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About once a month, Jason and I take our daughter Adelaide into the observation area to say hello to the chimpanzees through the glass.Over the last year, it has been fun to watch Addy go from sleeping through her visits with the chimpanzees to interacting with them. When we went to visit them on a recent Saturday, Loulis was very playful and interested in interacting with Jason, Addy and me. He came up to the glass and wanted to tickle Addy's feet, so we put her feet up for a tickle. 

When Loulis would put his hand up on the glass, Addy would too.

Addy was enjoying herself as well and pointing to Loulis and babbling. At one point, Loulis offered Addy a kiss through the glass.  Addy didn't understand this gesture of friendship, but that didn't phase Loulis who kept on playing with her. 

I hope that Addy's friendship with the chimpanzees will help her develop compassion for all life and to understand there is no 'us and them', but only an 'us' which includes all living beings.

The Civic Engagement Center on campus provides students opportunities to get involved in service activities. This last quarter they put together a nut drive for Tatu, Dar, and Loulis.  They put boxes around campus and asked students to donate nuts, and boy did they!  Yesterday we received the bags of nuts and we are now planning nut enrichment!  Thank you to everyone at the Civic Engagement Center and to all the students who donated.  We appreciate all your work and generosity!

Want to help support Washoe's family and educate others about chimpanzees?  If you have weekends free we'd like to encourage you to become part of our weekend workshops, the one-hour chimposiums, by becoming a docent.   

What is a Docent?

Docents are volunteers who support the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute (CHCI) by conducting Chimposium workshops for K-12 students, CWU classes, and the general public on weekends and weekdays.

Docents work as greeters, gift shop attendants, presenters and/or observer guides during the program. Docent shifts usually last about 3 ½ to 4 hours on weekends and about 1 to 2 hours during the week.

Here are some examples of the jobs you'll be involved in:

 

What is a Chimposium?

Chimposium is a play on words, combining chimp and symposium. CHCI believes that education is one of the most effective ways to help chimpanzees, and therefore offers one-hour educational workshops (Chimposiums) to the public on weekends, as well as Group Chimposiums on weekdays. The mission of CHCI is to protect and care for Washoe's family of chimpanzees and educate the public regarding captive and free-living chimpanzees.

How much time is required? 

The minimum time commitment of a docent is four Chimposiums per month. One weekend Chimposium shift (approximately 3 - 4 hours) includes two Chimposiums, and weekday shifts typically include one Chimposium (1 - 2 hours). Docents are also expected to attend mandatory monthly meetings, which take place on the first Wednesday of each month and last approximately one hour. Chimposiums are held regularly from March through November on weekends and are scheduled throughout the year at arranged weekday times for larger groups. 

How do I become a Docent?

Contact Lisa Schuster Lyons(docent@cwu.edu or 509-963-2244) for an application. Attend a scheduled orientation/training workshop, and sign a docent letter of agreement. Join your fellow docents in volunteering at Chimposiums and be an active voice for all chimpanzees.

You can also download and print a PDF version of the application from the CHCI webpage, fill it out, and return it to CHCI.

March fourteen is International Pi day! (Get it? 3.14?) To celebrate, I decided to make the chimpanzees a delicious pit-fruit pie. We had plenty of frozen pitted fruit from the summer (thank you to everyone who donated the fruit from their fruiting trees), so all I needed to make was the crust.

No sweat, I thought. I surfed the Internet, and found a great vegan recipe (since we had no eggs or milk in the fridge). Flour, baking powder, oil, salt, water. No problem. We always have those ingredients, I thought to myself. Well, I was a little "iffy" on the baking powder, but on checking the cupboard, I found a canister almost half full. Great! Next, off to the pantry for some flour and oil. I found the oil all right, but no flour!

Oh no, I thought, no flour. But I so want to make a pie for Pi day! I spied the pancake mix next to where the flour should be. I read the ingredients on the pancake box. Flour, baking powder, oil solids, and salt! Awesome, I thought, now I can make pie crust!

I left out the baking powder and salt, and just added the oil and water, mixed it together, and had something quite close to pie crust. Then I defrosted the apricots and peaches and boiled them down a bit in a pot with cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground cloves. Into the bottom crust it went (in a cast-iron skillet), and then into the oven. For the top I flattened small bits of dough and floated them on the fruit.

The finished product was beautiful. All the chimpanzees were very excited about the pie while I was baking it. Tatu requested repeatedly that I take the pie out of the oven so that she could smell it. However, only Dar and Loulis came in for dinner, and Loulis ended up eating Dar's serving of pie.

There are plenty of leftovers to serve on another day. Oh well; perhaps next time I will make a pie that everyone enjoys.

Editor's Note: Kelly has been working at CHCI for more than three years, and finished her time here as a Tech, the highest level of training available at CHCI.

December 31st is the end of my three year journey here at CHCI. I came to Central in 2005 for the Primate Behavior and Ecology major not knowing what to really expect. My sophomore year I started as an intern at CHCI and my life has never been the same. Not only have I met some really amazing human primates, but I have had the chance to meet four amazing non-human primates.

Some people find it hard to believe that I would be so strongly impacted by chimpanzees, but what they don't know is the first time you really look a chimpanzee in the eyes, you have a realization that they are so much more complex than you ever gave them credit for, or at least that is how my experience went. It's hard to put into words how it feels to have Tatu invite you into a peaceful grooming session for the first time, or how good it feels to have Dar offer you a kiss on a day when it seems like life is getting too crazy. I think the chimpanzees here have taught me some really great life lessons that I am lucky enough to walk away with. I think one lesson would be to enjoy the little things in life that most people take for granted, like being able to go outside. We aren't able to let the chimpanzees go outside if it is below 20 degrees which, if you've ever been to Ellensburg, can be quite a few days in the winter. I have had a few moments where I would be opening the door and the excitement would be overwhelming.

Yet, most humans don't have to worry about not having the choice to go outside. In fact, as humans we have almost unlimited choices in everything. The chimpanzees here are given as many choices as possible, including who they choose to be friends with, and like any friendship there is a level of patience and forgiveness involved. Some may argue that chimpanzees aren't patient, but if you've ever trained someone to give a drink from a hose you will see a lot of patience on the chimp's part. I have seen people accidentally spray the chimpanzees while trying to give them a drink and the chimpanzees' reaction isn't always anger, but often they may adjust and give the person another chance. I think this may be the greatest lesson I have learned from the family here.

Although I am leaving, I know the chimpanzees will be in good hands and will be well taken care of. So all I can say is goodbye Tatu, Loulis, and Dar. You guys are wonderful and I hope you continue to shape others who have the opportunity to be your friends. To all of the human primates, thank you for always supporting me and thank you for all the good times. I will miss you all.

The Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute is located on a university campus. As such, the number of interns who are able to put time in over school holidays is limited. But, those interns who do stay find ways to have a good time, even without their home-bound comrades.

Christmas celebrations abounded at CHCI this morning. Chimpanzees and caregivers alike came together to celebrate with a big party.

There were bags full of meat and cheese, whole pomegranates and tangerines, peppermint candies, sparkling cider, lunchables packs, leeks, and a beautiful gingerbread lighthouse. There were also wrapped toys and plenty of decorations. The chimpanzees had a wonderful party and, after several hours of eating and playing, settled down for a long winter's nap.

I started at CHCI this quarter as a Primate 220 student; therefore I am not allowed to have any type of interaction with the chimpanzees.  The only way that I can interact with them, is to plan an enrichment activity.  I decided to do a food enrichment, which consisted of frozen bananas covered in peanut butter.  I froze six bananas with sticks, and 2 whole ones, which I cut up.  I brought in my enrichment on Friday, and I was able to put it out that same day.  Kelly, one of the techs at CHCI, showed the chimps the bananas beforehand, and they started to get really excited. I threw some of the bananas on top of the human cage, threw some up on the platform, and hid them in various toys and other objects throughout the room.  Kelly and Anna filmed and photographed the enrichment for me, so I was able to see how the chimps reacted.


When they first came in the west room, they started emitting high pitched calls, which Kelly told me they do when they are really excited over a food item. Tatu and Dar seemed to get the most treats.  Dar was finding all the hard ones, even climbing on top of the human cage to get the piece that was thrown up there.  When he first came into the room, he began stuffing as many pieces as he could fit into his mouth. Tatu ate all the peanut butter off her bananas first, and then would suck on the banana part.  Loulis seemed more private about his banana eating.  He found one that had a stick, and also found a piece that I had put into a small cup.  He held everything in his mouth, then went outside, and ate his treats, with his back turned to everyone.  I didn't see that he was able to get anymore treats than just the two.


Doing this enrichment for the chimps, and seeing them react so well to it, was such an amazing experience for me.  I hope to prepare lots more enrichment activities in the future.

The "luck o' the Irish" was with Tatu, Loulis, and Dar on St. Patrick's Day, also known as GREEN DAY, accompanied by green decorations, treats, and an exciting dinner! The day began with the usual breakfast smoothie, and while the chimpanzees enjoyed an after-smoothie apple, the interns at CHCI went to work putting out an extravagant forage!  Thanks to a generous donation from Ginna Keulen, the East room was decorated from floor to ceiling with green streamers, plastic tablecloths, garland, and a large inflatable leprechaun (GREEN PERSON).

For some special treats, the chimpanzees foraged for apple juice with soda water (dyed green of course), spread out throughout their enclosure in paper cups.

 Also included in the donation from Ms. Keulen was a package of mint chocolate kisses (CHCOCOLATE SWEETS), and from the treat drawer at CHCI came walnuts, dried apricots, dried pineapple, and grape licorice!  The chimpanzees were very excited at the prospect of all of these treats! Dar especially enjoyed the green apple juice, while Tatu and Loulis seemed to prefer the nuts and chocolate kisses. The treats were hidden around their East room enclosure, in hats and clothing, under tires and even on top of their climbing structure.

Dar was so excited about the party, when asked what a picture of a leprechaun was, he replied, ICE CREAM (which the chimpanzees sometimes use to refer to parties). Tatu, Dar, and Loulis all enjoyed their special Irish celebration!

Spring is the time for renewal and reinvention. In the spirit of springtime we here at CHCI have been working to reinvigorate all aspects of our education workshop experience. First, our chimposium presentation has been upgraded introducing both new material and a new format that incorporates current technology like PowerPoint. Second, we're re-imagining our foyer space to maximize the potential for learning. With the "Conservation Information" station & the "Chimpanzees in Captivity" station we hope to continue educating the public about the challenges facing chimpanzees and the larger bodied apes across the world in new and engaging ways.

Both foyer projects are currently in progress but some things to look for if you're visiting in the future are the following proposed ventures: first, the "bushmeat tree" with facts and figures to inform guests about the bushmeat trade and it's impacts on free-living chimpanzee communities; second, the visual aids (including maps & marbles) of current chimpanzee population numbers compared to ancestor populations to represent the scope of habit loss and population decline; and third, a new poster that outlines the experiences of chimpanzees in captivity in the United States.

In addition, our interactive kiosks will be expanded to address these issues as well.  These ideas and more are being fleshed out by a group of fantastic volunteers who are dedicated to making information available because they know that education is the best possible tool for change. I'd like to thank them all and encourage you to stop by if you're in the area to experience the new educational opportunities that they're working hard to make available!

Thanks to the following individuals for your continued hard work on making these projects a reality: Andy Gray, Debbie Metzler, Gina Stadtner, John Rinear, Julianna Bostick, Julie Reveles, Lindsay Zager, Mike Stucker, Olivia Brown, Robin Potosky, Rozsika Steele, and Sydney Self.