Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Today is Jessie Cosier’s birthday and she chose to celebrate by sponsoring a day of sanctuary for the chimpanzees! Jessie, what a kind and generous way to celebrate your life. Thank you so much for including the chimpanzees in your special day!
From all of us here at CSNW, we hope you have a wonderful birthday! And on behalf of the chimpanzees, we send you lots of pant hoots and food squeaks!
Negra and Jody:
The chimpanzees spend a lot of time in the doorway that leads from the greenhouse to Young’s Hill, deciding whether they want to go outside. Sometimes they decide against it and opt to stay in the sunny greenhouse or hang out in the indoor playroom. But I think these moments of choice are just as vital to captive chimpanzees as fresh air and sunshine and room to run.
This morning I’ve seen Negra sit in the doorway to Young’s Hill several times, taking in the view of the hill and pondering. She hasn’t yet ventured out, but I imagine that seeing two acres of green grass in front of her is something that she never imagined during her decades in a lab cage.
We’ve mentioned foraging many times on this blog before. It’s such a fundamental part of being a chimpanzee, that we had one of the seven behavioral booths at our recent Hoot! gala dedicated to this activity and explaining how we find ways to allow the chimpanzees here to express this behavior. Anything involving food is exciting for chimpanzees, but finding it on your own is particularly exciting.
Yesterday, Jody won the award for stuffing the most foraged food in her mouth at one time:
Though Missy certainly gets an honorable mention:
You may have picked up that Katelyn mentioned that J.B. and Ken Mikkelson were prepping the areas around the chimp house for sidewalks on Wednesday, and yesterday the Poppoff crew came out and started work on forming the concrete. Today they finished the sidewalks and now they are curing and drying so we can start using them in a few days. The Poppoffs are long-time supporters of the sanctuary and have helped us with other construction projects including Young’s Hill and even years ago when we created the greenhouse.
So, why sidewalks? It’s all part of the veterinary clinic project that we started last year. The cement pad in front of the gate will make it easier if we need to move big equipment in or out of the chimp house, including the trailer itself. The sidewalks go from the chimp area doors to the clinic, so we can easily transfer a chimp to the clinic if we need to. They also will be much nicer to shovel and put ice melt on in the winter! So, we are pretty excited about these sidewalks.
The chimps were very interested in all the work going on, and watched from Young’s Hill:
Today’s day of sanctuary was sponsored by Paula Nelson in memory of her father, Norman A. Johnson. Paula shared this lovely message about her father:
“My father passed away a year ago on May 9th. I wanted to honor his memory. He so enjoyed watching the videos and pictures of all the chimps. We had family in Cle Elum so that made it special for our family. I know he is smiling down still enjoying them. Love you Daddy.”
Paula, we are so touched that you thought of the chimpanzees when honoring the memory of your father. It makes us happy to know that they brought such joy to his life. Thank you so much for giving them a special day and our thoughts are with you and your family.
Almost three years after we opened Young’s Hill, the chimpanzees are still exploring new facets of it all the time. This afternoon volunteer caregiver Denice called me outside to take a look at Jamie, who had scaled a 25 foot tall post to the very top, and was clinging to it and taking in her surroundings. She didn’t even come down when Denice announced that it was lunch time. Due to a camera mishap I wasn’t able to get a photo of her on her perch, but here she is climbing back down.
After a little more meandering, she headed to the greenhouse to enjoy some lunch.
The sanctuary is a hub of activity today! Well, at least for the humans and Jamie Chimpanzee. Keith and Nick are still working hard on the sprinkler system. Volunteer caregiver Denice came out to work in the chimpanzees’ garden and brought along her husband, Ken, who in turn brought his backhoe to help J.B. prepare to make way for some sidewalks!
It also happens to be on the warm side today with temperatures in the upper 80’s. None of the primates here at CSNW have quite adjusted to the sudden spike in temperatures and the chimpanzees have spent much of the day splayed out in the greenhouse. Judging by Burrito, one would think it was closer to 100 degrees:
Ssooooo hot:
Why is it SO hot?!
Well, all of the chimpanzees were splayed out except Jamie, that is. After all, she is the boss and had a lot of people and projects to supervise. A popular spot from which to keep an eye on everyone was one of the windows in the front rooms and here sat Jamie, with her trusty boot in hand:
Feeling revived from a refreshing treat of carrot juice ice cubes, Burrito decided to check out the activities from the cooler front rooms as well:
It never ceases to amaze me how people come together in such selfless ways to improve the lives of the chimpanzees. Keith, Nick, Denice and Ken, (and J.B.!) thank you so much for working so hard, in the heat of this day, to make the chimpanzees’ home even better! And thank you especially for enriching Jamie’s day! And thank you to everyone who helped make this work possible, we couldn’t do it without all of our amazing supporters.
