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Trolls

The Things We Carry

May 26, 2017 by J.B.

A few months ago, Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest was invited to contribute to an exhibit in the Museum of Culture and Environment at Central Washington University. The exhibit, entitled “The Things We Carry,” would feature objects of significance to the members of our local community.

Our community, of course, includes seven chimpanzees, and you’d be hard pressed to find objects of greater significance to their owners than the boots and dolls carried by Jamie and Foxie.

During the opening reception for the exhibit, Dr. Jessica Mayhew, who is both a professor in the Primate Behavior and Ecology program at CWU and a CSNW volunteer, provided some very moving remarks on the installation:

When you have the opportunity to go in and experience the exhibit, you’ll see some objects that undoubtedly look familiar to you.  A pillowcase, a toddler’s dress, empty bags of potato chips.  Also encased are some cowboy boots and dolls.  Cowboy boots in this region are common, and many of us can surely remember the various iterations of Troll dolls beginning in the 1960s.

But what’s special about these boots and these dolls, is that the objects do not belong to humans, they belong to two chimpanzees from Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest: Jamie and Foxie.  Jamie and Foxie are only two of seven chimpanzees residing at CSNW, and they are not the only chimpanzees that carry objects, but their object carrying has become iconic, picked up in popular news stories across the US and globally.

As a primatologist, I have watched my fair share of object manipulation, tool creation, and object play in macaques, in capuchins, in the large-bodied apes.  Jane Goodall first described tool use in chimpanzees in 1960, when she observed David Greybeard termite fish with a piece of grass.  We’ve been grappling with the implications of those observations ever since.

Objects occupy a wide functional range in the lives of primates.  Some are used in the acquisition and processing of food – capuchin monkeys carry large, hard hammer stones up from nearby riverbeds to their nut cracking sites; chimpanzees have been observed to carry sticks, stems, and sturdy grasses from one location in their home range to termite and ant nests, where they know they will not find suitable fishing materials.  Objects do not always have to be inanimate: mother primates regularly carry their infants, most often on their backs, but sometimes on the chest, which can make walking a bit of a challenge.  Still other objects are used in ways that we have only begun to observe and decipher: stone handling in multiple macaque species, log and rock cradling in chimpanzees.

But there is something different when the object is one that’s familiar to us; one that may have played a large role in our childhood, like dolls or action figures, or is an object that is perhaps a part of the larger cultural fabric of a place, like cowboy boots.  When familiar objects are put into hands that are a little less familiar, it makes the divide between human and non-human a little bit narrower.

There are 7 chimpanzees at CSNW, all of them very much individuals, all of them vibrant and compelling; they were known as “The Buckshire Seven”, because they were housed at the Buckshire Corporation in a windowless basement, and spent the majority of their lives leased out for various biomedical studies.  Jamie was born in captivity around 1977, and she spent the first nine years of her life in the entertainment industry before entering into the biomedical realm.  Foxie, on the other hand, was born into the biomedical industry in 1976: she was used in vaccine trials, she was used as a breeder.  Each time she gave birth, her infant was carried away by humans.
This group became “The Cle Elum Seven” when they moved to sanctuary in 2008.  Jamie has spent the last nine years of her life, taking chimpanzee patrols around the property with her human friends, who are always in boots.  Foxie has no shortage of dolls to carry with her, and no risk of them not being there each day.

The exhibit description tells us that, “Objects hold memories. Physical things carry traces of people we have loved, times of joy and terror, and places we may have heard of, but never visited.  They connect us to distant homelands and important moments in personal and family memory. Through our objects, we carry with us complex emotions and histories.  Sometimes, in contemplating these material things, we discover new insights about where we have come from and whom we might become.”

Maybe Jamie’s very specific love of cowboy boots comes from her early days reared with humans.  Maybe Foxie’s love of dolls comes from never fully experiencing motherhood.  Maybe, I’ll leave that for them to know, ultimately.  But I will say that these objects serve as reminders for us, as onlookers, for where these chimpanzees have been and for what humans have done to them.   They are powerful expressions of both great sadness and great silliness.  But they also serve as symbols of hope, that circumstances can change, that life can be better and full of kindness and compassion.

The exhibit title, “The Things We Carry” seems all the more fitting now with the inclusion of these artifacts from our closest relatives.  This is a community-curated exhibition.  Not just this local community of humans with stories to tell, and memories to conjure, but the deep roots shared by humans and our closest kin.  Indeed, we are all carrying physical, emotional, and metaphorical things.

 

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Filed Under: Boots, Dolls, Foxie, Jamie, Sanctuary, Trolls Tagged With: boots, central washington university, chimpanzee, cwu, dolls, museum of culture and environment, northwest, rescue, Sanctuary, things they carried, Trolls

Imaginary Play

November 4, 2016 by J.B.

Chimpanzees have rich imaginary lives. Chimps who use American Sign Language have been observed signing to inanimate objects and engaging them as if they were live social partners. For example, a chimpanzee named Dar was once seen signing “tickle” to a stuffed bear that he was playing with. I personally recall (and will never, ever forget) watching a chimpanzee named Moja don a curly blonde wig and look at herself in the mirror while signing “pretty” to her reflection.

Foxie was never taught sign language, but language isn’t a requirement for imaginary play.

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Nor is imaginary play limited to chimpanzees raised in human environments. In the wild, young chimpanzees have been seen carrying sticks as rudimentary dolls and caring for them as if they were their own offspring. Are they simply expressing a desire to be more grown up? Could it be an instinctual form of practice to prepare them for motherhood? Whatever the motivation, it is probably not much different than our own.

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What’s so interesting about Foxie is that the objects of her imaginary play are often not chimpanzee-like at all. Foxie is occasionally given chimpanzee dolls but she rejects them in favor of Troll dolls or Dora the Explorer dolls. And when she plays with Dora, she treats her more as a human than as a chimp. Note how she stands Dora bipedally (on two legs) instead of quadrupedally like a chimpanzee, even though Dora would stand upright just as well on all fours.

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We can never truly know what a chimpanzee is thinking, but we certainly know that they are thinking. And imaginary play gives us a tantalizing peek into what those thoughts might be.

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Filed Under: Chimpanzee Behavior, Dolls, Foxie, Sanctuary Tagged With: chimpanzee, dolls, dora, explorer, Foxie, imaginary, northwest, Play, rescue, Sanctuary, thinking, Trolls

Some things you just can’t explain

August 15, 2014 by J.B.

When Foxie first came to Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest in 2008, she had trouble adapting. She was cautious when it came to developing relationships with new people, though given her history that wasn’t an unreasonable approach. But she was also wary of her new surroundings, especially in larger spaces. Each time she was allowed into a new area, she would cling to the walls or walk in circles around the edge of the room. She was also uneasy with all the enrichment we provided to the chimps each day. She would go out of her way to avoid walking near the piles of toys we put in the playroom, and while the other chimps would make nests each night with fresh blankets, Foxie would push them out of the way to clear a spot for herself on the bare concrete floor. Weeks passed, and while the other chimps reveled in all the new opportunities available to them, Foxie continued to find comfort in the emptiness that was all she had known for 31 years.

Then one day she met Trixie.

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It was just a doll, but Foxie was immediately drawn to it. Her reasons for choosing this troll doll, in all its pink-haired, pantsless glory, will remain one of life’s great mysteries. But we look back on that moment now as a turning point for Foxie. She hung onto Trixie and carried her everywhere she went. Supporters started sending in more dolls, and Foxie’s collection grew into the hundreds. The dolls were a source of entertainment for Foxie, but they also provided comfort and seemed to instill in her a sense of confidence and purpose. And they helped ease her into this new world filled with new people and things.

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Whatever the reason for Foxie’s obsession, we thought it was uniquely hers. The other chimps would pick up trolls from time to time, but mostly just to initiate games of chase with Foxie. They didn’t seem to get it. This type of deep and lasting connection between chimp and troll was limited to one quirky chimpanzee at one quirky sanctuary in the mountains of Washington.

That is, until Negra decided it was time to get in on this whole “troll” thing.

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For the last couple of weeks, Negra has been carrying around troll dolls everywhere. She takes them to bed and sleeps with them in her nest. She shows up at meal time with them tucked into her “pelvic pocket.”

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We have no idea what makes a chimpanzee decide, at age 41 and after six years at the sanctuary, to adopt troll dolls. Maybe it’s like the chimpanzees at Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage in Zambia who all decided that it was cool to stick grass in their ears. Maybe she’s watched Foxie carry these things around for so long that she’s finally decided to see what the fuss is about. Or maybe Negra just realized that, after having her own children stolen from her in the lab, it felt good to care for someone, even if they are made of plastic.

Some things you just can’t explain.

 

Filed Under: Chimp histories, Chimpanzee Behavior, Dolls, Foxie, Negra, Trolls Tagged With: chimpanzee, copy, dolls, Enrichment, fad, northwest, rescue, Sanctuary, trend, Trolls

Mornings

October 19, 2012 by J.B.

Mornings are my favorite time at CSNW. The chimps have had their breakfast and they are all geared up to go out and explore Young’s Hill. Unfortunately it is also the time when we clean the enclosures, so we don’t have much of a chance to sit around and watch them. But it’s amazing how much you can witness in just those first few minutes.

This morning, Foxie took a suitcase full of trolls out to the hill.

She later decided to put the trolls on her back as she walked down the hill, the way a chimp mother would carry her infant. As far as I know, three trolls was a personal record for her.

Missy likes to start the day with some athletic activity, especially this time of year. It’s no secret that January in Cle Elum is not perfect chimp weather, but interestingly enough, the Cle Elum Seven seem to prefer spring and fall to the hot summer months and we are actually seeing them go outdoors more now that the temperatures are in the 60’s.

Today, Missy used the handrail on the shaky bridge as a tightrope. This has become one of her new favorite moves. She’s holding a chow bag in these photos. We still supplement the chimps diet of fresh produce, nuts, seeds, and browse with a small amount of a commercially prepared diet. The manufacturer of the chow that we use recently decided to shrink the bicuits to a quarter of their original size, and now it is too cumbersome to serve them directly to the chimps. So we put them in bags. The chimps actually enjoy this, because they can take their chow out to picnic on the hill more easily. Or walk a tightrope with them.

There was a skirmish in the playroom this morning before breakfast. This is fairly typical, because that is the time of day when Burrito tends to display, and he inevitably gets everyone else so worked up that someone ends up mad a someone else. I didn’t see the conflict between Jody and Missy, but it was clear from their behavior later in the morning that they needed to reconcile.

Jody was coming back down the hill with her leftover lemon from breakfast when she saw Missy on the shaky bridge. (Yes, chimps love raw lemons. Raw onions too. We like to serve the lemons after the onions to freshen up the breath.) Jody immediately became pilo erect (hair standing on end) and approached Missy for reassurance.

The two then touched briefly and then Jody went on her way.

Negra came outside this morning but after a few minutes she decided she’d rather be in the greenhouse under a huge pile of blankets. Negra is not a morning person. She’s not really an afternoon or evening person, either. Really, she would prefer to stay in bed all day if she could. If only the staff would bring her meals to her in bed.

Burrito continues to explore more and more of the hill. He is really getting more comfortable out there. Today he climbed up a structure by himself and sat for a while on the end of a beam, taking it all in.

Here he is sitting on the log bridge, showing off some new scars on his wrist. Chimpanzees, especially male chimpanzees, use the back of their wrists to bang on things when they display, and sometimes to bang on other chimps. This is what primatologists refer to as a “backhand thump.” So many male chimps have thick callouses on the backs of their wrists and often some scabs and scars too.

I didn’t intend for this to be a post about each and every one of the chimps, but now I feel bad leaving Annie and Jamie out. Annie just followed Missy around all morning, as she always does, probably wishing that Missy would just sit still for a minute. But Missy is incapable of sitting still.

And Jamie was kind of a loner this morning. It used to be that Burrito would follow her around the hill. I think she enjoyed that. Not the company so much as getting to be the leader. Now Burrito will follow Jody or even venture off on his own as he did this morning. That left Jamie walking around by herself. But she had fun too. Everyone loves the shaky bridge. Maybe we’ll build some more next summer.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Annie, Burrito, Chimpanzee Behavior, Food, Foxie, Jamie, Jody, Missy, Negra, Trolls, Young's Hill Tagged With: Annie, backhand thump, bags, Burrito, chimpanzee, chow, Foxie, Jamie, Jody, Missy, Negra, northwest, pilo erect, reconciliation, rescue, Sanctuary, Trolls

Foxie

July 11, 2011 by Debbie

Foxie usually carries around the more common hard plastic trolls, but the last couple days she’s been especially interested in this soft troll doll.

Support Foxie and her love of trolls by coming to our Troll Olympics!

Filed Under: Events, Foxie, Trolls Tagged With: chimp, chimpanzee, Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, Cle Elum 7, csnw, Enrichment, Foxie, Trolls

Foxie’s gateway enrichment

June 19, 2009 by J.B.

For Foxie, trolls were almost like “gateway enrichment” – using trolls seems to have opened her up to using lots of other kinds of objects. Before she had trolls, she wouldn’t touch any of the objects in the enclosure. Now she uses blankets, buckets and other things to amuse herself.

Yesterday, Foxie played with a troll in a bucket for so long, and with so much enthusiasm, that she broke the bucket. But then she picked up the toy drum next to her and started using trolls as drumsticks. 

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Filed Under: Enrichment, Foxie, Play, Trolls Tagged With: chimpanzee, Enrichment, Foxie, northwest, rescue, Sanctuary, Trolls

Morning Yoga, Troll Games

February 6, 2009 by J.B.

You never know what you are going to find when you greet the chimps in the morning. For example, you might find Jamie upside down, acting as if its totally normal to begin the day upside down. 

 

Today was a beautiful day for early February so we served lunch outside. Afterwards, Foxie climbed to the top of the enclosure to where she could throw her trolls down to us.

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Filed Under: Enrichment, Foxie, Jamie, Play, Trolls Tagged With: chimpanzee, Foxie, Jamie, northwest, Sanctuary, Trolls, yoga

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