Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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touch

Touch, Trust, and New Friends

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Touch is an integral part of being a chimpanzee. It builds relationships – through grooming, play, embraces, reassurance during a fight or time of stress. It also strains those same relationships – through contact aggression during fights (biting, hitting, kicking), or even the withholding of reassurance from another chimpanzee.

Through it all, physical contact is a basic and important part of being a chimpanzee (and a human). As a human though, touch is generally not so risky. Let’s say you meet someone new, you’re likely to introduce yourself and shake their hand. Touch. But in that moment of shaking hands, you’re probably not worried about the potential of the other person biting off one of your fingers. At least I hope not! Chimps put incredible trust in each other each day, and especially upon meeting new friends. I have witnessed many introductions where chimpanzees meet each other for the very first time, and tentatively approach one another, often with a fear grimace in anticipation (and likely some fear as well), and display an immense amount of trust in this complete stranger by putting their hand in the stranger’s mouth in greeting. Chimps are strong and can be unpredictable, so this show of trust in a stranger is immense. It has amazed me every time I have seen it, knowing chimpanzees and their tendency to settle disputes in a very straightforward manner – by fighting it out. But then, often as quick as it began, the fight is over, they reconcile, and this too is amazing.

I have been thinking about this topic a lot as I have gotten my start as a caregiver here at CSNW. I have found that trust does not come so easily for me. At my former job, we were not allowed any physical contact with the chimpanzees in our care, so it has been an adjustment for me learning how to safely have physical contact with the chimpanzees here at CSNW, and even more so just allowing myself to do so! We learn how to do several different types of protected physical contact with the chimps, which in most part involves allowing them to touch us. We can accept kisses from them on the back of our hand, let them touch or groom the back of our hand, elbow, or knee, and can use our knuckle to rub them when they press their body fully against the caging, so our knuckle does not go through the caging and is protected from potential grabby fingers or chompy teeth.

On day 1 of my learning how to do these new (to me) types of interactions with the chimps, sweet, wonderful Terry was the most patient and kind teacher. Even though I was still mostly a stranger to Terry, he sat and carefully groomed the back of my hand, gave it a kiss, then let me rub his arm with my knuckle. Touch. Friendship. Connection.

 

It is not so easy with everyone, though – people and chimps included. Understandably, all of the chimps are not so ready to befriend the strangers. They already have human friends, thank you very much! Honey B has been an especially tough cookie to crack, but I keep hoping for a breakthrough. This brings me back to trust. I don’t currently have much when it comes to Ms. B and having physical contact interactions. She is a well known trickster (and we love her for it!), so it can be hard to know when she is genuinely seeking touch and connection in a friendly manner, or trying to draw you into a hilarious prank (for her). These pranks often include spitting whatever she has in her mouth onto her unsuspecting victim, quite the surprise when you were anticipating quality time with her!

I recently was able to have a very sweet and rewarding grooming session with Honey B, where she was very excitedly involved in her grooming task, and very sweet to me throughout. She carefully groomed the back of my hand with her finger, looking for any scratches or imperfections in need of some attention. In this moment, and many others I have had here at the sanctuary already, I felt very fortunate to have this form of connection and bonding with my chimpanzee friends here. It allows for another level of relationship building and the formation of trust from the caregiver in the chimpanzee, versus many other occasions where the chimps have to put trust in us as their caregivers (for example, trusting when we close doors to allow for cleaning that we will not hit them with the doors, or that we will do our best to respect their hierarchy when serving their meals and not cause tension or fighting by serving a low ranking chimpanzee like Annie right next to a high ranking chimpanzee like Jamie). It is very rewarding to be able to connect with our chimpanzee friends in this way, and a privilege I will always be grateful for. I’m looking forward to more interactions and relationship-building to come!

And on to something completely different…we would like to send our thanks to Nancy D. for buying a pink horse wearable blanket for the chimps from our Comfort & Joy Auction! We set it up along with some other blankets and boxes for Cy’s group today, and Honey B was quick to investigate. Please enjoy this series of Honey B vs pink horse blanket…no surprise here, Honey B was the winner!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contact

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As part of our ongoing Q&A series, I thought I’d address one of the most common questions we get: Do we ever wish we could have more physical contact with the chimps?

As many of you know, we strictly limit the ways in which we interact with the chimpanzees out of concern for our safety. Chimpanzees are incredibly fast and powerful animals with large, muscular jaws and massive canine teeth. Estimates vary, but it’s safe to say that chimpanzees possess at least twice the upper body strength of humans, pound for pound. And for chimpanzees, aggression is not an aberration but rather a normal part of the way they interact with one another and the world around them.

It was then that the troll realized he had made a terrible mistake.

Compounding the risk posed by their strength and natural behavior is the frustration they experience in captivity. One of the profound ironies of caring for chimpanzees is that you are far safer strolling through an African forest amidst a community of over a hundred free-living chimpanzees than you are standing near the enclosure of a captive chimpanzee. In fact, when Jane Goodall, the world’s foremost expert on chimpanzees, lost the tip of her thumb, it was not to one of the chimpanzees of Gombe that she had spent decades living among but rather to a chimpanzee in a laboratory cage. Frustration is not limited to chimpanzees in laboratories, however. Even in the best zoos and sanctuaries, we deny chimpanzees control over their lives and the ability to make choices for themselves. To put it bluntly, all captive chimpanzees are prisoners to varying degrees and we should not be surprised when they occasionally act as such.

So if we are concerned with safety, we’re left with a cautious and largely hands-off approach to caring for captive chimpanzees. In those times when we do have contact, we do so through the mesh fence in very controlled ways. We like to use the term protected contact, which originated as a way to describe the safe management of elephants from behind a safety barrier. At CSNW, this means that our bodies never penetrate the caging. If the chimps want us to touch them, we do so with the tip of a knuckle while the chimps press their bodies against the mesh. If they want to touch us, they must extend their fingers all the way out and we limit their reach to our bare elbows or wrists. These methods, along with countless hours of training, help limit opportunities to get bitten or grabbed.

Kelsi playfully knuckle-rubs Burrito.

All of this eventually becomes second nature for both caregivers and the chimpanzees and I can honestly tell you that I rarely desire to have more contact with my chimpanzee friends. That said, I do remember feeling differently during my first summer spent around chimpanzees. In 1998, I was an apprentice at the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute, and my fellow apprentices and I would spend five or more days per week recording observational data on the chimps, cleaning near them, and coding videos of them. Our lives were consumed with chimps but we were not trained to a level where we could have any contact with them at all. It was killing us. So much so that when we’d be out on the town at night, we’d inevitably mob some unsuspecting dog and frantically pet them until they managed to break free and run for help.

There is one particular situation where it is relatively safe for us to have free contact with the chimps and where we do sometimes indulge ourselves, and that is when they are under anesthesia for medical care. In these moments, in between the IV prep and the blood pressure readings, we sometimes find ourselves holding their hands. Maybe it’s in the hopes that somewhere in the deep recesses of their subconscious they can sense that we are there with them. Or maybe we are looking to them for comfort.

Diana holds Burrito’s hand during an echocardiogram.

It’s important to remember that in normal circumstances the chimpanzees in our care get all the hugs, snuggles, play slaps, and tickles they desire from their chimpanzee friends, and the chimps and their caregivers are able to develop rich and full relationships despite the physical separation. It’s only natural to want to have more physical contact with them, but eventually you come to realize that a raucous game of chase across the mesh barrier is a perfectly fine way for two friends to play. No physical contact needed.

And in those times when we need a good ol’ hug…well, that’s what dogs are for.

Wilson is always available for hugs.

Reassurance

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To follow up on Elizabeth’s post yesterday, here’s a good example of Burrito’s other side – the testosterone-filled Tasmanian Devil side that leaves a path of destruction and screaming girls in its wake. This is the side we usually see when we arrive to work in the morning.

As you’ll see in the video, Annie was the victim of one of Burrito’s drive-by displays this morning. Being a chimpanzee is stressful, but they have some pretty good ways of dealing with that stress. Like hugs, for example.

One thing you might notice in the video is that Annie also seeks reassurance from me and I don’t offer it to her. As hard as it may be to resist in these instances, we make a conscious decision to avoid inserting ourselves into their social conflicts. If Annie was startled by a loud noise, we would gladly offer her a touch with the back of a wrist to help comfort her. But when she’s involved in a social conflict, we risk upsetting the delicate balance in the group if we inject ourselves, even if it’s just to offer reassurance. At these times, the chimps aren’t just looking for emotional support – they may also be looking for political allies or even backup for an ensuing retaliatory fight. So we try to limit our involvement to a polite acknowledgement in the hope that they will work things out amongst each other. And they usually do.

Besides, no one can comfort a chimpanzee better than another chimpanzee.

Balance

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Chimpanzees have a well-deserved reputation for being aggressive. They fight over food, over sex, and over territory. They fight for dominance and out of jealousy.

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Sometimes I don’t think they even know why they are fighting – some fights among the seven end with all of them standing in a circle, screaming and looking around at each other as if to see if anyone else remembers what they are fighting about.

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But as violent as chimps may be, fights are relatively infrequent. They are much more likely to be hugging,

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and kissing,

annie kiss missy

and grooming,

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and holding hands (and feet).

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I used to think it was strange that animals capable of such extreme violence could be so tender and gentle. But I’m beginning to think it’s precisely because they are so violent that they are also so tender and gentle. A society with that level of aggression would not last long without an equally powerful force holding it together.