June 2008 Archives

Snow-covered mountains in June, sunrise at 4:30 a.m., dorm living for the first time in 30 years, and pant hoots from the next room. I don't think I'm in Houston, Texas anymore. Thirteen adventurous souls from across the nation -- and one very jet-lagged wayfarer from the Czech Republic -- relinquished our summer with family, friends and pets to volunteer as apprentices at the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute at Central Washington University in Ellensburg. As apprentices, we receive down and dirty (quite literally) experience in the day-to-day care and comfort of its famous resident chimpanzee family -- Tatu, Dar and Loulis. We also support the unparalleled research in interspecies communication and chimpanzee behavior conducted here. Each apprentice brings distinctive background to the team. Some apprentices previously volunteered with other primate sanctuaries. Many are students with or recent graduates from psychology, anthropology or animal behavior college programs. One worked as an archeologist. Another brought his cherished cello. Three apprentices come from the Bridges to Baccalaureate Program that provides opportunities for exceptional high school and Yakima Valley Community College students to make the transition into university level primatology studies. The two "nontraditional" apprentices may be considerably older but not necessarily wiser than the rest. We both are married, one with five children and the other (me) with four pets. We both share joints that protest too much as we hose the top rafters of the chimpanzee enclosures. My fellow "mature" colleague, a life-long learner, seeks a psychology graduate degree while I, a fifty-something with public relations background, now write about the human-animal bond. I hope to experience a conversation with another sentient, albeit a non-human, being. We apprentices will let you vicariously join us in our once-in-a-lifetime learning experience, so check back often for updates.

Editor's Note: Every day at CHCI we put out a wide variety of enrichment items for the chimpanzees: clothing, sheets, drawing material, containers, toys, hoses, mirrors, brushes, and so on. Most days we have some sort of theme to the objects, which helps keep us from using the same objects in the same ways day after day. Other days we incorporate a forage or something else special into the general enrichment items, as well. Here are the themes from May 2008.

1. General enrichment
2. General enrichment
3. General enrichment
4. General enrichment
5. Spider web day
6. Peter Pan day
7. CHCI day (15 years in the new building!)
8. Island day
9. Magazine-page quilt day
10. General enrichment
11. General enrichment
12. Loulis's birthday! (celebrated)
13. English tea party day
14. Purse day
15. Chicken pox day
16. Chimpanzee day
17. General enrichment
18. General enrichment
19. Outside day
20. Cleaning day
21. Katie O. day
22. (Fake) Vomit day (it's fun, really!)
23. Crime scene day
24. General enrichment
25. General enrichment
26. Barnyard animals day
27. Yellow day
28. Angela day (she of the Horton pancakes)
29. Butterfly day
30. Insect/picnic day

I got this idea from IHOP when I went and saw a poster for their new kids meal. It was a stack of pancakes from large to small, with blue icing drizzled over and topped with a pink lolli holding the whole deal in place. To make it healthier for the chimpanzees, I substituted yogurt (colored with food dye) for the icing and a strawberry on a stick for stabilization.

The chimpanzees were very excited when they saw what was for dinner. Everyone really liked the yogurt. Tatu and Dar at the yogurt and left the pancakes. Loulis ate everything with gusto.

Live Music Capital of the World

Austin is a fabulous city. Although Austin has always been a fun town, it has grown exponentially in the past 15 years and is now the hip place to be. There is the SXSW music festival, the bats, Lady Bird's Wildflower Center, Eeyore's annual birthday party, Barton Springs pool, and Kirby Lane pancakes. Such was the inspiration for Texas Day.

My family sent t-shirts, hats, newspapers, magazines, cups, pom-poms (burnt orange & white, of course), maps, and laminates. Stickers included "Keep Austin Weird" (the campaign to preserve small, local businesses), and the Texas flag with the word 'home' on it. CHCI intern Lani Gusman made and painted cardboard cutouts of Texas, a guitar, and a cactus.

The Texas-Express special shipment also included cascarones, which are festive, hollow egg shells filled with confetti. They are a Mexican tradition at Easter. They are meant to be broken over someones head (usually as a surprise from behind), and this is said to bring the recipient good luck. Judging from the amount of confetti at clean up, these are some lucky chimpanzees! Dar was spotted carrying one around in his mouth.

Jessica Southwick (from the nearby, but not nearly as cool, state of Oklahoma) and I spray painted a giant Texas flag. To create a "hurricane," we attached 2 white sheets from a hulahoop, strung it up in the shaky tree in East (thanks to Lisa Schuster Lyons), and twirled the sheets down to the floor. Tatu climbed to the top of the shaky tree, leaned way over, and peered into the eye of the storm.

All of the chimpanzees inspected their new enrichment items, and foraged for the bananas and grapes hidden around the room. The day was not complete without some Tex-Mex tacos (of corn, tomatoes, & chives) and salsa (courtesy of Rachel Halberg). Overall, Texas Day was a fun chimpanzee and human enrichment day. I'm hoping the next shipment includes some of those pancakes. Cheers, ya'll!