Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Archives for November 2016

A couple moments of goofiness

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The chimps have been pretty mellow today, enjoying the intermittent sun warming up the greenhouse and streaming through the playroom windows. So much so no one was even clamoring like usual to get back into the playroom after we had finished cleaning. Before I opened the doors to the playroom up, I caught Foxie and Burrito in the front rooms in a burst of lazy playfulness. So here are a few photos and a couple of moments with a couple of endearingly goofy chimpanzee people.

I asked Foxie if I could take her photo and she responded by making faces at the camera before finally swinging over to have me show her:

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And this guy! The foot, the eyes, the tiny teapot he’s holding…too much!:

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In this photo I was sneaking down the hallway to peek around the corner at him (which of course, he knew) and when I looked, he was peeking back:

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Chimpanzees playing = your #GivingTuesday thanks!

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Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest supporters have done it again! We initially made it a goal to raise $12,000 today for Giving Tuesday.

 

Burrito Giving Tuesday

That goal has been surpassed, and we have a new challenge – a supporter at a distance is putting a matching challenge check in the mail for the next $1,000 raised, so I’ve increased the total goal to $15,000.

There’s still eight hours to go before midnight. Can we do it?

I am pretty sure that the video at the end of this post that Anna took today of the chimpanzees playing will inspire you to donate if you haven’t already and will also hopefully inspire you to share this post so more people know about our new goal.

We’ve been inspired all day by the messages that have come in with donations. This recent comment really summed it all up (thank you!): What makes my heart soar is “Knowing that Annie, Burrito, Foxie, Jaime, Jody, Missy and Negra are safe, happy, living a full enriching life with companionship and are so very loved! I am so thrilled about the expansion and future retirees that will be joining you soon! Thank you for giving lives back.”

We were also inspired by Mary, a challenge donor earlier in the day who first heard about the sanctuary in 2007 through her daughter who was enrolled in the Primate Behavior program at Central Washington University at the time. Mary helped with the early construction of the chimp house, setting forms in the cold and helping with roof trusses during the windy season. Mary has been a donor ever since, and her generous pledge today helped surpass our goal.

Donor stories make my heart soar!

And chimpanzees playing. Definitely chimpanzees playing.

Burrito, Joy, and Giving

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Next to eating, playing is Burrito’s favorite thing.

In case you haven’t seen this morning’s newsletter yet (subscribe here if you’re not already), tomorrow is Giving Tuesday and the donations have already started rolling in. We have currently raised about $1800 toward our goal of $12,000, and we’ve only got until midnight tomorrow! Help keep Burrito and the other chimps supplied with all the food, toys, blankets, and friends (including new chimp friends!) that their hearts could desire by making a donation. We have a group of people pitching in for a matching challenge, so if you want to make a pledge, email Diana ([email protected]) before donating. Thank you!

Evening Enrichment

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Each evening, before leaving for the day, we prepare some sort of puzzle or activity for the chimps to work on. There are a variety of ideas that we rotate throughout the month, including KONGs, Boomer balls, drink buckets and pine cones, to name a few. So, I thought I’d share a few of these on the blog today.

KONGs
We add nuts or a mixture of mashed bananas or avocados into the open holes for the chimps to figure out how to get out.

Missy
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Boomer Balls
We place peanuts inside the balls and the chimps have to shake and move the balls to get at the nuts inside. Some of the chimps use chopsticks as tools to get the nuts out. In the following photos, Foxie used her finger to help get at the peanuts inside.

Foxie
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Kebabs
We skewer small food pieces (grapes are a favorite) inside of paper rolls and tie the “kebabs” to the outside of the caging. Below Burrito demonstrates how to hold onto the caging and use his fingers to try to pull the paper rolls inside.

Burrito
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Pine cones
Add a few raisins in toward the center of the cone and smear peanut butter along the outside and voila, a pretty special treat that keeps the chimps busy for quite a while.

Annie
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Negra
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Jamie
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Treat Buckets
There are a variety of options when using buckets as enrichment. Sometimes we fill the buckets with water, adding lemons or limes for some flavor and give the chimps long plastic straws to drink from. Other times we place seeds and nuts inside the buckets and the chimps have to knock the buckets over and use a tool to “sweep” the seeds toward them. Below, Annie demonstrates how to drink the flavored water from the bucket that was placed outside of the caging.

Annie
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Raisin Boards

Jamie demonstrates how to use a chopstick to push raisins through the holes in this hanging raisin board.
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How do chimpanzees walk?

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Chimpanzees are considered quadrupedal (walking on four limbs), but they don’t have four legs like many other mammal species. Like humans, they have two legs and two arms. They not only share our handy (pun intended) opposable thumbs, but they have “thumbs” (technically referred to opposable toes) on their feet too.

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Animals with four legs generally have limbs that are pretty much equal in length and they walk on the same part of each of their feet. Chimpanzees have long arms with long-fingered hands and they bend their fingers underneath, walking on the knuckles of their hands and the flat part of their feet.

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One cool thing about knuckle-walking is that it leaves your hands free to carry your dolls:

Foxie and friends

 

While chimpanzees are mainly quadrupedal when walking and standing (of course they can also swing through the trees), there are times when they stand up on their feet and sometimes walk bipedally like us humans.

At the sanctuary, a frequent reason to stand up is to spy on the neighbors or spot something at a distance:

Jamie:
Jamie spying on neighbor

Negra:
Negra standing and looking

Jody:
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Foxie:
Foxie with new brown haired troll doll

Missy:
Missy bipedal from behind

 

Another pretty practical reason to walk bipedally is when your hands or arms are really full:

 

Jody:
Jody holding snow 1

 

Burrito:
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Jamie:
bipedal Jamie

 

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Being short myself, maybe I’m projecting this on to Missy, but I think I stand up straighter and raise up on my tip toes a lot more than less vertically-challenged people, so I equate this to Missy standing up just to be taller once in a while:

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Missy bipedal, playface

 

Annie, however, is somewhat of an exception. We don’t really know why, but she tends to stand and walk bipedally more often than not when she’s in the grass on Young’s Hill, even when her hands aren’t full and she’s not trying to spy on something at a distance.

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Annie walking in the tall grass

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Thanksgiving 2016

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Today we’re thankful for delicious feasts, for food squeaks, for volunteers who spend their holiday spreading joy to the chimps, and for all of you who have so much love for seven chimpanzees you probably haven’t met. It’s been a good day.

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Annie:

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Missy:

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Negra:

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Foxie:

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Jamie:

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Foxie and Jody resting after the party:

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Most of the video footage we ended up with after today’s party happened to feature Burrito stuffing his face:

To all of you friends, supporters, volunteers, and well-wishers, thanks for giving Annie, Missy, Burrito, Jody, Foxie, Jamie, and Negra so much to be thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving!