We’ve said it before, but here’s some more evidence of the “aging in reverse” process that has happened for the chimpanzees at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest:
Jamie in 2008:
Jamie in 2011:
Jamie this morning:
Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
by Diana
by J.B.
This morning, we awoke to another power outage – the fourth one this winter.
Losing power is never fun when you’re caring for chimps. In the winter, we have to set up a portable generator outside and connect it to a backup heater to keep the chimp house warm. In the summer, we risk losing hundreds of dollars worth of produce if we can’t keep our refrigerators running. And after the Taylor Bridge Fire, when we had no power for days, we were left with no lights, no laundry, no computers, and worst of all, a struggle to keep essential phones and radios charged during an emergency.
I’m happy to say that this morning was probably the last time we’ll ever have to deal with the effects a power outage. Thanks to a grant from the National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) Sanctuary Fund and a generous donation from supporters Karen and Don Young, we will soon be installing a 20-kilowatt standby generator. This generator will come on automatically within seconds anytime the power goes out and will run everything in the chimp house: heat, lights, chimp doors, refrigerators, and the electric fences.
Sometimes I wish the chimps could see all the things that people and organizations from all over the world do to help care for them. But in this case, the whole point of the gift is that they won’t ever know anything was wrong in the first place. And that means Negra won’t have to lose a single minute of sleep over it.
So our sincere thanks go out to NAVS, and to Karen and Don, for giving our staff some peace of mind, and for giving Negra some peace and quiet.
by Elizabeth
by Katelyn
We have continued to get quite a bit of snow off and on at the sanctuary over the last week and while the chimpanzees do have access to Young’s Hill, they have understandably chosen to stay indoors and make good use of their caregivers by asking us to fetch snow for them to eat. Maybe not so much asking, as demanding. But that’s why we’re here and we wouldn’t have it any other way. They each took handfuls, mouthfuls, and “footfuls” (that could be a word…) and swung up to the upper level of the greenhouse, or the southern facing windows, to enjoy it while lounging in the sun. Smart chimps.
The sun has been out intermittently today so the chimps have spent a lot of the day napping and grooming in the warmth. Before lunch, I found Burrito (left) and Missy (right) grooming one another in the sun:
Notice Missy’s prehensile lip action while grooming Burrito.
Of course, Jamie is a busy lady and doesn’t have much time to relax. In the midst of everyone else lying about, enter Jamie, pant hooting (notice the hoot face) and pounding on her barrel:
As a result, Missy and Burrito’s grooming session came to an abrupt halt. As you can probably tell from the photo, they may have just been a little too relaxed to respond:
Jamie’s display was short lived and I think everyone else was feeling so relaxed they chose to ignore the outburst for the most part and just continue enjoying the warmth of the winter sun.
And THANK YOU to all of our amazing supporters who have not only helped us reach our Share the Chimp Love goal, but surpass it!! It’s truly because of each of you that the chimpanzees are able to enjoy their “day in the sun” so to speak. We are so grateful to all of you who have been able to contribute! We still have 8 days left so please continue to share your love for the chimps and spread the word about our fundraiser!
by Debbie
This guest blog is by Rich Zimmerman, Executive Director of Orangutan Outreach. Rich helped facilitate getting CSNW an iPad as part of their Apps for Apes program! He is our first guest blogger to tell us information about our red ape cousins in Asia. Rich’s experience is in helping raise awareness and funds for the projects in the field. He has accompanied a few rescue missions in Borneo but his work is mainly in New York and online—advocating on behalf of orangutans, promoting the cause and communicating the critical need to help them before it’s too late.
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What inspired you to work with orangutans?
I’ve loved orangutans since I was a child. I went in a different direction professionally and it was only later in life—when I realized just how perilously close the orangutans were to extinction in the wild—that I decided I needed to do something to help them. After traveling to Indonesia and seeing the utter devastation to their forests and the rescue center cages full of hundreds of orphaned and displaced orangutans staring out with such sadness and desperation in their eyes, I decided to dedicate my life to helping them. I created Orangutan Outreach in 2007 as a way to raise awareness of the crisis facing wild orangutans and to raise funds for the rescue projects in Borneo and Sumatra.
Can you tell us a brief story about an individual orangutan that was personally affected by human encroachment?
Every orangutan in every rescue center has been affected by human encroachment. Whenever there is a conflict, the human always wins. Orangutans—and elephants, rhinos, tigers, monkey, you name it—always fall victim to the constant expansion of human settlement and the destruction of their habitat by logging, palm oil, and mining companies. Every baby in a rescue center was torn off his or her dying mother. These innocent babies are traumatized—just as any human baby would be if pulled from its mother. And for each infant confiscated and brought to a rehabilitation center, it’s estimated that anywhere from four to nine did not survive. It’s horrific what is being done to these creatures… for no fault of their own they are being wiped out of existence by humans.
Let me tell you two quick stories. The first is Rickina, who was rescued by our partners International Animal Rescue (IAR) when she was less than a year old. When they confiscated her she has a gaping machete wound in her skull—obviously received when the poachers killer her mother. The wound was fresh. Rickina is now doing really well—thanks to the expert care of the team at IAR Ketapang. She is quite famous online—with more than 350,000 views of her video on YouTube.
Baby Orangutan Rickina is being cared for at IAR Ketapang (and can be adopted!). Photo © International Animal Rescue.
Another amazing story is Gober, a blind, older female orangutan being cared for by our partners Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme (SOCP). When she was caught eating fruit in the garden of a local villager she was going to be killed. Instead she was rescued and brought to the SOCP quarantine center. She had cataracts and could barely see. She was housed in a cage next to a younger male orangutan (named Leuser) who had been shot with a pellet gun more than a hundred times by local villagers. He was totally blind and the fact that he’d even survived is testament to the phenomenal will to live of orangutans. Well, orangutans never cease to amaze… nine months later Gober gave birth to beautiful twins, Ganteng and Ginting. Twins are extremely rare among orangutans—which makes sense given the fact that in the wild they spend their lives high up in the treetops. Imagine trying to move around in the canopy carrying two babies! Gober had successful cataract surgery and her sight has been partially restored. Hopefully she and the twins will be released back into the wild later this year!
Gober & the Twins are being cared for by SOCP (and can be adopted!) Photo © Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme.
Why are orangutans endangered in the wild?
The expansionary activities of the timber, mining and palm oil industries have led to a catastrophic decrease in wild orangutan populations. Palm oil has been the main contributor to the orangutan genocide in the last decade. Around 90% of the global supply of palm oil comes from Indonesia & Malaysia and this has come at a tremendous cost for biodiversity. Indonesian forests are being burned to the ground—releasing so much carbon into the atmosphere that Indonesia now ranks only behind China and US in carbon emissions—and it is barely industrialized. The UNEP estimates that the forests of Indonesia are being cleared at a rate of six football fields per minute, every minute of every day.
The palm oil industry is guilty of truly heinous ecological atrocities. The forests of Borneo and Sumatra are the only place where these gentle, intelligent creatures live, and the cultivation of palm oil has directly led to the brutal deaths of thousands of individuals as the industry has expanded into previously undisturbed areas of rainforest at an alarming rate.
When the forest is cleared, adult orangutans are killed on sight. These peaceful, sentient beings who share approximately 97% of our DNA are shot, macheted, beaten, burned, mutilated, tortured and often eaten. Babies are literally torn off their dying mothers so they can be sold on the black market as illegal pets to wealthy families who see them as status symbols of their own power and prestige. This has been documented time and again.
Surveying deforestation in West Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo). Photo © Orangutan Outreach
Have you seen any recovery of wild orphaned orangutans (e.g. is reintroduction possible)?
Reintroduction is very possible! Over the last year and a half, our partners at BOS have released more than 100 rehabilitated orangutans into a safe and secure forest deep in the heart of Borneo—far away from bulldozers and oil palm companies. And the population is flourishing! While there has been one death reported there have been multiple births recorded by the post-release monitoring team. The cycle of life continues in the forest for the world’s first re-created orangutan population. It takes roughly 250-300 individuals to create a stable population so there are many releases to go before the forest has reached carrying capacity according to strict IUCN guidelines. What BOS needs now is to find more forests to release more orangutans. There are still around 600 orangutans being cared for at the Nyaru Menteng Facility. They also have orangutans in East Kalimantan who are gradually being released into a separate forest. IAR is doing the same in West Kalimantan. They’ve been able to release orangutans from their excellent new facility in Ketapang. SOCP has a successful release program in Northern Sumatra. All these projects and programs are ongoing—and are only possible due to the generosity of donors.
BOS Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Release Photo © Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation.
by Lisa
One of the things I try to share whenever I write the blog is the unique experience of being here at the sanctuary. I am trying to capture and translate, as much as is possible with words, pictures, and video, the reality of being here now so that you might get the feeling of it. Today, as we were cleaning the greenhouse in the morning, I was inspired to try to capture the chimpanzees in the playroom from the vantage point of inside the greenhouse. Although it was a bit dark in there [this morning was cold, wet, and decidedly snowy] I was able to shoot a short video of Annie and Missy playing together in the loft. I love the sound of their play sessions, especially from above. If you were in the chimp house while this bout of play was going on you would hear the breathy-pants of chimpanzee laughter, the slaps of hands against each other and the floor, followed by the bounding stomping feet of chimpanzees in the midst of chase. I can not think of happier sounds than these!
Most of this video has no sound but turn up the volume at the end to see what fun it can be trying to film video when chimpanzees are involved. Enjoy!
by Katelyn
Today’s day of sanctuary was sponsored by Tanis Sklarchuk in honor of Family Day! Tanis sent us the following message:
“February 17, 2014, is Family Day in Ontario, Canada. This day is in honor of CSNW for creating such a wonderful family at the sanctuary, for the chimps and humans alike. Keep up the great work!”
Tanis, this is such a beautiful gift, thank you so much! We are so full of gratitude for you, and all of our wonderful supporters, who make it possible for the chimpanzees to have the family and home they deserve. Whether you live somewhere this day is recognized as a public holiday or not, it’s such a lovely thing to celebrate! Happy Family Day!
Jamie (left) receiving a brow bite/kiss from Negra (right) as she offers her a little reassurance. Just what friends and families are for.
And thank you so very much to all of you who have helped us through our Share the Chimp Love campaign this month! We have 10 days left to reach our goal and are almost there! Every single gift makes a difference and helps to ensure that we are able to provide Annie, Missy, Burrito, Foxie, Jamie, Jody and Negra with the life long care they deserve. And it helps us to build up our reserves so that in the future we may be able to offer other chimpanzees in need their long awaited sanctuary family and home.
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