In celebration of reaching our goal of 5,000 “likes” (fans) on the Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest Facebook page (an increase of over 300 since yesterday!), we threw a Cinco Mil de Mayo party for brunch this morning.
On the menu was guacamole in lettuce with tomatoes and a side of watermelon, accompanied by sparkling seltzer water with lime wedges:
And what’s Cinco de Mayo without a pinata?
Negra loves both avocados and lettuce, so she was very pleased with the party menu:
Missy also really enjoyed the lettuce guacamole wraps. She had a technique of licking the guacamole off first, then eating the lettuce:
Jamie enjoyed the refreshing sparkling water, served in plastic shot glasses:
Burrito‘s strategy was to gather as many pieces of primate chow as quickly as he could:
Annie also enjoyed the chow, though in a slower fashion:
Guess who got the pinata? Yes, indeed – the leader of the group, Jamie, claimed it as her own:
She must have left some nuts inside, though, because Negra was eating a walnut later in the party:
It was a pretty windy day, but Foxie took some time to explore on Young’s Hill with Dora:
Negra decided the party was not complete without fresh grass from the hill, so she went out and helped herself:
For dinner, J.B. served the chimps baked sweet potatoes, corn, and celery. Here he is serving celery to Jody:
Of course, dinner was capped off with the traditional Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest night bag of seeds, popcorn, nuts and dried fruit. Jody lied down to eat hers:
Thanks and happy Cinco de Mayo to everyone who liked the FB page for the first time yesterday and for those friends who recruited new fans of the Cle Elum Seven! Please explore the blog and the rest of the website to learn more about your new friends! And if you’re local, join us on May 20th in Ellensburg for Race for the Apes – our first 5K run / walk fundraiser.
I never cease to be happy at the seven enjoying themselves!
Many thanks for the wonderful photos and commentary–a very happy Seven.
I know that they do not smile as we do, but Jamie looks might pleased with herself in picture 11.
Always love seeing their faces. It never stops fascinating me just how closely we resemble each other’s species. It nearly looks surreal.
Glad Negra is getting out and about. 🙂
So happy they all had such a good time.
Just curious, is it possible that Burrito makes sure he has a lot to eat because maybe at one time someone didn’t feed him enough?
Love you all! 🙂
Good question Brenna. It is hard to know exactly why Burrito gathers food when he can. It might be that during his entertainment years food was used as a motivator. Being hungry will make you more motivated to do what someone wants you to do when you know that food is the prize. It might be he has a high metabolizium and burns more calories than the girls, or it might be a way to try to show a little dominance. I think it is a little of all these things plus I think there is some of “I can, therefore I will” mixed in there. And it might be he just likes the food the sanctuary serves.
Brenna – I’m going to disagree with how volunteer caregiver Denice answered your question. Burrito’s food gathering behavior is pretty normal primate behavior. In fact, all of the chimps gather food when there’s a forage, Burrito just happens to be really good at it and, perhaps more than others, is more strategic in the sense that he beelines for the thing he wants the most and grabs it up. Jamie is also proficient with this strategy and often has a “stash’ area where she’ll collect the food, rather than keeping it all in her arms like Burrito, but that’s probably because she knows the other chimps will not mess with her food so it’s safer for her to leave it unattended.
If you and six friends were let loose into an area that had some of your favorite foods during lunchtime, you’d probably behave in a similar way.
Foraging for food is a really important part of the lives of chimpanzees in the wild and adds excitement to their days, which is one reason we incorporate forages into celebrations.
Thanks for asking good questions!
Hi , I’m Vegan and an ARA.!!!! I was invited to this page today, and I’m so glad I was..!!!!. All your residents are adorable…. I love them all <3<3<3 If I ever visit your area i would love so much to come and visit them… You are doing great work !! They look like they had a lot of fun at their party.:)) Wonderful to see..!!!!! All monkeys have always held a special place in my heart <3
Welcome, Marjie! We’re so glad you learned about the sanctuary! We’re not open to the public, but someday we’ll probably have guided educational visits by appointment (see our visitor policy page: http://chimpsnw.org/about/visitor_policy/).
I should point out, on behalf of the seven, that they are chimpanzees, which are great apes, and not monkeys. I don’t know if the chimps would really care if they knew someone referred to them as monkeys, but us caregivers are sensitive about it 🙂
I love those green guac lips! And as soon as I read “pinata” I thought of Jamie – I know how she likes those. Glad to see you got your Cinco Mil en Mayo and the chimps got a party.
And welcome, all blog newbies. You’ll come to love these seven chimps (and the people who take care of them) like a family!