Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Archives for January 2016

Annie Chimpanzee

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Age: 41ish. Her exact birthday is unknown since she was captured in the wild, but her records indicate that she was born sometime in 1974 (we celebrate her birthday on September 10th each year).
Best friend: Missy chimpanzee
Nicknames: Annie-bo-bannie, Miss Annie
Best known for: Putting her feet up and making bird noises
Personality: Sweet, kind, gentle, gorgeous, playful, sassy, courageous, evolving.
Distinguishing physical characteristic: notch in her right ear.
Other: She secretly loves to groom human toes with a tool.

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Click here to read more about Annie’s history before arriving at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest.

Happy Birthday, Meg!

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Today’s day of sanctuary was sponsored by the chimps’ good friend, Meg Lunnum! Meg has been a long-time supporter of the chimpanzees and their sanctuary home and she shared this message about today:

“Today is my birthday and my birthday wish is for the chimpanzees to have new roommates. I understand this is a real possibility and I am so excited.”

Meg, thank you so much for thinking of the chimpanzees today and always! We have such an exciting year ahead as we begin to move forward with our plans for expanding the sanctuary and the chimps’ family. How very special it is to have you as part of our sanctuary family as we watch the chimps’ lives grow in so many wonderful ways. Thank you so much for recognizing and honoring them, and all animals, as the amazing individuals they are. All of us here at the sanctuary send you Happy Birthday hoots!! We’re so glad you are in the world!

Your pal, Queen Neggie:

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Nap Time

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I love taking photos and video of the chimpanzees running around, being active, and getting into mischief. Active chimpanzees are generally happy chimpanzees, and when I watch them explore and run I think of all of the years they lived in small cages.

There’s also something incredible, though, about watching the chimps truly relax.

Today the sun is streaming into the playroom and seems to be making Jamie and Negra very sleepy.

Jamie, in typical Jamie fashion, is curled up in her nest with boots and toys:

Jamie sleepy

Jamie in her nest

 

Of course, being Jamie, this nap is not going to last very long:

Jamie eyes open close up

 

Negra is in her spot on the catwalk of the playroom in front of the window – feet up in the air:

Negra sleeping

 

Doesn’t this just make you want to join them in relaxing in the sun?

Negra resting

One of those days

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Today is one of those days where we are so far off our daily routine and the blog comes in between a myriad of other sanctuary management tasks that we (but mostly J.B.) have to accomplish. We joked that we needed to come up with a technical difficulties graphic to post, but despite today’s craziness, I managed to get a couple shots of Negra. Looking at these peaceful photos brings a bit of calm into an otherwise eventful day.

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Just the right piece

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There is no shortage of snow on the ground in Cle Elum, so the chimpanzees don’t have to step far outside for a cold snack. They don’t have to, but with this sunny weather they’ve been venturing farther and farther onto Young’s Hill just to grab a handful of snow and bring it back inside to eat. It seems the snow is just an excuse to have a quick outdoor adventure.

This morning Jody walked outside with purpose, climbed up onto the shaky bridge, gathered a very specific chunk of snow from the bridge, and immediately climbed back down and went back inside.

Today’s blog, by Foxie

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It’s one of my favorite things to write the blog and have the opportunity to share the lives’ of the chimps with all of you. That said, there are just days when one has the words, but no photos, or vice versa. Today, for the life of me, I could not get a single photo as the chimpanzees have spent the majority of their day in the loft of the chimp house where it’s warm, grooming one another and napping.

I asked boss lady, Jamie, if she would please write the blog for me to which she responded by throwing a nut at my head. I took that as a “No.” At this point Foxie perhaps took pity on me and came into the smaller front rooms along the human hallway to play and she and I decided to take some “selfies.” Chimpanzees are self-aware and have the ability to recognize themselves and others in mirrors and photos. Many of the chimps enjoy seeing photos of themselves after we take them, or being able to see themselves on the camera as with an iPhone. Foxie particularly seems to enjoy this form of enrichment. So as I held the phone at a safe distance so she could see herself, I snapped the photos as she gestured. (While it’s not safe for the chimps to have a phone, or for us to have them touch it as we hold it, we have been fortunate to have supporters generously donate iPads that the chimps’ can safely interact with through the caging and they do enjoy this occasionally).

So here’s today’s blog, “by Foxie.” (Apologies for the quality, but we were laughing a lot!):

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In this last photo, you can see Foxie is doing a “lip-flip” which I wrote about last week with Annie.

Off the beaten path

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When I was a kid, I walked to the school bus down our half mile driveway every morning, rain, snow, or shine. Yes, I realize this sounds like your grandparent’s story of how they had to walk to school uphill both ways in a blizzard, but my story is true! During this time of year, the top layer of the snow would thaw and freeze repeatedly, forming a thick crust on the un-plowed fields of snow that surrounded our icy driveway. If the snow crust was strong enough to support our weight, we could take a shortcut to the bus through our fields and shave off a good five minutes of walking time. We always ran the risk of breaking through the top layer and having our legs plunge into the softer snow below.

Today, Annie reminded me of my childhood, as I saw her gingerly walk on the top delicate ice layer that has covered the 8 or so inches of snow we still have at the sanctuary. She bravely took a shortcut from the plowed pathway that J.B. made the other day, to one of the structures in the middle of the hill.
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The other chimpanzees (Foxie seen here), still seem to stick to the less treacherous plowed pathways.
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Annie continues to surprise us with her intrepid outdoor exploration.
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