Today we’re celebrating Don Young’s 75th birthday. Don and Karen Young have been endlessly generous in their support of the sanctuary and the Cle Elum Seven. Among many other things, Don and Karen provided the contribution that allowed us to break ground on what is now known as Young’s Hill. Each time the chimpanzees step outside onto their two-acre open air habitat, we feel so thankful to the Youngs for making it happen. See Diana’s blog post from this morning for more on Don and Karen.
Karen sponsored today for the chimps in honor of Don’s birthday, so we threw a lavish party to celebrate. The weather was unseasonably nice today, so first thing this morning we set up parties in the greenhouse and on Young’s Hill. The chimps foraged for coconuts, pineapple, kiwi, beets, Brussels sprouts, sweet potato, and fruit smoothie in Dixie cups.
Although the weather was beautiful for January in Cle Elum, it was still a little cool for Negra, so she chose to stay in the greenhouse:
But everyone else went outside and foraged for breakfast on Young’s Hill:
Burrito gathered some Brussels sprouts:
And Jamie collected some beets:
The real prizes of the morning were the two whole coconuts. Missy quickly found one of them:
and looked for a safe place to enjoy it:
She was soon joined by Jody:
Jody was very happy to find the second coconut a little later:
There was plenty of coconut to go around, and everyone eventually got a chance to enjoy some.
Foxie:
Annie:
We can’t possibly count the ways in which we’re grateful for Karen and Don’s generosity. The Cle Elum Seven wouldn’t enjoy the life they do without them. Happy birthday, Don!
Nice seeing Jody get some good camera time.
Some of the best photos I’ve seen of the chimps on Young’s Hill! Did Santa give CSNW a new camera with a zoom lens for Christmas?! Beautiful shots on a special occasion.
The Young’s Hill photos are courtesy of J.B. I often wonder what his secret is. 😉
I want to know what type of camera JB uses. Seriously. I may consider an upgrade for myself.
Lovely photos, seemed to capture “details” and so clear and focused (focus is something I am sure is near impossible with chimps!). Clearly shot at a higher resolution I am assuming too — this is key to a good reproduction. In photography bigger is better, the larger and the more pixels the better.
Hi Kathleen – We have a Canon EOS XTi with a few different lenses. The lens used for these photos was a big 100-400mm donated by supporter Kathy Cochran a few years back. It’s great for photographing the chimps on the hill. I think the camera is only 10 megapixels, but for web-resolution photos it is more than enough.
I don’t know what we’d do without digital photography. Every time I take photos, I take about 100 and delete 95 of them.
I guess it all about the lens isn’t it?!? Thank you for the information. I am going to look into this. And I know exactly what you mean about digital photography, if I am taking my own silly photos or photos of my favorite dogs at the shelter I shoot about 60 – 80 shots and most are blurs of moving objects. Lucky to get those few good keepers. The shots of Missy and Jody with coconuts were so perfect. The look on Jody’s face, finding the second coconut is priceless. I can feel what she is thinking. Your camera ‘clicked’ at the perfect second in time.