Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary for primates.

Archives for September 2018

Warm Sunshine & Lemmon’s Willow

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This morning everyone wanted to eat chow outside! It was a perfectly brisk morning with warm sunshine, no complaints there.

Jody in her usual spot on Young’s Hill:

Jody was breathy panting with excitement for Missy to come join her:

Jody, Missy, and Foxie heading out:

Foxie:

Annie took her chow out to a log and enjoyed some solitude:

Burrito joining the ladies:

After the Green House was cleaned we put in some new foliage called Lemmon’s willow. The chimps had never tried this before and we were interested to see who would like it. We assumed Jody would, but we actually found almost all the chimps wadging on it at one point in the day, particularly Jody, Annie, Burrito, and Missy!

Jody munching on a Lemmon’s willow branch:

Missy snagging a branch:

Missy took a branch bigger than her inside to snack on:

**BONUS**

Today’s daytime enrichment was firehose knots with nuts and seeds inside. As I was walking around and snapping some photos I found Jamie enjoying what looked like 3 or 4 knots and a troll sock tied around her ankle. She had tied it herself and had been casually strutting around with it. However, once she saw that I noticed the anklet she took it off discreetly (it was very hard to get a picture of this).

Jamie with her troll anklet:

 

Sweet September

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This weekend we host our last two summer visits for our supporters for the year. These small visits feature an educational talk from one of our staff members and a chance to view the chimpanzees as they forage for their lunch on Young’s Hill. Today’s lunch forage featured highly prized whole sweet corn (husk and all!).

Burrito spent most of his time picking up primate chow, but managed to get some corn too:

Foxie enjoyed some corn and a good view from one of the towers:

Jamie:

Negra:

Missy:

Jody made several trips outdoors to get her lunch:

There’s no better time to eat corn on the cob than in September -or at least Annie thinks so. She “won” the forage today by collecting the most corn and scaling the Escher structure for that final piece!

A kiss

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This afternoon, Jody went outside to pick some raspberry bushes. On her way back, she passed by Missy and the two stopped for a kiss.

It’s not uncommon for chimpanzees to kiss like this. Sometimes these kisses resemble our own, with one chimpanzee’s lips pressed against the cheek, lips, or hand of another chimpanzee. Other times they more closely resemble a bite, but with the lips covering the teeth, and may be placed anywhere on the body. Kisses can serve as a greeting, a form or reassurance, or an act of submission. They can reduce tension in moments of conflict, and may serve as a request for permission to hold onto something valuable like food (as Jody may be doing in the photo above) or one’s place in a desirable location. At times they are rough and playful, accompanied by panting or laughter. At other times, they are gentle and loving.

Foxie greeting Burrito

Annie bite Missy browridge

My favorite photo of a kiss is still the one below. When Annie was frightened and screamed for reassurance, Missy leapt to her side and allowed Annie to give her a big open mouth kiss on the lips.

annie kiss missy

A BIG thanks to our supporters and some leisurely afternoon activities

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In case you haven’t heard, yesterday’s Giving Day for Apes was nothing short of a success! Check out the above video for a thank you from the Queen herself.

In other news, today after lunch, wadging paper primate chow bags seemed like top priority for Annie, Jody and Foxie. Jody and Annie had to take theirs to go so they could go spy on a big yellow construction vehicle that was backing up to the chimp house. Every day we get to see so much progress on our new building. It’s truly an exhilarating experience to be a part of!

Here’s Foxie and her wadge:

Jody:

And Annie:

My favorite photo is this profile of her. You can really see just how full her bottom lip is!

The inspiration of Negra on Giving Day for Apes

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While we’re in the midst of raising funds for the expansion (and we will be for a while), we also have seven chimpanzees to care for each day. They are the top priority as well as the inspiration to push forward to be in the position to help more chimpanzees.

The “we” in the above paragraph includes everyone who supports the sanctuary. Donations provide everything from laundry soap to staff salaries to funds to expand. We’re all in this together!

Negra has been a big inspiration for supporter Monica Best over the last several years. Having the connection to the sanctuary and reading about the daily lives of the chimpanzees on the blog helped Monica battle cancer four times.

Monica loves all of the chimpanzees, but feels that Negra is a kindred spirit. She relates to Negra’s need to just get under a blanket and take a good nap:

She understands Negra’s desire to have buddies:

and also the comfort Negra finds being on her own, sitting in her cabin:

In Monica’s words, “knowing that Negra’s safe and just gets to be who she is brings me so much joy.”

Monica is the kind of donor who gives whenever there’s a call to give, so it’s no surprise that she’s pledged $10,000 for the 4-5pm PT Power Hour during today’s Giving Day for Apes.

With Monica’s generous donation, we will be in the running for the bonus $2,500 that will be given to the North American sanctuary that raises the most donations during 4-5pm PT.

Monica hopes you are ready to give during that time and encourage others to give too! She will match every donation up to $10,000, doubling your contributions!

 

Jamie

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Sometimes when I hangout with Jamie there is a moment when it hits me how overwhelmingly cool she is.

Today, this was that moment:

Bonus Foxie with her strawberry shortcake doll:

Of course there are many points in the day when I come to this realization about Jamie or any of the other chimps. For example Jamie was having a great day today and at a certain point after lunch she was ready for her current favorite boot. As I quietly (so as to not disturb Jamie) played spin-kiss the doll-pass it back to Foxie, Jamie gathered her blankets and boots while quietly breathy panting in contentment and excitement for what was going to be a great nap. Unfortunately, we can’t always capture those moments in a photo!