Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
As exciting as all these posts are about the hill, since not everyone is going out on the hill all the time, it’s resulted in some blog posting-neglect of certain folks. So here’s a photo I took of adorable Burrito this afternoon hanging out in the greenhouse, just like “the old days”. He and Negra are definitely creatures of habit.
I have no idea what was going through Foxie’s mind as she walked around the entire perimeter of Young’s Hill on that first day out, but since then, she has been extremely reluctant to go back out. Everyday she tries, but as soon as she gets about 20 feet from the doorway she freezes in her tracks. Obviously the whole experience of being outdoors is overwhelming to her.
Her friends have been encouraging her to go out and to remain out once she is there. But they know that she is scared and they don’t try to push her beyond her comfort zone.
The other day I saw something amazing. Missy came out of the tunnel with a troll in her mouth, and Foxie was trailing behind her. Missy doesn’t care for trolls, so I thought that perhaps Missy was using the troll as a lure to try to help Foxie get outside. And in a way, she was..but it was Foxie that initiated it! Since then, I’ve seen Foxie go through this routine three times with Missy. Foxie begins by stomping around the greenhouse, which is an invitation for someone to go out to the hill with her. When Missy joins her, they both pause and Foxie delicately hands over her troll. She then waits for Missy and the troll to lead the way up the hill.
On day 1 of Young’s Hill, we saw a lot of wrestling from Annie and Missy (shocking, I know!), but since then, we haven’t seen a whole lot of playing on the hill, most likely because there has been so much to do and explore out there that they just haven’t “had the time”. Over the last few days, however, I’ve been noticing them get more and more playful. Chase has been a favorite game lately (apparently, even Gators make good chase partners!). I’m sure after watching the construction all summer, the chimps (or Missy and Jamie at least) have just been waiting for the opportunity to get up to a full speed run! But with 2-acres to explore, even just walking around is such amazing exercise for them. I’m sure they are sleeping like babies at night!
I just posted this to the Out of the Box event page. Check out the slideshow below and this link for even more photos. What a night!
Chimp Sanctuary NW 2011 slideshow – Images by Karen Ducey
Today I was watching the chimps running around on the hill. Jamie and Missy were way in the distance. Missy was sitting on the log bridge up top and I couldn’t even see Jamie! Jody was sitting under the hammock and Foxie was running out and then back in over and over. Jackie hopped into the Gator (our farm utility vehicle) to try and find Jamie, and Missy started to play chase with her. Missy gave up quickly but Jamie was way more excited about it.
Sometimes when we play chase with the chimps, they will fake us out—meaning they will run one direction and then abruptly turn and go the other direction, and we have to try and catch up to them. Well, this is a lot harder to do when you have to turn around a Gator on a steep hill! You’ll see Jamie playing this “fake out” game with Jackie in the beginning of the video.
The online auction raised $19,771. Combine that with our Seattle Out of the Box event and a $200 donation that came since the tally I gave yesterday plus individual sponsors which were not included in that tally and we have (drum-roll, please….) $147,712. And that is the amount raised minus expenses! Thank you to everyone who participated, volunteered and gave to help the chimps. What a huge success! Photos of the Seattle event coming soon.
