Pocket Peanut
It’s an obvious one, but you learn right away that all’s fair in love of food. One of the biggest hurdles of being a lower ranking chimp is that getting your daily banana isn’t so straightforward. So for us with low ranker chimp friends, having a pocket snack is the way to go. Whether it’s a banana, peanut, fruit gummies, or carrot, sometimes the illusion of being empty handed is the easiest way to hand off the goods.

Rendezvous
Every chimp’s home has a few hidey holes, corners where the rest of the group can’t see some chimpie easily or there’s a convenient barrel to stand next to. Some of the lowest ranking chimps are the cleverest and will walk new people to these secret spots where it’s the perfect place to get an extra snack and no one else will be the wiser.

Play It Off
For a lot of our chimps playing is their favorite thing in the world. Whether it’s with another chimp or a caretaker, they will drop anything to come bounce and laugh. For some of our big boys, they can be convinced to keep their hands off a friend’s snack with a couple stomps. You learn who your playful boys are by watching the group. When things get tense, our fun loving kids will get right up in a big, fluffy boy’s face and start bobbing their head, and suddenly the whole situation diffuses. Stomping has been the saving grace of many caretakers.

Bait and Switch
Some of the tricks of the trade aren’t even handled by caretakers. Chimpanzees are deviously clever of their own accord. One of the best tricks some of our chimp geniuses have shown off is peeling their banana along the side (not from the top like us) and the result is a very convincing whole banana. They drop this empty skin when they see the alpha eyeing their snack and nine times out of ten this gives them the exact amount of time to run off with the actual banana and eat while the alpha is left opening an empty skin.

Sharing is Caring
Often there’s just no getting around having a swarm of begging chimp faces and only having one piece of food. When the chimp who was intended to get that snack isn’t high ranking enough to shrug off the competition one of the nicest things about chimpanzees is that they can and will share. More often than not everyone is perfectly happy with having just a little bite of a treat and then let the majority of the banana go to the intended chimp. Sometimes the receiving chimp will even break off a piece to share with a friend giving them a pouty lip. Granted sometimes they know behind those big begging eyes is a tantrum waiting to happen. Better to give Maxi a piece of your banana now before she starts crying and rolling around on the ground.

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Chimpanzees in the wild are very resourceful as they find their meals throughout the day. Like humans, chimpanzees are omnivores, meaning that they eat both plants and animals. Wild chimps will eat most fruits or vegetables that they can find, use tools to hunt insects, and will even hunt small mammals for meat.

At Chimp Haven, the chimps have their meals hand delivered to them by their caretakers, and the veterinary staff has built a menu to make sure that they receive the balanced diet that they need to live a healthy lifestyle. Even though they don’t have to hunt for their meals, the behavior staff still works hard to entice the chimps to still use their natural instincts to obtain food, like having to find tools to get goodies out of their termite mound.

To start the day, the retirees get a feast of fruit, leafy vegetables, ground vegetables, and non-leafy vegetables. The usual fruits that are included in their diets are apples, tomatoes, and oranges, but sometimes the enrichment team will give them special treats of grapes, pears, apricots and more. Let’s not forget the most important fruit- their daily banana! Every single morning, each chimp gets a banana to start his or her day off right!

Just like vegetables are important for people to stay healthy, chimpanzees need them too! The leafy greens that they get for breakfast are typically kale, romaine lettuce, or cabbage. They also get a non-leafy vegetable in their breakfast, such as cucumbers, broccoli, or green peppers. Lastly, they get either regular or sweet potatoes to add some starch to their meal!

Along with their fruit and vegetables, the chimps also get chow biscuits twice a day- once in the morning and once in the afternoon. The biscuits provide essential vitamins and protein that they need. Similarly to their bananas, the biscuits are very popular amongst the retirees! They get very excited when they hear us take the lids off of the chow bin and try to get as many biscuits as they can fit into their mouths and hands at one time. Some even use their toes to hold additional biscuits!

At the end of each day, the chimps each get a carrot. Once they munch down on their carrot, they usually start finding their sleeping spot for the night. The night staff then starts chopping up and building the meals for the next day, so when the chimps wake up, their breakfast is already ready to go!

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Time and time again our care team has proven just how dedicated they are to keeping the chimps healthy and safe – but this week they truly outdid themselves. Our team has maintained round-the-clock presence at the sanctuary to ensure the chimps are warm and care for.

From delivering meals to the chimps’ bedrooms, to completing day-and-night checks to ensure the bedrooms maintained warmth, ensuring generators and heaters are running, and distributing medications, their efforts this week have truly been exceptional. When the sanctuary lost running water access on Wednesday, the team immediately shifted to hand-watering the chimps to ensure they stay hydrated.

For most of last week, the chimps remained indoors for their safety – as you might imagine, most of them would prefer not to go outside when the temperatures drop. They are doing well thanks to the efforts of our wonderful care team. Like us, we think they’re ready for spring! This weekend, a fresh crew arrived and, as temperatures slowly begin to rise, they began the effort of getting the sanctuary tidied up and back to normal.

As the sun began to peek through, the chimps also got some outdoor time to soak it up and discover the snow — something they were very excited about! It’s been a long, challenging week, but we’re so grateful to our staff and for wonderful supporters like you who always help us do what’s best for the chimps.

Thank you for supporting Chimp Haven – we truly couldn’t do this work without you!

Quilla enjoys some outdoor time as temperatures slowly begin to warm

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The sun is starting to set and the chimps are settling down after a long day of exploring the habitats and playing with their group mates. Jacob is collecting hay to make his nest for the night, while Donovan is making his way to his hammock. Bedtime is approaching.

These are just some a few of the evening chimp routines we see as a night-shift caregivers at Chimp Haven.

The chimpanzees receive round-the-clock care at Chimp Haven. As the morning crew is ending their workday, two caregivers are arriving at the sanctuary in to begin theirs.

One of our first duties on night shift is to prepare the chimps’ fresh diets for the following morning, which consists of: a banana, a second fruit (apples, oranges, limes), a starch (potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions), a non-leafy green (cucumbers, green peppers, broccoli, eggplant), and a leafy green (kale, cabbage, iceberg lettuce). We also cut up their afternoon vegetable, which is usually carrots or celery. For more than 330 chimpanzees and counting, we use up to 10 boxes of kale or four boxes of bananas EVERY day!

Now it’s time for first checks. During “checks,” we do a wellness check on each of our 300+ chimps and give out medications to the chimps who have a medical condition or are healing from a wound. Our veterinary team prepares the med bottles and leaves the medication tray so we can dispense them at night. It’s important to have the right juice preference for each chimp when giving out meds. Kris loves pineapple juice (she’ll only approach when she sees that her med bottle has pineapple juice in it), while Bowen and Axel receive a banana with their meds. Anita will only take her medication out of a one liter bottle with a straw in it!

After their meds, the chimps go back to rest. It’s calm and quiet at the sanctuary. The chimps make new sleeping nests every night with the fresh hay they are provided daily. Some chimps like to gather as much hay as possible to make the biggest nest, while others take an easier route and prefer to sleep in a hammock, which is just as comfortable. Even on warmer nights, many chimps prefer to sleep out in their habitats.

We do a second round of wellness checks around midnight – quietly, to avoid interrupting their sleep. The chimps can be seen sleeping near their best friends and typically mom and children duos sleep together – Carlee cuddles with mom, Passion, and Flora can always be seen hugging her daughter, Valentina Rose. Best friends Dea and Mackenzie are within arm’s reach of each other every single night. On colder nights, best friends Miff and Emma love sharing a hammock to keep each other warm.

Even though we see them every night, watching the chimps have the freedom to choose how to spend their nights is still so special and shows us how comfortable and at home they feel here at Chimp Haven.

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Chimp Haven: Did you always know you wanted to work with chimps?   

Michelle: When I was a little girl, I loved to look at my mom’s collection of National Geographic magazines. My favorites were always the ones with Jane Goodall and the stories about the chimps. There was something about chimpanzees that just drew me in. Being able to share my days with them, now, is living my dream life.

How did you come to work with chimps, and what led you to Chimp Haven?   

I grew up in South Dakota and there are not a lot of opportunities to work with great apes, but I kept hoping. I moved to Texas for college and got a job working in a sanctuary with big cats, bears, wolves, monkeys – and chimpanzees! I loved my job, but when the sanctuary was forced to declare bankruptcy I spent three years working with other organizations to find homes for more than 400 animals. Some of our chimpanzees moved to Chimp Haven (including my favorite boy, Pierre), and once all the animals were re-homed and the sanctuary was officially closed, I was able to join the Chimp Haven team.

What’s your favorite thing about working with the chimps?

Each chimp has his or her own personality and it is a joy to get to know them. Like people, some are extroverts, while others are shy. I love the sassy ones, because they don’t ever compromise who they are.

What do you think makes your team at Chimp Haven special? 

My team is made up of some of the most compassionate, intelligent, and resilient people that I have known. They are dedicated to providing the chimps with the best care possible and will take on any challenge with a smile. Everyone has a funny story about one of the chimps and they support one another at all times. I have great admiration for each and every one of them.

What do you hope to accomplish over the next couple of years? 

Every individual in every department has the same goal – giving the chimps the best life possible.  We have different departments – Husbandry, Behavior, Veterinary, etc., but at heart, we are a big family.  The chimps are our priority and the care they receive is second to none. In addition, I would like to help create opportunities to share the stories of our chimps and to make people aware of what an amazing place Chimp Haven is.

Who’s your favorite chimp and why? 

Pierre!  I have known Pierre for 18 years and we just clicked from the first time we met in 2000.  He is a big boisterous male that is known for his exuberant displays that make him seem like a tough guy.  However, upon inspection, he is a big softie, who likes to have his chin rubbed with a spoon.

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7:00 AM: I arrive at Chimp Haven ready to start the day. On my way to change into our work clothes, I pass by Bo’s yard and make sure to tell my favorite boy good morning. Bo’s preferred method of play is bouncing and each morning I try to squeeze in a quick bounce or two with him.

7:15 AM: Our team meets and discusses where we want to begin our morning routine and who will work where. Our buildings are divided into wings that hold four separate groups of chimpanzees each. Today, I’ll start my day by doing health checks and distributing AM chow (a biscuit packed with extra nutrients) to one of those wings.

7:30 AM: I head in to check that all the chimps are awake and doing well. I make sure to greet Bryan and his three groupmates as I pass by. Bryan can be cranky in the mornings (and by cranky I mean throwing a certain smelly substance CRANKY) so I’m hoping to start both our days off on the right foot. After I see that everyone is doing well, I pass out chow to a chorus of food barks – the sound chimpanzees make to alert other chimps to the presence of food.

8:00 AM: I join some other caregivers who have already begun cleaning in a different wing. Every day we ask the chimpanzees to leave their bedrooms and go out into their yard for about an hour. We call the process of asking the chimps to go outside “shifting.”

I go to this particular wing every day because I’m working with a chimpanzee named Latoya to shift outside more consistently. Today, Latoya has executed our plan perfectly and meets me at her spot in the yard which allows me to close the door behind her. Juice (she seems to like grape flavored) and a banana make the perfect reward for this sweet gal!

8:30 AM: We start in on our cleaning routine. Because we shifted the chimpanzees outside it is safe for us to remove any old bedding from their rooms and replace it while adding any new furniture (such as hammocks or shelves) and enrichment. Hosing, squeegeeing, and scrubbing are all par for the course.

Though they have constant access to water, the chimps love to get drinks from the hose. Hulk is a big fan of “hosey squirts” as we call them and it’s hard to resist the look he gives me when I pass by with the hose. A hosey squirt for Hulk turns into one for Hulk, Whitney, Jill, AND Paula Jean but I don’t mind the extra company.

9:45 AM: After completing our first round of cleaning, we take a short break and catch up with each other. Often this includes swapping any cute chimpanzee stories from the morning.

10:15 AM: A team of us enter a different wing to execute the cleaning routine again. This time, I’m doing the food toss to encourage the chimps to come outside. Kale, cucumber, potato, and apple are all tossed downward and scattered into our open top corral as Zort’s group of 20 make their way outside.

Some of the boys can be a little too excited for the passing out of the bananas, so two other caregivers join me to make sure everyone gets one. Apple Blossom, as usual, manages to steal a banana – this time from Pumpkin – who doesn’t mind. We’ve prepared for this, though, and there are extras. Pumpkin and her 18 additional groupmates each receive their daily coveted banana. Now we can get started cleaning Zort’s bedrooms!

11:30 AM: We’ve finished our cleaning for the day and it’s time for another round of health checks. While making sure everyone is happy and accounted for, I share a quick game of chase with Gracie. It’s too hard to walk away when this little lady gallops up to me ready to play.

1:00 PM: After lunch and a popsicle to help beat the heat, it’s time to split up into our afternoon duties. In the afternoons, each team member is assigned a PM duty. Cleaning dirty enrichment, delivering bedding and bags of chow to the buildings, working on projects, and continuing to care for the chimps are all things we could be tasked with on a given afternoon. On this day, I’m continuing to look after the chimps at building C.

1:30 PM: Chow time! The chimps get another portion of chow in the afternoons and it’s up to me to pass it out. Elsie is notorious for spraying me with water from her lixit, the chimpanzee’s water source, while I chow. I’m in luck: Elsie has decided to spare me from her surprise shower and bee-lines for her biscuits instead.

2:00 PM: I fill out some logs on the computer about what was done today. We keep detailed records of each part of our routine – who fed who, who shifted, and who distributed chow.

2:30 PM: Four chimpanzees at my building get extra fluids each afternoon so I bring juice bottles with me to offer up. Onyx takes a while to drink hers – she likes to fill her lip up and then play with the juice in her mouth. Pierre swallows his in big gulps. Murphy prefers his squirts of juice more spread out and is willing to share with the girls in his group (especially Ariah) while he savors his mouthfuls. Camillo wants a big mouthful then a quick moment outside alone to enjoy it before he’s ready for more. I love these small moments where I get to sit and interact with the chimps the most.

3:00 PM: Our last task of the day is another round of health checks and passing out the PM vegetable. Today it’s carrots! A favorite of the chimpanzees. Riley steals a portion of Nina’s carrot after I hand it to her – which she allows because Riley is her 8-year-old son. Devon wants to play before he takes his carrot and I have some time to indulge him. Last but not least, I pass out carrots for Bo and his groupmates. Bo bounces with me briefly, takes a carrot, and steals away to enjoy it.

4:00 PM: After washing any last minute dishes from the day or completing any remaining logs, my team and I change back into our regular attire and head out for the day.

One of my favorite things about what I do is that no two days are the same. We might execute similar cleaning tasks or have a fairly set schedule for our afternoons, but the chimpanzees keep everything interesting. There is always someone being silly with enrichment, playing with a pal, or even hitting me with a cool blast of water when I’m not looking. Being a caregiver can be dirty, frustrating, and exhausting – but I can truly say I love what I do and that means everything to me.

A big shout out (or as we call it: a “pant hoot”) to my team. The dirty, frustrating, or exhausting parts of the day are all made infinitely better by having them to laugh and share with.

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Just like people, chimpanzees can be very picky about which foods they like and which ones they don’t. Some of them also have certain foods that are their favorites or particular ways that they prefer to eat certain foods. Some of the chimps are discrete when they refuse certain foods. They usually politely accept the food but then slowly, “secretly” set the food on the ground next to them (as if we can’t see them). Others are not as polite in their refusal, usually by completely ignoring the caregiver until they are offered a food that they like better.

Below are just a few examples of some of our retirees who have special preferences when it comes to their food:

Barry is one of the few chimps who gets more excited about his vegetables than his fruit. Most of the time, we start the chimps’ breakfast with their vegetables and then put their fruit out last. Barry’s troop mates tend to wait to eat until we put out the “good stuff” (the fruit), but not Barry! He digs right in as soon as the kale is put down in front of him!

Latoya is funny in the way that she prefers to eat cucumbers. She does NOT like to eat the peel of the cucumber, so she tears into the slices so that she can eat only the insides, letting the peel fall to the ground every time. Most of the chimps just eat the slices whole, rather than pick around the edges. Latoya is also a big fan of broccoli!

Each morning as a part of her positive reinforcement training, Tessa gets small pieces of fruit as rewards for participating in the training session. I will never forget the day that I found out that Tessa does NOT like figs. The session started like any other, but when I gave her the first fig piece, she took it excitedly, only to start chewing slower and slower until she spit it out. I thought maybe it was a bad piece, so I offered her another piece but she closed her lips up tight and didn’t offer me her hand to take anymore. We did find out that she LOVES oranges, so now she gets oranges slices as rewards instead! No more of those nasty figs for Tessa!

Hulk’s absolute favorite food is APPLES! During his positive reinforcement training sessions, he’ll only participate if his trainer brings him apples or applesauce. Every year on his birthday, care staff brings him apple slices, if they aren’t already in his morning meal, to make sure he starts his special day off right!

Maggie likes to savor her food more than other chimps, most specifically her banana. Most of the chimps get SO EXCITED for their banana that they eat half of it in the first bite. Maggie, on the other hand, likes to find a quiet spot and slowly peel her banana. She usually drops the peel and eats the banana in small bites. Unfortunately Maggie’s group mates can be pretty rowdy, so she doesn’t always get the peace and quiet that she prefers. If they all had to sit down at a dinner table to eat, Maggie would be the one that everyone else would be waiting on to finish her food so they could be excused.

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Chow (verb)
To “chow” a group of chimpanzees is to provide them with their daily chow biscuits. The chimps receive these large, protein-dense pellets twice each day to provide them with extra nutrients. Caregivers pour the biscuits into canisters attached to the chimps’ bedrooms, and the chimps get to take what they please. Each group gets a certain amount based on group composition and the chimps really love them!

Use it in a sentence: “I already chowed Spider’s group this morning.”

Wad (noun)
A “wad” is how the chimps like to enjoy their biscuits. They will gather up a mouthful of chow, go to a lixit (their water source), douse their mouthful of biscuits in water, and create a semi-solid mash. They’ll hold the wad in their lip or hand and take bites from it. We think it doesn’t seem that appetizing but who are we to judge! Perhaps they’re onto something.

Use it in a sentence: “You should have seen the impressive wad Cocoa Puff had today!”

Shifting (verb or noun)
“Shifting” is what we call the process of asking the chimpanzees to leave their bedrooms and move to their outdoor space to allow us to clean up their rooms each day. If it’s raining, or if the temperatures outside are too hot or cold, we won’t ask the chimps to shift outside — instead, we’ll ask them to move to a neighboring bedroom while we clean. Of course, here at the sanctuary it’s always up to the chimps, and sometimes they don’t feel like shifting. That’s okay; usually we’ll come back and try again when they are feeling up to it.

Use it in a sentence: “Shifting at building B went really well this morning – everyone went outside.”

Food Toss (noun)
A Food Toss is the process of feeding the chimps their daily diet of fresh fruits and veggies. A Food Toss may be conducted by tossing the chimps’ diet over the top of their open air corrals or placing it in the troughs attached to their play yards. We typically use a Food Toss for the chimps’ main meal each day to encourage the chimpanzees to “shift” outside while we clean their bedrooms.

Use it in a sentence: “When I did Zort’s food toss, Fancy was really invested in her kale.”

Hosey Squirt (noun)
When a caregiver gives a chimp a drink from the water hose, it’s referred to as a hosey squirt. While the chimps always have access to multiple water sources in their rooms or outdoor spaces, sometimes the hose water is too good to pass up. When staff is hosing down an area, it’s very common for a few chimps to wander up and wait, (sometimes patiently, sometimes while making loud raspberries with their lips) for a quick drink.

Use it in as sentence: “Hulk got so many hosey squirts today.”

Baby Earl (verb or noun)
Credit for this term goes to our Positive Reinforcement Training Program Coordinator, Rebekah. Care staff use large and small pressure washers to wash down all sorts of spaces at the sanctuary each day. When we received smaller versions of our usual large pressure washers, the idea was tossed around that these “baby” versions should each be designated an individual name. Creativity must have been running short, because the name “Earl” stuck for all of them and has ever since. It’s universally used among care staff and no one has ever looked up the given name for the little guys.

Use it in a sentence: “I baby earl-ed the driveway of C today and it looks so good!”

Spoon Tickles (noun)
In order to keep all of our chimps and staff safe and healthy, Chimp Haven is a “no touch” facility, meaning that we don’t actually touch our chimpanzees with our hands. Instead, we use long handled spoons to interact with the chimps while still keeping a safe distance between us. Some of the chimps are ticklish, and when we interact with the spoons, hearing their breathy laughs is one of my favorite things.

Use it in a sentence: “I tickled Jonah’s toes with a spoon this afternoon and he loved it.”

Baby (noun)
This is a term we use to refer to various objects the chimps will sometimes “adopt” and carry around for an extended period of time. Opal is one of our most consistent baby carriers. She has a set a plastic children’s keys with or around her at all times and sometimes more than one set is in play. Other notable favorites include: Gracie carrying around hats and Latoya’s love for a specific type of small stuffed monkey.

Use it in a sentence: “The chimps got stuffed animals today and Ellie has adopted a stuffed puppy as her baby.”

Chimp Tetris
Chimp Haven has a variety of different living and play spaces, and we often rotate chimp social groups so they’re able to experience a variety of these spaces. That process of transferring a chimp group into a new space is often complicated, and thus referred to as “chimp tetris” (another clever term coined by Rebekah). Chimp moves often require a lot of planning to meet the needs of the group being moved and also the other groups that occupy the space around them. Because of all the careful planning and thinking ahead involved in these moves – chimp tetris was born!

Use it in a sentence: “We did some chimp tetris this morning at Building B and Jonah’s group is loving their new yard.”

Nan (noun)
This is the shortened form of “banana.” As you can imagine, we handle a lot of bananas around here!

Use it in a sentence: “While I was passing out nans today Axel was being really sweet.”

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