Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Today was a little warmer than the past few days, and the snow is starting to melt a bit. When we opened up Young’s Hill, the chimps all ran out to get a bite of snow. It’s still pretty cold out though, so they didn’t stay too long. Here’s some pictures from this afternoon:
We’re planning the menu for Thursday’s dinner! It’ll definitely include Field Roast deliciousness. If you’d like to help sponsor the feast, please donate now. We’ll thank you in the blog post on Thursday and will email the first 5 donors a special photo of the party. And if you’d like to share your ideas on what they should have, comment below (remember that the chimps don’t have refined sugar or much salt, and other than their chow, they don’t have animal products).
Here’s Annie enjoying her Field Roast and mashed potatoes over the holidays last year:
Annie:
Today marks the two month anniversary of the opening of Young’s Hill. Coincidentally it was also volunteer Katelyn’s birthday, so we did have a small party for the chimps. It was only later that I realized we could have also considered it the anniversary party! Here’s some (hopefully) never before seen pictures of the first day on Young’s Hill. I can’t believe it has already been two months! In just that short amount of time we’ve seen the chimps grow more and more comfortable on the hill, and I expect that when next summer rolls around (and all the snow is gone!) they will stay for hours and hours basking in the sun and looking up at the open sky. I watched the KOMO news story again today, and it still warms my heart. It was such an amazing, emotional, and remarkable day.
You may notice in this video that the chimps often hold the snow out on their extended lower lip to inspect it. This behavior is common with wadges, the clumps of fibrous foods such as seeds and leaves that chimpanzees chew and suck the juice out of (see below). For some reason, chimps love to inspect their wadges as they chew them. Perhaps snow falls into the same category to them, or maybe it’s just too cold to keep in their mouths.
With Thanksgiving approaching, we’d like to give our thanks to a very special supporter. Kathleen Flynn is an architect who has donated her considerable talents to many projects, from public memorial spaces to affordable housing for people in rural and underserved communities. We connected with Kathleen through the 1% Program of Public Architecture, a service that links organizations in need of design assistance with architects willing to donate their time, and we’re both excited to collaborate on a new project for the sanctuary. Through her firm, Wild Goose Architecture, Kathleen has been helping us design our new veterinary clinic addition and develop master facilities and site plans for the sanctuary.
On her website, Kathleen notes that she takes inspiration from the wild goose, which the ancient Celts viewed as “energetically quirky”. Kathleen, if you’re looking for energetic quirkiness, you’ve come to the right place…
In case you haven’t heard, in the world of chimps, Brandon Wood rocks!
Brandon is 11 and has been working hard on behalf of chimpanzees. He’s been very busy sending letters to congress and to the president, telling them about the importance of the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act, and has even been fundraising for the Cle Elum Seven! His dedication, passion and diligence is something to really look up to. I know I do!!
So, as a way to honor him and all that he has done, and is doing, we had a surprise party for the chimps today. Volunteer Connie initiated the plan and brought a few “rock star-style” party decorations and then, volunteers Stephanie and Katelyn went on the hunt in Seattle and found all kinds of rockin’ decor, including a guitar pinata- because we think Brandon “rocks”! In addition, I secretly contacted Brandon’s mom, Deanna, to find out some of Brandon’s favorite foods and snacks so we could have them for the party and make the day as special as possible.
To get the chimps geared up for a party, we started things out by having a snow cone/cup forage in the greenhouse.
Annie:
Burrito:
Foxie:
Deanna told me that one of Brandon’s favorite things is pumpkin pie. We don’t give the chimps dairy or sugar, so we were presented with a challenge, but it didn’t stop us! We pureed pumpkin, soy milk, tofu, and cinnamon and baked it inside mini pumpkins. I think it worked out pretty well!
Burrito loved it!
Some of the decor, pre-party:
Annie with the guitar pinata:
Jamie:
Deanna told me that another favorite of Brandon’s is ants-on-a-log, and that he also really enjoys tomatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots. Can you guess what we served the chimps for lunch?
Thank you so much for all you do, Brandon! In our eyes, you really are a rock star!
