Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Archives for November 2017

Laying and Playing

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Foxie and Burrito are two of our most playful chimps! So when we get the chance to watch them play, it is really quite fun. Foxie and Burrito began the morning with a post breakfast nap. After, a quick power nap they started a lazy game of wrestling which turned into a full game and then back to a lazy game. Below are some photos of the progression from napping to playing. Happy Sunday!

Foxie & Burrito napping:

Foxie & Burrito wrestling:

Stilling wrestling:

Back to laying and playing:

And a few extra photo for you all…

Annie’s silhouette:

Jamie holding one of her favorite boots:

Don’t forget about the Database of Chimpanzee Enrichment!

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Have you checked out our Database of Chimpanzee Enrichment? On this site we keep track of all the fun food puzzles and other items we give to the chimps. We are always looking for new enrichment ideas to try at the sanctuary and share with the chimpanzee caregiver community, so please feel free to share our site with anyone who might be able to benefit or contribute new ideas to our page!

Here’s Jamie using the treat rock food puzzle (filmed May of last year):

Chimpanzee Time

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Last Sunday we all changed the clocks back an hour, but the chimps have no use for telling the time (other than when their stomachs tell them it’s time to eat). Rather than changing the chimps’ schedule and routine, the humans change their own work schedule. During the winter months we start work an hour earlier and in the spring we start an hour later. This way the chimpanzees get to remain blissfully unaware of springing forward or falling back.

Jamie’s nesting schedule remains the same: whenever she feels like it!

Indoor games

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It’s been sunny today with no additional snow, but what we have has been taking its time melting and it’s still pretty chilly out.

The chimps have chosen to park themselves in front of sunny windows facing the valley to nap and groom and occasionally engage in games of chase, thundering through the loft of their playroom or nesting out of sight in the top of the greenhouse.

Foxie seems to be particularly enjoying the snow days and has been taking full advantage of the weather to enjoy some indoor games. She has also requested so many snowballs to eat that I think she has to take breaks in-between to be rowdy and raucous so she can warm herself up. So after a particularly large number of snowballs, we had a long bout of passing her beloved purple-haired doll back and forth with spins, leaps, pirouettes and general chimpanzee shenanigans.

Her she is lying on the heated floor playing with her doll and prepping to pass it to me through the caging:

Here she had two dolls and we were racing to pass them back and forth between us, always a favorite:

Foxie stopped to check out her image in the camera:

And what would be a proper game without standing on your head?

All those shenanigans can wear a girl out: