Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

tool use

Total Recall

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What did we do to incur such a biblical plague of snakes this year? It seems we are constantly recalling the chimps, though, mercifully, nearly all intruders have been of the garter or racer variety. But rattlesnakes abound in this canyon, and to keep them out of the habitats we have to ensure that not even a 1/2″ hole has formed in or underneath the fence that surrounds these five acres. Over the years, including this year, rattlesnake incursions have occurred, and we fortify those rodent tunnels where we suspect they enter with concrete and hardware cloth. Thankfully, Burrito appears to be far more cautious around snakes these days and the rest of the gang seems to know to keep some distance, though that doesn’t stop them from throwing dirt or rustling the bushes with sticks. They are also better at recall, which allows us to remove the snake before anyone pushes their luck.

Please remind me of all this when I am complaining about snow in a few months.

How to Entertain a Chimpanzee

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First up, here is your Honey B update! Despite our best attempts to keep her attention away from her healing eyelid and occupy her time with other activities, she did open up her incision slightly yesterday. Dr. Erin assessed her and for now, we are waiting to see how it continues to heal and consulting with other experts to be sure we have the best plan in place for her. We continue to provide her with extra enrichment, and today one of her enrichment devices doubled as enrichment for the humans who created it.

We have had a large cardboard tube in the Chimp House for the past several weeks without a use for it. Today it found its purpose! We drilled some holes in the tube, added chain through the tube, and clipped it to the caging of Honey B’s room. We added some of her favorite things to the inside of the tube (popcorn, shelled peanuts, raisins) and raspberries to some of the holes to peak her interest. We gave her a bamboo stick as a tool and sat back to see what she did with it.

The idea was that the small snacks would fall through the drilled holes when the tube rolled around the chain, and Honey B would use her bamboo stick to pull the snacks to her. Well…that’s not exactly what happened. To no one’s surprise, Honey B outsmarted our plan! She was able to tap and tip the tube in such a way that the majority of the snacks fell out of either end, so it did not take as long as I had thought it would to finish the puzzle. I would like to create a reusable version of this for everyone with PVC one day, and Honey B has helped me to identify some flaws in my plan! Thank you for the design assistance, BeeBee!

It was a very good day around the sanctuary today. It is warmer here today (not warm…but warmer!). Negra enjoyed a nap in her nest in the greenhouse which was quite cozy with the heater going. Her group enjoyed eating some of the remaining snow, which is now a perfect snow cone texture. Burrito loved looking at himself on my phone and was especially fascinated by his own tongue.

I feel so fortunate to be able to share in these moments with the chimps, and to get to share them with you all. I hope your Saturday has been just as good as ours!

 

Snow cones, Squeegees, and Smarty pants, oh my!

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It is another cold day here at the sanctuary! The chimps spent their day with extra projects provided by caregivers to keep them occupied since outdoor activities were off the table for the day given the very cold temperatures. For the most part, this included things like adding seeds to their daily forage for them to search for inside, and providing flavored snow made with fresh snow and sugar free juice. But, as you will see in the video for today, Honey B quickly created her own project, and showed off her tool use skills and determination in the process. Her group enjoyed watching her work, and reaped the rewards when trading parts of her contraband back to caregivers for extra snacks!

Jamie’s group had a more laid-back kind of snow day with lots of relaxing in fabulous blanket nests, eating their flavored snow, and playing together with both caregivers and each other. Enjoy some photos from the day below!

Jamie and Burrito enjoying flavored snow

Burrito, Missy, and Jamie eating flavored snow

Burrito, Jamie, and Missy eating flavored snow

 

And some bonus photos from today…

A VERY handsome Cy Chimpanzee!!

Two Ways to Spend a Rainy Day

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See how Cy and Dora spent a rainy Friday morning.

Speaking of Cy…this morning there was a large blanket under a door that I needed to close at breakfast time. Hydraulic doors can be closed securely with blankets in the way but then the blankets tend to get wet when we clean the floors. So we usually ask the chimps to help move the blankets out of the way, with mixed results. My first request was to Gordo, which I should have known would get me nowhere. Nothing but a blank stare from that guy. Then I asked Terry and Dora, but they were preoccupied at that moment, if you know what I mean. I could have gone to Lucky or Rayne next but at that point I knew who I had to call. Even though he was at the far end of the room, with a word Cy calmly walked the length of the front rooms and pulled the blankets out of the doorway for me. What a guy.

Jamie is not “most chimpanzees”

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This morning, I was sweeping paper and other garbage into a pile in the playroom when Jamie started gesturing towards to me. It’s typical of her to ask for drinks from the hose while we clean but we hadn’t pulled the hose out yet. I soon realized that she was gesturing towards the pile of garbage, and upon closer inspection I saw that I had swept up some torn out and crumpled pages from one of her boot books. She wasn’t done with those yet! I picked them up and she ran excitedly to the day nest she had made in the corner of one of the front rooms. As I handed the pages to her, she emitted a low moan and stuffed them into her pelvic pocket.

Later, while scrubbing the floors, Diana pointed towards Jamie in the front rooms and suggested that I come take a look. She had filled a bucket with water from the lixit fountain, dumped her primate chow into the water, and was stirring the concoction with a plastic tube. She then used to tube to sip the chow water from the bucket and emitted a low moan each time she popped a soaked chow biscuit into her mouth.

She’s definitely her own person. So it should have come as no surprise when Diana caught Jamie taking carrot-peeling matters into her own hands the other day.

Willy B and his Dipper Tube

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Willy B is quite the tool-user! As you can see, enrichment doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated to be effective.

It was a busy week for the block masons working on the new playrooms. You can see the walls taking shape now that the scaffolding has been taken down. Next week – fingers crossed – the roof goes on and we get ‘dried in’, so to speak. That should ensure that construction can continue even if the weather turns bad. This morning’s dreary snow/rain was an ominous start to the season.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the ranch, the cows were thrilled to regain access to their winter pasture. I’ll have to share the video of them running through the fields in another post.

Change of Plans

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This afternoon I was photographing Jamie as she chewed and wadged some cattails.

While I was hoping to write a blog post about wadging, she soon decided that she’d rather groom the camera with her cattails.

There’s no way to ever be a fly on the wall when photographing chimps.

Thankfully, Jamie was in a very laid back mood today so she let me continue taking close-up pictures while she groomed the camera, my phone, and my boots.

Eventually, a bit of drama between some field mice outside the Greenhouse got Jamie’s attention, and she chose to finish wadging her cattails where she could watch it unfold.