Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Archives for January 2015

Happy Birthday, Burrito!

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For B’s big day we centered everything around his favorites: food, food, and more food! We spread out the meals into many different portions so that about every hour the chimps had a quick snack. We also had a small forage in each of the enclosures, so it was basically Burrito’s dream come true—a way to eat pretty much the entire day away.

Here’s some photos of the birthday guy’s first party in the greenhouse, where we had a chow and tea forage:
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Mr. B:
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Annie:
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Jamie:
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Negra:
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And then in the playroom we had more tea, some blackberries, and lettuce to snack on:

Annie:
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Missy:
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Jamie:
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Jody:
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Thanks to all of Burrito’s pals for helping make this day great for him and again to Tracy and Jenny who sponsored the day!

A day of birthday sanctuary from Jenny and Tracy!

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Today’s day of sanctuary was sponsored by Jenny Adams AND Tracy Headley in honor of our guy, Burrito, on his 32nd birthday! Today also happens to be Jenny’s birthday and she shared this sweet message:

“January 6th is my birthday, which I share with Burrito. I would like to share my day with everyone at the sanctuary. Keep up the great work!

And as you may recall, Tracy also recently sponsored a day of sanctuary by sharing her birthday with the chimpanzees and today she wants to celebrate her pal, Burrito!

It’s the most wonderful gift for us all that people feel connected to the chimpanzees and their well-being enough to want to share their special days, wishes and memories with them.

Jenny, we hope you have the best birthday yet and celebrate in classic Burrito style! (Hint: There should be lots of food and lots of squeaking). And Tracy, thanks for being one of the best friends a chimpanzee could have. We are so grateful to you both for making today’s celebration extra special.

This guy:

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Be sure to check back later today for the birthday fella’s celebration!

Confidence

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I was going through today’s photos of the chimpanzees, and these two stood out to me. It’s not uncommon to see Jamie looking confident and relaxed; as the leader of the group, she has every reason to be confident.

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But I love that Annie, who’s at the bottom of the social hierarchy, looks just as calm and content. Though Annie’s low-ranking position in the group brings with it a certain amount of stress, she is finding more and more moments of peace as the years go by.

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Thank you, Merle!

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Today’s day of sanctuary was sponsored by Merle Rosenzweig! Merle, thank you so much not only for your generosity and compassion, but for making a difference in the lives of the chimpanzees!

We are so thrilled by all the new Sponsor-a-Day donations that we have received and thank Merle, and everyone else who was able to help us not only reach, but surpass, our goal of 50 new Sponsor-a-Days for 2015! We can’t wait to see what this year holds for Annie, Missy, Jamie, Jody, Burrito, Foxie and Negra and we are so grateful to all of our supporters for giving them another year filled with hope, love, home and sanctuary.

I suspect Jamie might envision a year filled with even more boots made for even more walking:

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Jody Checks Out Jamie’s Boots

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Jamie was intently inspecting one of the boots that I had given her after I wore it outside in the snow today. She went about inspecting (and licking) the boot, not paying any attention to Jody, who was just as intently peering (a common chimpanzee behavior usually geared toward food) at her. None of it seemed to faze Jamie. Jody continued peering for a few minutes, before sitting down next to Jamie. Then she grabbed one of the boots that was in Jamie’s nest and looked inside of it, flipped it around, put it up to her nose and looked inside again before putting it back down. Not long after, she got up and walked back into the Playroom, clearly not as interested in the boots as Jamie was.

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Sometimes you just have to see what all the hype is about.

Low-key play

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Missy and Annie tend to play rough when they wrestle, but Missy tones it down a little for the elder and slower Negra. Here you can see some quiet low-key play between Negra and Missy, but toward the end Annie steps in and Missy picks up the pace a bit.

Don’s Birthday Party

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As promised, here are photos and video of today’s party. The chimps enjoyed a forage of leeks, red bananas, broccolini, sweet peppers, lettuce, and corn. We also put out cups of warm herbal tea with almond milk, party hats filled with peanuts, and pinatas stuffed with grapes, as well as a fresh bale of alfalfa (a nest you can eat!).

We’re big on recycling around here, so for today we re-purposed the Christmas tree as a “Birthday tree.” Annie and Burrito took turns picking treats from its branches:

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Negra went straight for the corn, while Missy hunted for red bananas:

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Foxie guzzled all the tea she could find:

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Somehow, Missy got to the party hat pinata first, so all Jamie could do was scrounge for leftovers. Don’t feel sorry for her, though – she ate almost everything else:

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Watch the video:

It’s fitting that the chimps enjoyed a forage in the greenhouse today, and that Jamie walked around the hill to her heart’s content. Both the greenhouse and Young’s Hill were made possible in large part by Karen and Don Young.

So Don, thank you (and Karen) for caring so much about these seven chimps. We hope you enjoyed your birthday – the chimps certainly did!