Protecting the Chimpanzees from Cold Winter Weather
We all have that friend. You know, the one who goes outside in cold winter weather to shovel snow in a t-shirt or wears flip-flops year-round? While we’re wrapped in fleece jackets and still shivering, they’re happy to walk barefoot on frosty ground.
Chimpanzees are not so very different.
This week, the winter weather turned frigid and gloomy. The chimps who are already inclined to select the indoor option, like Bo and Arthur, snuggle into blankets and nesting materials. Other, more adventurous chimps, like Noel, stay outside until they are shivering and even then refuse the invitation to come into their temperature-controlled bedroom to get warm.
We don’t always agree with their choice but, at Project Chimps, it’s their choice to make.
Chimp’s Choice: Indoors or Out
Choice is a defining feature of their quality of life here in sanctuary: the choice of foods, the choice of activities, the choice of companionship, and the choice to go outside in the heat or cold.
The 59 former research chimpanzees now in our care have the choice to stay inside or enjoy the open air. They get to make this choice every single day.
And it’s a great choice…when the weather cooperates here in the Blue Ridge Mountains!
When it doesn’t, our facilities team and chimpanzee caregivers are ready. Their first priority is ensuring the temperature-controlled indoor bedrooms are as hot or cold as they need to be. That involves inspecting, maintaining and replacing heating units in winter and air conditioners and misters in summer.
Plastic wind blocking and new heaters will keep chimps like Gertrude warm on chilly winter and spring days.
Winterizing the Chimpanzee Villas
Second, they work to provide heat in the open-air porches. This is no easy feat! The porches are several hundred square feet, two-story tall structures with open air mesh on three sides and a mesh roof. Not exactly designed to be heated!
This season, our facilities team came up with the creative solution to apply plastic, greenhouse sheeting to the sides and the roof of the porch areas in all four chimpanzee villas. The solution worked well. The plastic sheets break the wind. And when the sun hits the plastic, the porches warm up nicely.
Project Chimps’ chimpanzee care and facilities team members, Brooke, Ryan and Lucas, install plastic sheeting outside the open-air mesh of the chimps’ large group villas.
The chimps quickly learned to lean against the sunlit panels to enjoy the warmth when they’re grooming or napping but, at night, that heat dissipates rapidly. We still want to give them a choice to be outside, so that means setting up spot heaters.
Staying Warm on the Porch
We can’t heat the entire porch space, but we can provide a spot heater for any chimp that really wants to be outside and who might get stuck on the porch if a stubborn group mate refuses to let them come back into the climate-controlled bedroom. It can happen because chimps squabble (though they quickly make up).
Finding a chimp-proof heater was no easy task! Our facilities manager, Christy, consulted electricians, caregivers, and veterinarians for their ideas. The perfect solution seemed to be installing temporary pilot heaters.
Christy’s team installed a test pilot heater in Chimps Ahoy Villa but, within minutes, it was completely destroyed by Marlon’s group! Not liking the sound of the fan, the chimps threw feces at the heater, making direct contact with the fan blades, and well, you know how that saying goes!
After they cleaned up the mess, Christy’s team tested four more rounds of experimental heaters. Finally, they found a propane unit that provided sufficient heat, could safely be left overnight in the porch area, AND was “chimp approved.”
Kennedy (top), Jacob (center) and Leo (below) sun themselves on the large, multi-level porch of Dorothy Jo & Tilly Villa at Project Chimps.
All the Heaters are Humming
We have now eight of these propane heaters installed and operating in all four bedrooms and all four porches of the chimpanzee villas. Christy’s team refills each propane tank every day and it seems to be working well!
Thanks to generous donations to our Amazon Wish List, we have most of the supplies needed to keep the heaters and generators humming this season.
The caregivers report that the chimps seem to be very happy with their ability to choose to be out on their porches, even when it’s freezing. After venturing out into the chilly forest of our 6-acre Peachtree Habitat, they have places to warm up on the porch without having to into the bedrooms.
They also have the opportunity to take a break from their group, breath in the crisp mountain air, and stay warm near the heater. It’s their choice.