Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Archives for May 2019

A Little Piece of Jamie

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Jamie has many sides to her. One side that not everyone gets to see is her silly, playful personality. Though, don’t get me wrong – Jamie is mostly business. I mean she does have to run the whole Sanctuary and it’s not going to run itself! However, it is really fun to watch Jamie let loose, be goofy, and maybe even be a tad bit vulnerable. Today was one of those silly, carefree, read a book, walk around, lounge around days. You might not be able to tell in these photos how goofy Jamie was being, but Jamie let me take tons of photos today almost as though she was really enjoying the photo shoot. I would show her the picture after to see if she liked it; Jamie would nod her head and then we would take some more!

Before the photo shoot Jamie did have to make sure the volunteers were cleaning:

There is a page from Jamie’s boot book in her pelvic pocket:

Jamie:

Days like today make me feel very blessed to be a friend to the Cle Elum Seven.

“Me time”

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We often talk about how Foxie is a good friend to all the chimpanzees in her group. She keeps the peace and gets a playfulness out of her companions like no one else can. I would imagine that having so much social responsibility must be taxing, because she also seems to enjoy her alone time, particularly when she goes on a solo mission on Young’s Hill. Of course, she isn’t entirely “solo” on these adventures. There is almost always a prized doll close at hand to keep her company.

What’s Your Strategy?

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Today, while observing the chimpanzees forage on Young’s Hill, volunteer Patti said she likes how Negra goes about things.

While Missy is running from one structure to another, finding all of the food that was placed or hidden high up on the structures or the treat rock:

And Jody is busy running around collecting as much as she can, mostly from the ground (low hanging fruit, you might say):

Negra wanders about until she finds some food:

And then she plops herself down and simply enjoys what is at hand (in this case, a beet that she seems to have splayed open and a prized pineapple top):

After finishing, she’ll sit for a bit and look around before moving on to the next station:

J.B. described this as a lack of a strategy, but I think it’s still a strategy to have a laid back, “see what happens” way of approaching the forage.

Either way, she looked very happy out there. ❤️

Sunning, sleeping, supervising

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This morning, volunteers Rose, Ray, and Fred set out an early lunch forage for the chimps. Negra spent much of her time on the Escher climbing structure – I don’t know if she has a special fondness for this structure or if she just thinks we put more food up there. Either way, it’s great to see Negra climbing so high and enjoying the sun.

Afterwards she showed that in spring you don’t always have to rely on humans for your food. There’s plenty of wild lettuce out here, thank you very much.

Jamie was deep in dreamland after the forage (no doubt dreaming about boots and books and books filled with boots) when she was awoken by some activity out back.

These people look like they need to be supervised.

The welders had arrived with some of the caging that is being installed next week.

While we are still several weeks away from having the new chimp areas up and running, we have already begun putting the human areas of Phase 1 to use. Here’s a shot of the foyer which houses the computer workstation and break areas. I can’t tell you how exciting it is to have so much space after working for over a decade out of a one-room kitchen/laundry/enrichment/office workspace.

More important than the new foyer is the new clinic, which has twice the square footage of our mobile unit and includes much more storage space.

Once everything is done, we’ll put together a video tour of the whole facility. And then it’s on to Phases 2 and 3!

A spotlight on Negra

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Negra Chimpanzee, AKA The Queen
Age: 45
Favorite foods: Peanuts, primate chow, baked sweet potatoes, bread on her birthday 🙂
BFF: Missy? It’s hard to pick because Negra is more on the independent side.
Special talents: Making big comfy nests, staying out of the drama
Favorite place to nap: Up high in a sun spot
Favorite activities: Napping, eating wild prickly lettuce on Young’s Hill in the spring, watching the valley below the sanctuary
Favorite food puzzle: Peanut butter smeared on magazines