Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary for primates.
We got a few inches of fresh snow overnight, and despite the grumbling from the humans at the sanctuary (we’re ready for spring!), the chimpanzees were happy for a frosty snack. Here are a few photos that Jackie snapped this morning.
Burrito:
Missy hauled a big container of snow all the way upstairs:
People who have seen Burrito in person often comment that he’s “fluffier” than the other chimpanzees at the sanctuary, and it is an accurate observation. The technical term for this fluffiness is piloerection. A chimpanzee is said to be pilo erect when his or her hair is standing on end due to anxiety or excitement. (Humans also experience piloerection when we get goosebumps, but it’s not as obvious since we have less hair.) When a chimpanzee is completely calm and relaxed, his hair lies flat against his body. Given that Burrito is rarely completely calm — he’s a pretty high-strung guy — it makes sense that he’s very often pilo erect.
I like the following photos because you can see how much of Burrito’s impressive size is body and how much is “fluff”.
The chimps usually are not too interested in music (or any noise-making things in general) but today Jamie was really interested in playing this toy ukulele. She carried it around for most of the afternoon! She kept looking at it very up close, and my assumption is that she was trying to figure out how the noise was coming from the hole in the ukulele.
Annie spent a great deal of time this morning doing yoga stretches in her nest:
Then, as we were getting ready to let the chimps out on Young’s Hill, the chimps got so excited!
Annie offering reassurance to Missy:
Then they got so playful!
I’ve been referring to the weather we’re having in Cle Elum as bi-polar. One minute it’s sunny and the next minute there’s a blizzard. Yesterday we caught an unexpected break – the forecast called for snow flurries, but it was a pretty mild day. As you saw from the video yesterday, Missy took full advantage of the spring-like weather and was, well… spring-like.
In addition to all of that video, J.B. also managed to get some photos of Missy and Annie playing on the hill. I probably don’t need to say this, but it is still such an amazing thrill for us at the sanctuary to watch the chimps on the hill. Each time they go out, they seem even more relaxed. Playing is now a regular occurrence, but it’s still all so new and exciting. Watching Missy with a play face wrestle with Annie makes me indescribably happy.
Missy looks like she’s going to do a pro-wrestling move on Annie:
Annie returns with a play bite to Missy’s brow ridge:
Annie tries to give Missy the slip:
Missy grabs Annie’s fingertips:
Later, Missy was sitting by herself behind a post on the hill:
Here’s a close-up of the photo above. That’s a happy chimp face:
Watching Missy run uphill amazes me. I’m not sure how it looks on video, but the volunteers that helped build the enclosure can tell you that just walking up that hill will wear you out. It’s just another sign of the chimps’ inherent strength, and their desire to experience the simple joys in life.
Jamie likes to draw with pens and occasionally with crayons, but she’s not much of an artist with paint. She used to paint a lot when she first arrived at the sanctuary (we have some of her earlier pieces for sale in our store), but lately her focus has been more on eating the paint than actually creating something with it. However, volunteer Seana gave her some finger paint yesterday and she created quite the masterpieces!
