Archives for June 2021

In celebration of June birthdays!

June 2, 2021 by Katelyn

A fair amount of our blog posts are in celebration of our chimpanzee and bovine residents’ birthdays, as well as Sponsor a Days from generous humans wishing to celebrate their own special day or the birthday or memory of someone dear to them by sponsoring a day of sanctuary for the chimps and the cattle.

But starting today, we’d like to add something new and honor all of you out there, our amazing supporters, who have a June birthday!

It’s no small thing to us that you choose to follow, share, support and contribute, in a myriad of wonderful and inspiring ways, to Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest and all those who call this special place their home. *YOU* make every day in sanctuary for each chimpanzee and bovine here, and all those to come, possible. Your life makes a difference in their lives. And we’re so grateful to you.

For many years we’ve enjoyed signing and sending birthday cards to those of you who have chosen to share your birth date with us, just as a fun way to say we appreciate you and share images of the beautiful chimpanzees. As we continue to grow we want to make sure we are taking every opportunity to responsibly use (and/or reduce) resources of all kinds to the best of our ability. So we came up with the idea of transitioning to a monthly blog post to celebrate human birthdays. Now we get to celebrate all of you (whether you share your birthday or not) and we get to share even more images of wonderful chimps and bovines!

We also hope this gives us the chance to connect with you all even more, so please feel free to chime in on your, or anyone else’s, birthday month if you feel so inclined, let us know if you’re birthday “twins” with one of the chimpanzees or bovines, or maybe you share a birthday month with your Chimp Pal and/or Bovine Buddy. We’d love to hear from you!

So from all of us here, to all of you who celebrate, and are celebrated, in June, Happy Birthday hoots, moos and hoorays!! May you each celebrate what lifts your heart in your own special way.

June is a pretty big deal around here, so you chose a good month to be born. 😉 For exciting starters, you share a birthday month with sweet (soon to be home), Dora, who was born on June 6th!! Here’s Dora in her current home at the former Wildlife Waystation in California (same former home to Honey B, Willy B and Mave) and we just can’t wait to welcome her and her five friends, Cy, Lucky, Rayne, Terry and Gordo home in just a few weeks!

(*photo courtesy of Wildlife Waystation)

Next we have the effervescent Honey B herself, who is turning 32 on June 11th!

And as if that’s all not exciting enough, we will celebrate Queen Negra’s honorary 48th birthday on June 13th!

June 13th is also the anniversary of the seven’s arrival to the sanctuary in 2008 AND is this year’s date for our virtual live event, The Queen’s Brunch, a virtual anniversary and birthday celebration and online auction. Insider Tip: We’ll be making a special announcement during the event and we’d love to have you join us Sunday, June 13th at 11:00 AM PST (on Facebook and YouTube). We have so much to celebrate! Not least of all, YOU!

Sights, Sounds, and Sensation of Summer

June 1, 2021 by Chad de Bree

As Katelyn mentioned yesterday, Summer is making a quick visit the next couple of days. With 90ºF temperatures today, the chimpanzees have remained relatively low key. Each in a spot in the indoor enclosures in the shadiest of spots, or in front of the fans to escape the heat. We did offer them some icy treats throughout the day since it seemed like today called for it. Some of these spots are very tricky to get photos of, and the only photo I was able to get of any of them was of Negra climbing down from the platform in the Greenhouse to head indoors.

The cattle have been spending most of their day lounging around in the shade at the top of the pasture, just like the chimpanzees. However, it’s far easier to take photos of them on days like today. They did spend an hour or two grazing in the mid-day sun.

And taking turns licking the mineral block.

And don’t worry, Meredith was there, just waaaay in the back.

With summer creeping up on us, the sights, sounds, and smells of summer are starting to come in. Here are some of those things found around the sanctuary.

The strawberry plants are starting to fruit.

The grape vines are starting to bunch.

Squirrel moms are calling for their kits.

Racer snakes are seeking shelter in the raspberry bushes.

Barn swallows are beginning to nest.

And white-crowned sparrows are collecting food for their babies.

Though the temperatures are foretasted to go down by the end of the week, these sensations of summer (minus the heat) are sure to stay until it’s official arrival.