There’s something about rainy days that make contemplation, napping and relaxing seem like the perfect things to do.
Foxie
Jamie
Negra
Annie
sleep
Nap Time
I love taking photos and video of the chimpanzees running around, being active, and getting into mischief. Active chimpanzees are generally happy chimpanzees, and when I watch them explore and run I think of all of the years they lived in small cages.
There’s also something incredible, though, about watching the chimps truly relax.
Today the sun is streaming into the playroom and seems to be making Jamie and Negra very sleepy.
Jamie, in typical Jamie fashion, is curled up in her nest with boots and toys:
Of course, being Jamie, this nap is not going to last very long:
Negra is in her spot on the catwalk of the playroom in front of the window – feet up in the air:
Doesn’t this just make you want to join them in relaxing in the sun?
Night owl
Chimpanzees spend a lot of time in their nests. In the wild, they tend to bed down at dusk and remain there for about 12 hours until the sun rises again. On average, they sleep for 9 to 10 hours, waking now and again throughout the night and even calling to group members in other trees but rarely leaving their nests.
Here at the sanctuary, most of the chimps follow a similar 12-hour nesting pattern, even though the length of each day here in Central Washington changes drastically with the seasons. On a typical day, the chimps eat dinner at 4:30 and get their evening food puzzles at 5:00. When they are done eating, they begin to make their nests indoors, and almost everyone is in bed by the time we’re wrapping up our workday at 5:30. This is true even in the summer when it stays light outside until 10:00!
Once the chimps are inside for the night, we close off Young’s Hill for security reasons. But if any of the chimps choose to stay outside, two staff members stay at the chimp house until the chimps choose to come back in.
Jamie, as you may have heard, is not like the other chimps. She needs very little sleep, and she has no interest in lying awake in her nest for hours counting sheep. So, being the clever chimp that she is, she figured out that all she has to do is stay outside after dinner or even sit in the doorway to Young’s Hill and, just like that, she has two companions for the rest of the evening.
When she keeps her caregivers here late, she usually does three of four purposeful walks around Young’s Hill, much like her daytime patrols. But eventually, even she grows tired of the walks and it becomes obvious that she’s just killing time to keep her human friends around a bit longer.
On our last walk last night at 8pm, she made a point of climbing every structure on the hill.
She crossed every fire hose bridge.
Finally, she sat quietly at the highest point on the hill and took in the view.
When she decided that she’d had enough, she climbed down and returned to the chimp house.
Even Jamie needs to sleep eventually. Which is good, because her caregivers do too.
Greenhouse Napping
It’s hard to remember, but the space that we now call the greenhouse used to be the chimpanzees’ only outdoor area.
Karen and Don Young visited in 2009, and we conceived the idea of encasing the caging in removable polycarbonate panels so that the chimpanzees could enjoy this space year round! The Youngs kicked off donations for this project and we raised the rest of the greenhouse funds at our 2009 auction.
Construction began in late 2009 and early 2010 (because what better time to embark on a construction project than winter?!). Those were some cold construction days, as Jim Spencer I’m sure still remembers.
The result for the chimpanzees was so worth it! The greenhouse is their favorite area year round.
When the weather starts to warm up in the spring, J.B. removes some of the panels, leaving the roof, so the chimpanzees enjoy their summer lounging in an indoor-outdoor space.
Then, around this time of year (today, for example), J.B. buttons up the greenhouse for the winter, so the chimpanzees can enjoy the cooler months in the protected area that heats up with the rays of the sun, or, in the case of today, keeps out the rain.
Today, Jamie enjoyed nesting and napping up high on the platform today, where it’s warmest, as it poured and blew outside:
And, of course, she also ventured onto Young’s Hill during breaks in the rain.
Close Your Eyes and Dream
Sometimes I can hardly believe that this dream of Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest has really come true, and these seven chimpanzees, on June 13th, are going to celebrate six years of a new life of peace that they never could have dreamed was possible. Dreaming is a beautiful thing.
Foxie:
Annie:
Burrito:
Jody:
Negra:
Missy (I had to look really hard to find a photo of Missy sleeping):
Jamie:
Napping
Negra is the queen of many things, including getting cozy. Here she is snuggled up on one of the benches high up in a front room.
She actually got around quite a bit today – mostly moving from one napping place to another. In this photo Negra is in front of a window on the catwalk of the playroom – one of her favorite spots. I got up on a ladder to take the photo:
Jamie used the afternoon to siesta in the greenhouse. I climbed a ladder to get the photo below too. In their natural habitats, chimpanzees almost always sleep in the trees high off the ground. Most chimpanzees in captivity also prefer to be up high when they sleep.
I love the bits of lighter skin on Jamie’s eyelids in this photo:
Back to bed
This afternoon, Negra was sleeping peacefully outside when all hell broke loose in the playroom. But she seemed to know right away that it was just your typical skirmish…nothing worth getting excited about. So she let out a sympathetic pant hoot and went back to bed.
