Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Archives for October 2020

Wild like the wind

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After a brief spell of steady rain showers the past couple of days the wind arrived whipping like a wild thing, clearing the way for sunshine and blue skies and the chimpanzees seem to follow suit. Everyone was so joyful this morning! Maybe they were relieved to know it isn’t quite winter yet. Jamie was extra zoom-like, fully pilo with her hair standing on end and racing out onto Young’s Hill in every direction for no apparent reason other than she felt too joyous to contain it. Each of the chimps was racing, leaping and laughing throughout the morning. There isn’t a lot that makes me happier than seeing such unabashed and unapologetic joy in their hearts.

Foxie and I got to spend some quality time together recently, just quietly enjoying one another’s company in between occasional bursts of pirouettes, chase, doll toss and headstands (that last one I was just doing in my head, but my heart was in it. 😉 ).

A tiny little ball of Foxie. If you’re new to the blog, don’t let Foxie’s diminutive size fool you. She is a fierce little woman and has a no problem donning her sassy pants when she takes a mind to and like most chimpanzees, can go from zero to 100 in the blink, or blur, of an eye:

By day’s end, even Negra’s wilder side made an appearance as she stomped around the playroom, hair on end, commanding quite a presence. This is usually Negra’s way to say enough is enough in the hopes of getting everyone to calm down. But most of the day she spent swaddled in the most beautiful pink aura:

And don’t forget! Tomorrow is the big day! Giving Day for Apes! It’s an incredible way to help so many amazing sanctuaries around the world who will be participating to raise funds for the rescue and care of the primates we’ve all committed to providing life-time care and well-being for. And you can help Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest reach our goal of raising $40,000 for the direct care of Annie, Burrito, Foxie, Honey B, Jamie, Jody, Mave, Missy, Negra and Willy B as well as our continued expansion to bring more chimpanzees home. Whether you’re able to participate through donation or sharing the event with others, from our hearts, thank you for all YOU make possible for these amazing chimpanzee people and those to come.

And as an exciting bonus, anyone who donates $500 or more on our Giving Day for Apes page at any time will be invited to Jamieween (!!), Jamie’s 43rd birthday celebration on October 31st via Zoom! And ALL donors of ANY amount who give during the hour of 10-11 AM PST (1-2 PM EST) will be entered to win a spot for this special visit.

Happy Anniversary, Adam!

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Raina Cincoski sponsored a day of sanctuary for the chimpanzees and bovines in honor of her husband, Adam, with this lovely message:

“This day of sponsorship is for my husband Adam on our 21st wedding anniversary. Seeing his love of all things furry touched my heart decades ago and told me that I would be safe spending my life with this gentle and caring soul. He reminds me of a certain chimpanzee – handsome, strong, courageous and kind to the women in his life. Please share some photos of that fine Willy B for our special day.”

This is so sweet, Raina, thank you for including the chimpanzees in your and Adam’s special day and especially, in your celebration of kindness and good hearts! And thanks for the smiles you brought to our faces with your love for Willy B! And if Adam’s like Willy B, well, it’s gotta be rough putting up with all the screaming that happens every time he steps outside. 😉

Happy Anniversary, Adam and Raina! We hope you have the best day!

And now, without further delay…<3

Honey B and Willy B:

Giving Days and Days of Gifts

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Today’s theme: gifts, giving, and gifts given.

Before we get to today’s update, though, I want to remind everyone that Giving Day for Apes is this Tuesday! It’s not too late to set up your own fundraising page via the sanctuary’s Giving Day for Apes page (just click on the big “Fundraise” button to get started). To see pages that others have created, scroll down on our page and look under “Campaigns supporting this organization.” All donations made on any of those campaigns will go directly to the sanctuary and will be eligible for the cash prizes offered!

Of course, the special fundraisers aren’t the only times that our supporters make generous gifts to the sanctuary.

Earlier today, we posted the following message:

Mary Horton sponsored this special day of sanctuary for her mom and long-time friend of the chimpanzees, Vicki Fagerlee… Vicki, you make a lasting difference in the chimpanzees’ and cattle’s lives, helping us ensure their joy, well-being and comfort for all their days forward. We’re so grateful to have you as part of our chimp and bovine family. Happy Birthday, from all of us here at the sanctuary!

It may have been Vicki’s birthday today, but she has been the one buying gifts for the sanctuary lately. Last week, we received notice that someone purchased a new mirrorless digital camera from our Amazon Wish List. Shortly after, the device arrived at our front gate with all the accessories we need to keep taking photos for the blog. The new Canon RP is much newer, lighter, and versatile than the donated Canon Rebels we have been using, and it has many new features that we have yet to master. Today, I spent some time to tinker with the auto-focus settings, low-light capabilities, and preset modes, but it definitely feels like learning to take photographs all over again. This technology has advanced quite far over the last ten years, so we appreciate that Vicki is helping us to stay current. I can’t wait to see what content we can create with this generous gift, and I really can’t wait to share the final products with you all.

Annie
Foxie and Missy
Jody and Foxie
Burrito
Burrito

P.S. Even the newest cameras have a difficult time focusing on Burrito’s face when he plays chase and tickle like an absolute maniac. In this case, I think I focused on his tiny white nose hairs. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Happy Birthday, Vicki!

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Mary Horton sponsored this special day of sanctuary for her mom and long-time friend of the chimpanzees, Vicki Fagerlee, with this sweet message:

“Happy Birthday to a wonderful mom and gram who loves her kids and grandkids and chimps.”

Mary, thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to celebrate Vicki with you all! We appreciate you including the chimpanzees in her special day.

Vicki, you make a lasting difference in the chimpanzees’ and cattle’s lives, helping us ensure their joy, well-being and comfort for all their days forward. We’re so grateful to have you as part of our chimp and bovine family. Happy Birthday, from all of us here at the sanctuary!

Sweet Mave:

Negra:

Honey, Betsy and Nutmeg:

Honey B:

Meredith:

Willy B:

Jamie:

Burrito, Annie, Jody, Missy and Jamie:

Tuesday is the Big Day + Feeling Good

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First, a reminder to all that Tuesday (just a few days away!) is Giving Day for Apes.

In addition to our main fundraising page, if any one person or group out there wants to create their own fundraising page to raise funds for the sanctuary, you can do that! It’s pretty easy. Just go to our Giving Day for Apes page and click on the big “Fundraise” button and it will walk you though the steps. To see pages that others have created, scroll down on our page and look under “Campaigns supporting this organization.” All donations made on any of those campaigns will go directly to the sanctuary and will be eligible for the cash prizes offered!

Did you go look? Okay, good, now here’s the blog for the day:

Yesterday during the video event with Senator Tom Udall hosted by Animal Protection of New Mexico, animal welfare scientist Dr. Katie Cronin said something that really struck me. She said that having an enrichment program is not about what you provide but rather about how the animals feel about it. This is obviously true and yet somehow profound because it is not historically the way enrichment programs have been talked about or evaluated.

Enrichment is all about engagement and finding things that interest the individuals in your care, so if you give some type of enrichment to an animal and they don’t engage with it all, well, it’s not enriching for them and that means new things should be tried and evaluated.

So, fast forward to today. Kelsi and I were cleaning the greenhouse and I looked up at an eye bolt that Anthony had put under the top platform of the structure last year sometime. I said outloud that we should hang something there, so Kelsi and I talked about it for a bit and she mentioned wanting to get another hay feeder like the one filled with lettuce that Mave and Honey B enjoyed so much recently.

That made a dim light bulb go off in my (above my?) head, and I got to work filling the hay feeder with layers of blankets and lettuce to hang from the aforementioned eye bolt. I admit that I thought I was being quite clever. I had to stand on a step stool to hang the feeder and thought to myself that this was going to be a great challenge for the group of seven.

After letting the group into the greenhouse, I anxiously turned the corner to spy on the chimpanzees to see if they were engaged with the hay feeder. I was presented with a very rewarding scene: Annie was on top of the platform lying down to reach the lettuce and Missy was down below standing as tall as she could to reach the enrichment.

I left, once again feeling very clever.

I returned just a few minutes later, and Missy had solved the puzzle her own way, beating me at any contest for cleverness.

Soon, Negra came out to the greenhouse from the playroom and discovered all she had to do was sit below and wait for the lettuce to fall down as Missy picked through the blankets.

Meanwhile on the other side of the building, Mave and Willy B enjoyed some enriching social time in the outdoor chute in between rain showers:

While Honey B performed magic tricks with some new scarves:

All in all, I would say today was enriching for both the chimpanzees and me, and now I hope for you too.

If you enjoy the blog, please do consider making a donation to our Giving Day for Apes page. To get the most bang for your buck, donate between 10-11am PT on Tuesday, October 13th, but any donation at any time helps! Thank you for helping enrich the lives of the chimpanzees!

Congratulations, Heather and Matt!

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Stephanie Voss sponsored this day of sanctuary in honor of Heather Voss with “Congratulations to Heather & Matt on their wedding day.”

What a joyful day for the chimpanzees to be included in, Stephanie, thank you!

Heather and Matt, may your special day be a joyful, hope-filled, beautiful celebration! Thank you for helping to ensure the chimpanzees’ lives are filled with love and joy for all their days forward. Congratulations from all of us at CSNW!

Missy:

Mave and Willy B:

Honey B and Mave:

Annie and Missy:

Hope for Chimps and other News

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Lots of news to share today.

First, Diana and the chimps participated in a unique virtual event this morning hosted by Animal Protection of New Mexico and featuring Senator Tom Udall. The purpose of the event was to highlight the plight of the 39 chimpanzees forced to remain at a federal research facility in New Mexico instead of being retired to Chimp Haven, the federal chimpanzee sanctuary. While New Mexico may be a long way from Cle Elum, there are many threads connecting CSNW to this issue. You may recognize that the event’s host, Laura Bonar, was a guest speaker at a past Hoot! gala. Or you may know that Diana hails from the great state of New Mexico. You may even know that several of the Cle Elum Seven’s kids, including Negra’s daughter Heidi, Foxie’s daughter Kelsey, and Jody’s son Levi, all lived at that very research facility. They were lucky to be retired to Chimp Haven in recent years but 39 others have not been as fortunate.

Connections aside, what is most important is that they are all chimpanzees deserving a better life. Urge the NIH to fulfill the CHIMP Act and transfer them to Chimp Haven, where they belong: https://chimpstosanctuary.org

While the event took place live on Facebook and Zoom, you can watch a rebroadcast here.

Next I want to congratulate former intern Jake Funkhouser for publishing yet another paper from the observational research he conducted during his time at CSNW and Central Washington University. His latest analysis demonstrates the extent to which human caregivers are part of the chimps’ social structure – something obvious to anyone working with chimps and yet somehow missing from most discussions of captive primate sociality. Expanding our view of chimpanzee social networks will not only have profound effects on how we understand captive chimpanzee social systems from a scientific perspective but also the way in which we care for chimpanzees in zoos and sanctuaries.

Funkhouser, J.A., Mayhew, J.A., Mulcahy, J. et al. Human caregivers are integrated social partners for captive chimpanzees. Primates (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-020-00867-6

And finally, let’s celebrate what looks to be a bit of justice in the fight to protect the few remaining chimpanzees in the American entertainment industry. “Doc” Antle, who you may know from this blog – or more likely Netflix’s recent Tiger King series – was indicted on several felony and misdemeanor charges related to wildlife trafficking. We and our colleagues in the sanctuary and animal protection community have been opposed to and fighting against his exploitation of young chimpanzees and other animals for a long time. Cheers to the Virginia Attorney General’s office and all those working behind the scenes for this victory in the fight against cruelty.

Here in Cle Elum, it was another beautiful day in sanctuary. Jody wadged some cattails while lounging on the greenhouse deck.

Annie laid beside her in a very Annie-esque pose.

Missy kept an eye on Young’s Hill from a perch atop the greenhouse platform.

Later she and her pals Foxie and Annie spent some time climbing and swinging.

Jamie and Burrito waited for Anna to catch up in the gator for a walk/drive around the hill. Apologies to Burrito for shaving far more of his chest than I needed to for an EKG lead during his recent procedure. May it grow back quickly.

Both Missy and Foxie kept a watchful eye on the blockmasons that showed up to protect their equipment from an impending rain storm.

Speaking of the blockmasons, the walls of the new playrooms and greenhouses continue to rise ever higher beneath an elaborate maze of scaffolding. We can’t wait to see Mave, Honey B, and Willy B in their new digs – hopefully just a few short months.