One week from today, we will celebrate Negra’s 40th birthday and CSNW’s 5 year anniversary. Due to incomplete lab records, we don’t know Negra’s actual date of birth. To honor her status as the Queen of the Cle Elum Seven, we celebrate her birthday on June 13, the anniversary of the chimpanzees’ arrival to the sanctuary.
Negra is the oldest of the seven chimps here, and it’s easy to tell by looking at her. She is rounder than the other chimps and moves a lot slower. While they’re playing energetic games of chase, she can often be found wrapped in a blanket gazing out the window. Negra has the wisdom and dignity that often come with age. It’s for this reason that we call her our Queen.
One of the things I love most about Negra is that she doesn’t settle. She demands what she thinks she deserves and doesn’t give up until she gets it. Usually, what she thinks she deserves is her night bag, a nightly post-dinner treat of nuts and seeds in a small paper bag. She loves night bags so much that often, mid-dinner service, she claps her hands together imperiously as if to say, “I’ll take that night bag NOW, please.”
This photo was taken when Negra and the rest of the Cle Elum Seven were en route to CSNW from the laboratory five years ago. I often wonder what Negra was thinking sitting in her cage on the transport truck, leaving over three decades of research labs behind. Of course, she couldn’t have known during that cross-country drive that those days were in the past.
I’d like to think that she started to understand that her life was changing shortly after arriving at the sanctuary. This photo was taken on June 13, 2008, just hours after the transport truck carrying the chimpanzees pulled into our driveway. Negra and the others took turns in front of this window. In the lab they had lived in a windowless basement, so it’s likely that she was seeing outside for the first time in many years, maybe decades.
The next two photos were taken this morning, almost exactly five years later. Negra spent the morning foraging for fruit and sitting in the grass on Young’s Hill, the chimps’ two-acre outdoor habitat. I don’t know if Negra will ever get used to the feel of the cool grass under her feet or the sight of the blue sky overhead, but I think that she finally knows that her past is history.
Next Thursday, June 13, please join us for Give Five Day. By donating just $5, you’ll pay for one meal for one of the chimpanzees, show your love for Negra and the others, and enable us to keep serving seven incredible survivors.
Gorgeous post, Elizabeth. 🙂
I’ve been checking back for a new post, but i wasnt expecting a heart warming story like that. I think who ever reads it doesnt stand a chance of dry eyes. As a 40 year old, slower, rounder woman myself, I cant think of a better way to spend my days than wrapped in a blanket and eating and sleeping as often as I can. Bravo to you all for such award winning care of the CE7, the incredible changes that theyve gone through speaks volumes to the life theyre living now.
My heart is heavy with the knowledge of Negra’s past. My heart is soaring with love that Negra and her family have Sanctuary and all that has to offer. As she and the others enjoy a life they have never know before this past five years I often wonder what they think of their past and do they understand it is over and done with. That, what they have now will only get better in the years to come. It has been quite the journey for these beings and I can look forward to the future for them. It has been hard work for all who have made this last five years the best it can be for the “7”, but it is done with love and respect. I can only hope at all captive chimpanzee’s who still linger in labs or as pets or in the entertainment industry will be so lucky to find their sanctuary in the very near future.
Thank you to all of you who make this possible for the “7”.
Bravo Elizabeth for a beautiful post on Negra! Thank you all at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest for loving the Cle Elum 7.
I have been aware of this sanctuary for the past year or so. And even in that short time, the huge steps she has taken to enjoying her freedom has been thrilling. Not only have you done an amazing job at preparing their home and encouraging them to be chimps, but you have managed to show their distinct personalities for those of us that have never met them. Thank you for that.
I’ll make sure to save my $5 for next week. 😀
I have a question, looking at the photos of Negra in the tall grass. Do you have snakes in Washington? If so, would the chimps know what to do if they saw one?
Thanks for sharing Negra and the rest of the Cle Elum Seven with us!
We do have snakes in Washington. The chimps react to them with a mix of fear, suspicion, and aggression. Most of the snakes at the sanctuary are harmless. There’s a great video of an encounter with a garter snake in the chimp house here: https://chimpsnw.org/2010/09/intruder/.
We have had the occasional rattlesnake visitor, but the chimps seem to understand that they’re not to be messed with, and stay far away from them.
I’ve said it before: I think it’s wonderful that Negra (and the rest of the CE 7) can spend the rest of her days being looked after by people who love her. Happy 40th to the Queen.
Further to the question of snakes, do you have to check the chimps for ticks, and other pests that might be harmful to their health?
The chimpanzees spend much of their day grooming themselves and one another, and would do a much better job scouting for ticks than we could do.