plan to build next spring.
Plans are also moving ahead for the large, fully-enclosed outdoor area on the west side of the building, which should get underway as soon as weather allows early next year. Meanwhile, the chimps continue to enjoy the greenhouses. Honey B actually let me close off the mezzanine for cleaning so that she could spend time out there (after only a short protest).
Mave was keen on getting Willy B to groom with her. Her invitation? Looking his way and shaking a large bamboo plant vigorously.
He finally obliged.
Rayne was keeping an eye on things from across the hall.
When you hear someone blowing raspberries in her group, it’s usually Terry. But this morning it was Cy, telling me to put the stupid camera down and play chase.
Throughout the morning, we have to shift the chimps around their various enclosures so that we can clean, and each time we do so we have to perform a series of safety checks that involves finding each of the chimpanzees. This morning, Cy was making that difficult. When this happens, we check the security cameras. He was just above us and out of view, engaged in his favorite activity – reading magazines.
Each time the chimps shifted to a new area, Cy would bring his reading material and find a new place to camp out.
By mid-morning, the fog had lifted completely and Jamie and Burrito set out to survey the upcoming changes to their sanctuary home.
I keep trying to tell Jamie that those trees will be hers. So far, she seems far more interested in the equipment. Which reminds of the time she wanted me to chase her with a chainsaw. Not safe, Jamie. Not safe.
