Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Linda Crawford sponsored this day of sanctuary and shared this lovely note: “I’m sending a donation and snow (they can have mine, lol) to celebrate the day! Seeing the chimps joyful makes me joyful! Pineapple all around!”
Thank you, Linda, for always holding the chimpanzees and their humans in your thoughts! Hoping this day is full of the magic and wonder this time of year can hold and in particular, joy, the chimpanzees’ speciality.
Foxie:
Jamie:
Honey B:
Burrito:
Negra and a pineapple past:
The morning started with flurries. Both of the snow and chimpanzee varieties. While snow lightly wafted through the cold morning air outside, Jody engaged Burrito in a wrestling match:
Don’t worry, part of chimpanzee play is “play biting” so even though Jo’s arm is in Burrito’s mouth, he’s not hurting her, it’s all in good fun (if you’re a chimpanzee):
I spend a lot of my time when I’m outdoors searching for and identifying wildlife tracks and one of my favorite things about winter is being able to see so many stories that go unseen during the rest of the year. While doing the perimeter check of Young’s Hill this morning, I found a bobcat neighbor had made their own loop around Young’s Hill and through the surrounding fields, in search of the owners of all the mice and vole tracks I saw, I suspect:
By afternoon, the sun made a much welcomed appearance and even though the temperatures remained cold, the chimpanzees raced outside. Burrito, Jamie and Missy took off with the humans, while Annie (below) opted to look for snow snacks closer to the greenhouse as she occasionally cast a glance toward the comet streaking across the hill, her bestie, Missy:
Once Missy completed her marathon of one, she joined Annie:
Burrito:
I always have fun asking my wildlife tracking friends to identify these prints. 😉 The Pacific Northwest Mountain Chimpanzee! (foot, left and knuckles, top right):
Speaking of mountains, a mountain of In-Kind donations from our Amazon Wishlist were delivered today and you should see the chimpanzees’ mountain of holiday gifts growing! Many, many thanks to all of you who have been able to help us out with our and the chimps’ wishes, donate toward our year end goal (and hopefully welcoming home six more chimpanzee people!), become a Chimpanzee Pal, a Bovine Buddy, a Produce Patron, Sponsor a Day of sanctuary, or send us your gracious support and love through social media, good ol’ fashioned post, or heartfelt good thoughts. You’re a gift to us, every one of you, in so many ways.
“Students and faculty in the Primate Behavior and Ecology Program at CWU are sponsoring today to let our wonderful secretary, Penny (Anderson), know just how much we all appreciate her and all of the hard work that she does for us! To bring a smile to her face, we wanted to support our favorite chimpanzees (and her extra favorite chimpanzee, Burrito) to show her just how much we love her!”
Many thanks to all of our friends in the Primate Behavior and Ecology Program at Central Washington University for celebrating Penny this way! We really appreciate you always keeping all the primates in your world in your thoughts and hearts!
Penny, we all hope you have a wonderful, joyful day! But if you’re looking at this guy, it’d be pretty hard not to. 🙂
Burrito:
“Hey Girl”, Burrito-style. 🙂
Windows are cool.
They let us keep an eye on the residents but, more importantly, also serve to give the chimpanzees a current view of their surroundings. The chimps use them to socialize with the neighbors, survey the property, and monitor human activity.
Today, I took some photos of the chimps from outside their areas.
On snowy days like today, the windows are even more crucial. Why step outside and get cold toes when you can just spy on everyone from a warm blanket nest? Their logic is irrefutable.
I also stepped into the new playrooms (under construction but almost finished) and looked through all the windows to imagine what the new chimps will see when they get here. J.B. is still rigging the overhead LED lights and some of the windows are still covered, but the windows and skylights fill the space with soft sunlight even on cloudy days. Of course, Honey B watched me the whole time from the reinforced window that looks into the new addition from the Mezzanine.
As you may well know, this sanctuary is chock full of personalities, and the more you get to know the chimpanzees and cattle, the more you appreciate each individual’s many sides.
First, I want to say how incredibly thankful we are for the donations that have been coming in for our year-end fundraising. At this moment we are 35% towards our goal!
Each and every donation is even more meaningful to us this year, and we are so appreciative of all of your support as we work towards the day when we will be telling you all about the personalities of the new six chimpanzees who we hope will be coming from Wildlife Waystation in 2021!
On with the show—
Personality exhibit #1: Betsy
Every once in a while when we go to hang out with the cattle, we discover Betsy has mud caked on all over her face. Our best guess is she dips her head into the soft banks of the creek on purpose. She’s the only one of the four who does this. She seems quite content with the mud, so maybe she’s on to some sort of mountain mud facial.
Personality exhibit #2: Jamie
Today Jamie decided to use the “foot box” as her own personal boot box.
She stored her boots in there for about a half hour, until she was ready to move to another part of the building, boots in hand.
Personality exhibit #3: Negra
Negra is continuing to construct over-the-top, really quite outrageous blanket nests. The photo below is the last view I had of her this evening before turning the lights out.
Looking at that photo above, and learning that Negra often pouts her lips through the caging to kiss her caregivers’ hands generally elicits the impression that Negra is a very sweet chimpanzee.
I’m not going to say that she’s not sweet; she certainly can be, but her personality really is more sharp than saccharine.
As we’ve mentioned before, she has a bit of a mafia boss relationship with Missy in particular. I witnessed this aspect of their relationship yesterday.
The chimpanzees were finishing up their breakfast and I was lucky enough to walk by the front rooms just at the right moment to see Missy attempting to pass Negra while carrying several pieces of primate chow. Negra whimpered and held out her hand. Missy paused just for a second and then proceeded to put all of the chow into Negra’s outstretched hand.
Now, if you didn’t know their individual personalities and just witnessed this moment, you might understandably surmise that Missy was being nice to Negra and her hand off was a moment of altruism. But, Missy also wouldn’t generally be described as “sweet” by those who know her well. Don’t get me wrong, she and Negra have very sweet moments together:
but Missy is a very politically shrewd chimpanzee.
Missy likes primate chow, but she doesn’t love it. So it’s not a bad deal for her to give up something that she may consider low value as a “pay off” to keep in good standing with Queen Negra. I would probably do the same thing myself.
A dusting of snow fell overnight but by morning it was vanishing rapidly. With each passing hour, the gang had to venture further and further to get their fix.
By afternoon, only a portion of the Twister climbing structure showed any evidence of last night’s snowfall.
Missy and Burrito filled their mouths before it, too, was gone.
But it won’t be long until the snow returns.
What a week! Sunday was weird, Monday was better, and Tuesday and Wednesday were both busy and fun. It’s been another busy day of construction projects, produce shopping and delivery, routine cleaning and caregiving, and planning for the winter holiday season.
Speaking of which, we’d love if you all took a moment to consider purchasing something off of our holiday Wish List! Outreach Coordinator Kelsi curates the list and has added some special items. The additions include a new skateboard for Honey B, books for Jamie, fleece blankets for all the chimps, and hardware that will help us to furnish the new playrooms.
If the item you hope to donate is already purchased, there are always items such as dietary supplements, storage totes, cleaning products and office supplies that are equally important! I can’t speak for the other staff, but I get pretty stoked when people donate mundane items like wet erase markers and refills for the label printer. If you feel like making my day (or contributing to the welfare of the chimps), you can access the list directly by clicking here.
Additionally, we caregivers have two primary wishes that are not Prime items but are equally tangible: for all chimpanzees to reach their sanctuary homes and for all the sanctuary’s residents to stay happy and healthy.
Of course, this wish also applies to the bovines. As Katelyn mentioned on Monday, Meredith looked much better than the day before and her check-up went well, so we’re not too concerned but are still taking precautions.
To facilitate the health exam, we shifted the cattle into the Bud Box and then isolated Meredith in the narrow chute. Dr. Erin plays the role of “quarterback” during veterinary exams, managing the team and doing the specialized tasks that require her expertise. In this case, J.B. and I served as her assistants (and Chad also helped on a couple of occasions by promptly running some supplies up from the sanctuary’s vet clinic).
In summary, Dr. Erin did a full visual inspection, palpated and listened to Meredith’s gut, tested her reflexes and responses, collected blood and fecal samples for diagnostics, and used the opportunity to administer some preventative antibiotics. We then let Meredith back out with the herd and monitored her for further discomfort or difficulties.
Since then, we’ve been frequently visiting the barn to check on Meredith and give her supplements. These include minerals, probiotics, electrolytes and anti-inflammatory meds. Surprisingly, though, Merry looks fantastic. She’s eating heartily, breathing normally, moving with the herd and laying down in the straw bedding at night. As happy as we are with this improvement, it makes her Sunday troubles even more mysterious. Dr. Erin and the staff are working to rule out some possibilities, but our initial diagnosis of “ain’t doin’ right” currently still stands. This whole thing loosely feels like a low-budget episode of House, M.D. where the team wears Carrhart overalls instead of lab coats.
The best part of the exam, however, was this series of opportunistic portraits that depicts Nutmeg showing affection for his mother, Betsy…
…to the point of being mildly annoying.
P.S. I took all of these photos with the new mirrorless camera and an 85mm portrait lens. A generous supporter purchased both of these items for us via the same Wish List I mentioned above. Consider it further evidence that your contributions help us to do our jobs!
