Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Archives for January 2012

Help us go pro

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UPDATE: We’ve reached our goal! Thanks so much – we look forward to trying out this new camera soon.

Supporters Candy and Kathy have started a mini-fundraising drive to help us purchase the GoPro camera that is on our Amazon wishlist. A GoPro is a small high definition video camera that is rugged and waterproof. We’re hoping that once the snow melts, we can mount it on a fence post and capture some interesting video of the chimps on Young’s Hill.

Thanks to Candy and Kathy, we’re already halfway to our goal of $200. If you like to help us reach our goal, you can donate and let us know that you’d like your donation to go towards the new camera.

Jamie as chimpanzee

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Jamie has always been the most human-like of the Cle Elum Seven.  She often does human-like things (files her nails, ties shoelaces, sews); she’s always very interested in any cleaning, maintenance, or construction the humans around her might be doing; and sometimes she even seems to prefer the company of her human caregivers to that of the other chimpanzees.  None of this is unusual for a chimpanzee who has grown up in a captive situation.

But on Young’s Hill, Jamie is all chimpanzee.  Something about the wide open spaces or the natural surroundings seems to bring out a different side of her.

Chasing deer:

Hunting squirrels:

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Fishing for treats on the treat rock:

Leading her friends on a walk:

Portraits of happy chimps under blue skies

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I still get goose-bumpy when I see the chimps out on the hill, especially with the sun on their backs and blue skies overhead. I just can’t imagine how amazing it must feel for them. What a difference a few years can make!

Foxie:

Annie:

Jody:

Great Ape Protection Act Video

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If you haven’t seen this video put together by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, with footage taken by Jonathan Houser of the chimpanzees being released onto Young’s Hill, watch it below.

The chimpanzees are the stars of the video, in our opinion, but you might spot a Hollywood star or two as well. There is certainly momentum building for ending the use of chimpanzees in research, and we hope that the Cle Elum Seven can continue to serve as an example of why chimpanzees should be permanently released to sanctuaries.

Biological Anthropologist Barbara King shared the video on the NPR website earlier today.