Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Archives for January 2021

Play is in Session

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The chimps are always having these amazing play sessions in the front rooms while we clean their playroom. Yesterday was a particularly silly day as you can see from the video and photos. It’s always a good day when you see boss lady Jamie letting her hair down to play with her friends, Burrito and Foxie. The day continued to be goofy with this guy! There is nothing better than an upside-down Burrito and hearing him laugh.

It snowed quite a bit last night. So today was all about snow, napping, and yelling at the neighbors.

Jody melting our hearts since 1975 <3.

Negra with her snow snacks.

Happy Birthday, Pam!

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Steve and Pam Powers graciously sponsored this day of sanctuary for Pam’s birthday!

“Thankful for my 65 years and wanted to share from my treasure’s to these wonderful fun loving chimps. I love the videos and blog, you guys rock!!”

Happy, Happy Birthday, Pam! Thank you so much for thinking of the chimpanzees and sharing the celebration of your special day with them! We hope your heart and your day are full of joy, beauty and lightness.

Joyful Mave and Honey B:

Missy grabbing Annie’s foot:

Foxie:

Burrito and Negra:

Coniferous Cold Cabbage

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It began snowing on Sunday and hasn’t really stopped since. Though it hasn’t been a heavy snowfall, it’s enough for it to start to feel like winter finally is here after several bouts of warm weather. When the caregivers began to arrive at the sanctuary in the morning, they were greeted by something to remind them it is indeed near to end of January and still winter.

This is one of the Christmas trees that has been adorning the outside of the Chimp House. As some of you know, it’s somewhat of a tradition to plant the trees that decorate the enclosures for the chimpanzees’ Christmas celebration on Young’s Hill when the weather is better. Until then, it sits right outside the door.

While the conditions outside thwarted any ambitions of going outside today (though they did have access to go outside), they seemed pretty content inside the warm indoor enclosures.

After cleaning was done, Willy B, Mave, and Honey B were treated to some cabbage that was spread out in their enclosure.

After lunch, Mave and Willy B spent most of their afternoon grooming.

Honey B was busy supervising the construction workers and couldn’t be bothered with grooming or most photos today.

Meanwhile on the other side, while most of the Seven were cozy in their nests all day, there was one individual who had a lot of energy he had to burn through.

There was a good game of chase between him and I from the Greenhouse doors to the door that leads to Young’s Hill. If you’ve seen J.B.’s post a couple of weeks ago, then you know this route. A common question we get is why does Burrito ask for snow from caregivers when we can just grab it himself during winter? We don’t really know why, but let’s be honest, who wouldn’t like a hand delivered caregiver made, artisan snowball?

Plus, we, as caregivers, have a hard time deflecting Burrito’s charm when he asks for his zero-calorie treat.

With the weather seemingly on different ends of the spectrum lately, who knows what tomorrow may hold. Though Burrito may hope it holds more hands full of snow.

Stay warm, friends!

Today is for Maureen!

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Thank you so much, Megan LaCanne, for sponsoring today in honor of Maureen Murray!

“Merry Christmas Maureen! I hope this gift brings you the same happiness you get from watching videos of Burrito and Annie.”

Have a wonderful, joyful day, Maureen!

Honestly, one cannot see this photo too many times:

Annie:

Burrito gesturing for more snow:

 

Nests du jour

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Our day started off as it does most winter mornings, by firing up the heater for the greenhouse and then heading off around Young’s Hill to check the security of the perimeter before giving the chimpanzees access to their outdoor, snow-covered habitat. Just as I was going outside, Foxie ran over to send Strawberry Shortcake with me. I guess she figured if I was going on an adventure, I better have the same backup she does. (Don’t worry, Strawberry Shortcake, my hair pretty much looks the same in the morning).

I’m not sure it got above freezing today, but if it did it was a fleeting moment. The sun is already on it’s downward slope for the So while the chimpanzees always have the choice to go outside, they’ve all been content to play chase, huddle together in grooming piles and if you’re Willy B, grab his favorite leopard print blanket and settle in to watch his “stories.” Today he’s enjoying Ice Age again. Another favorite. As you can see, he’s riveted:

Willy B LOVES this blanket!! I’ve never seen any of the chimpanzees take such a liking to a specific blanket as he’s done with this one (though I can say they all really love the huge wolf blankets we received for Christmas – thank you!). We were just saying that it’s been about a year since he was gifted this by one of our lovely volunteers and it’s still his favorite! And thankfully, by some miracle, has avoided the clutches of Miss Jody, the blanket shredding machine.

I think Burrito is the only one who made a brief foray onto the Hill in a hopeful game of chase with Chad, but he quickly high-tailed it back inside:

As you can probably tell, it’s another day of challenging photo opportunities. Next to the chimp house computer is the display of all the views from the chimp house cameras we use to monitor and care for the chimpanzees. It might give you an idea of why it’s often such a challenge on such days to get good photos of the chimps.

Top left, are the front rooms and loft of the playroom in the original building. You can see a big pile of nests and chimps up in the super toasty loft, napping and grooming.

Top middle, that one blanket pile upstairs on the right, in the sunny window? If you’re guessing Negra, you’d be correct. That’s her spot! (See photos below). This is also the camera where we will often see boss Jamie’s face pop up, or Burrito swinging back and forth on the firehose as he peers into the kitchen, because they can see just through the kitchen door into the foyer where we sit to write the blog so it’s one way of many to get our attention if they need anything.

Top right, is the greenhouse where the chimpanzees spend a lot of time, even in winter, but it’s just cold enough today that they are preferring to be inside, so no one is out there right now.

Bottom left, is the mezzanine in Phase 1 and that dark pile in the lower left corner is made up of Willy B and Mave who are enjoying a quiet grooming session with one another.

Bottom middle, are the front rooms in Phase 1 and you can just make out Honey B in the middle room, climbing the rung ladder which leads to the mezzanine. Honey B has the zooms and keeps racing to all the windows upstairs and downstairs, seemingly hoping someone is on the other side to play chase with. I do think Honey is missing all the activity and required supervision of the construction workers now that things have slowed down a bit! But no worries, Anthony just raced over to surprise her and I can see her zooming back and forth, up and down.

Bottom right, our driveway and the entrance to the chimp house. The sun is just peeking out, but it’s already on it’s downward slope and it’s going to be a cold one tonight.

Now I suspect this is going to spur some understandable questions and hopes about “chimp cams” for you all to be able to watch the chimps when you like. I know J.B. has addressed this in the past in better detail than I could provide, but between cameras being a really tricky thing to safely place near chimpanzees, as you might imagine, and the challenges rural internet sometimes presents just for our day to day needs, it’s just not something we can do any time soon. As you can see, even for us the cameras we use to monitor the chimps offer views through caging so you really have to know what to look for!

Well, Jamie’s face was just in that middle camera peering in to let us know it’s dinner time! All ten chimpanzees are hooting and hollering and raising a pre-dinner ruckus you wouldn’t believe, so that’s our cue to get moving with dinner service! Oh! I almost forgot! Here is Negra’s stylish nest du jour:

Second Lunch

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What’s better than lunch? SECOND LUNCH.

On Friday, J.B.’s blog post featured a video of seven chimpanzees being served lunch in the Greenhouse. Today, we decided to record lunch on the other side of the building where Honey B, Mave and Willy B reside.

As J.B. explained, the seven chimps in the original group have a specific way of doing things. The newer residents are quite different; among those three, each individual has their own characteristic style and pace.

Honey B gingerly sorts through her food, eating each piece very slowly. She often saves some pieces for last by piling them up between her feet.

Mave is wary of the others and mostly keeps to herself while she scarfs down her food.

Willy B practically inhales his food, making it disappear like some sort of magic trick. When it’s all gone, he sometimes intimidates others into giving up theirs. To promote tolerance and patience, we space out his portions and reward him with extras for letting the others finish their meals in peace. Usually, this special reward is an apple. Teaching him to cooperate using positive reinforcement is less disruptive than separating him from the group. To date, it seems to be working well for Willy and his companions.

This afternoon, I served lunch to the three chimps in the Mezzanine (as you can see in the video). We completed the Mezzanine in August of 2019 and it is currently their largest indoor enclosure. Soon, the three sanctuary inhabitants will be able to access the new playrooms (which are more than twice as big) and, eventually, their own outdoor greenhouse enclosure!

Ice Escapades

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Today was another unseasonably warm January day! The morning frost shrank away in the face of the formidable sun, and the chimpanzees went exploring.

Missy was all over the hill – running, climbing, frolicking, and looking for icy treats.

There are a few hanging tires on the hill that Missy knows harbor special gifts. In the summer, the tires sometimes have wasps nests, which she, Jamie, and Jody will carefully (though not without risk) harvest to eat the larvae. In the winter, when the wasps are long gone, fallen rain collects in the bottom of the tires and freezes.

It’s not always easy removing the frozen block of ice. Today, as I watched, Missy tried a couple of different positions to get the right leverage in order to remove the ice in one of the tires.

Still was not successful, she went back inside the greenhouse, passing Jody, who was stand as sentry watching the other chimpanzees on the hill.

Jody suddenly got up and started walking up the hill with no small amount of determination. Missy must have been watching Jody from the greenhouse, because she quickly came back outside (with two crayons in her mouth).

She seemed to suspect what Jody was up to, and ran to get ahead of her.

By the time Jody reached the first tire…

Missy had already absconded with the treat and ran up the hill, nature’s bounty in hand.