Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Archives for August 2021

In honor of Terry, Lucky, Rayne, Gordo, Dora and Cy

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Many thanks to our long-time friends, Donna and (in memory) Doreen Hughes, for sponsoring this day in honor and celebration of Terry, Lucky, Rayne, Gordo, Dora and Cy, and in finding “home.”

“On August 21, 1979, my twin sister Doreen and I moved to NYC. It was the best decision we ever made. Although my dear sister passed away in 2019, this day still must be celebrated. As the six chimpanzees have now moved to their new home this year, I would like to honor them on this special day. I know Doreen would love it. We all love seeing their photos, reading your blogs, celebrating these special individuals. We love all of the chimps (hello Foxie!) at CSNW. I know how much each and every one of them loves living their lives so fully at the Sanctuary.”

Donna, we know this day holds a special place in your heart. Thank you so much for sharing it with the chimpanzees, both new friends and old. What a privilege it is to be able to provide a home all their own to these sixteen amazing chimpanzee people, and four beautiful bovine folks. None of which would be possible without friends like you and Doreen. We hope this day in your beloved NYC is filled with special memories and makes your heart happy and light. As far as homes go, I’d say the sanctuary and that wonderful big ol’ city are both special places.

Rayne:

Cy:

Lucky:

Gordo:

Terry:

And a bonus photo of your pal, Miss Foxie, of course!

Foraging

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Now that it’s cooled off a bit, the chimps in Negra’s group are spending a little more time on the hill. We started the day with a breakfast forage, which lured Negra out of her nest and into the great outdoors.

After spending a considerable amount of time foraging, she decided to take the remainder of her breakfast to go and made her way back to the comfort of her greenhouse nest.

Burrito and Jamie also stuffed their mouths with fruit, including apples from our very own orchard that Diana picked the other night.

This is a good example of why we don’t forage all of the chimps’ meals – there’s just no controlling how much each will get! There’s a good chance Jamie’s got some food in her feet as well. I guess it takes a lot of calories to fuel all those walks around the hill.

Missy, who will turn 46 on Monday, set out to demonstrate that age has no bearing one’s athletic abilities.

Jody agreed, adding that she had never been very athletic, even when she was younger.

Nevertheless, she eventually made it to the top of Negra’s cabin to search for more treats.

Annie sought a bird’s eye view of the action.

Later, Jamie, Burrito, Missy, and I went for a walk around the hill, stopping momentarily to reenact the scene from the original Charlie’s Angels poster.

For a short while, Burrito led the way. Nothing keeps this guy down for long.

Jody caught up to us at the top of the hill, but broke away soon after to snack on a few wild rose hips.

We have a quick favor to ask: The chimps are once again running low on blankets, so we’d love it if you would consider donating a few from our wish list. Annie would be most grateful…and so would we! (Edit 8/21: The blankets have all been purchased off of our wish list – thank you all!)

Drowsy Thursday

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Yesterday we concluded the first round of one on one introductions so today we took another break from all the afternoon action. We have a flexible plan for slowly moving forward with introductions, focusing on who needs more time together in one on one situations and who can meet together in slightly larger two on two intros.  As we’ve hopefully expressed before, intros are exciting but stressful for the chimps as well as the caregivers. It was nice to take a moment to breath and think about other projects that need to be worked on around here.

For Dora, Rayne and Negra, napping was at the top of their to do list this afternoon.  Just try not to be too jealous as you look at these photos.

Dora:

Negra:

Rayne’s descent into snoozeville :

 

Two Years with the Amazing Three!

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Today is Honey B, Willy B, and Mave’s two year anniversary at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest! It has been an honor to get to know each one of them. I can’t imagine life without Honey B’s spunk, Willy B’s dashing good looks, or life without a laid back Mave would just be disappointing. The day was full of their favorite foods and enrichment. There were mangoes, avocados, eggplant to name a few! We put out a LOT of paper, raffle tickets, and buckets of soapy water!

While it’s their anniversary we were still doing one on one introductions. Today was actually the last day of one on one’s before we take a little break. As Sofia stated yesterday, Honey B with no surprise is a wild card and so is Gordo. Honey B still had to meet Gordo and Cy. We also knew these might be some of our hardest introductions. I just need to state how proud we are of Honey B! She did really well overall! It shows us that Honey B can form relationships with new chimps and gives us hope for the future. But she still makes us hold our breath when we open up that door.

First up was Cy. They did great! Cy was playing with her so rough, we were all really for Honey B to freak out, but she didn’t. She loved playing with Cy! As you will see in the video they are laughing and wrestling. That was them playing gently too, we didn’t capture the true wrestling because we thought it might escalate, but to our pleasant surprise it didn’t! Next up was Gordo. Honey B and Gordo met at the mesh yesterday and seemed pretty playful. However, today they both seemed to have taken a slower approach. Eventually we opened the door and they seemed a bit indifferent. Indifference was totally fine, we just wanted them to get comfortable. They warmed up to each other and started to play. It was really fun to watch, but it was short lived. We think there was a little miscommunication on both ends and we quickly ended up having to separate them. Gordo is fine and has a small wound on his foot. We brought Honey B back so her and Gordo had a chance to make up at the mesh, but Gordo wasn’t too interested in coming down. Honey B did give him some good positive behaviors at the mesh. We are hopeful that they can move past this and with a few more meetings understand each other a little bit better. Miscommunications with chimps happens a lot. Foxie and Annie had a lot in the beginning too and even some times to this day!

As an update we are taking a small break because everyone has met everyone for our one on one introductions. We will be doing one on ones occasionally and we will be working on two on two soon as well. For now, us humans and chimps are going to get a few good nights of sleep! Overall, the intros so far have gone as well as we could have asked. I just want to say this again because I think Honey B deserves this. She exceeded our expectations and to watch Honey B play with Cy, Dora, Rayne, and Lucky is exactly why we are doing this. Honey B was so expressive, so happy, and she is a chimp that deserves to have more socialization with other chimps! This proved that, but that doesn’t mean this road is easy or even guarantees this will work out.

Let us all cheers to one on one introductions being over and two incredible years with Honey B, Willy B, and Mave!

Gordo and Honey B. This was right before Honey B came over to Gordo and tried to give him a reassuring kiss!

Cy and Honey B wrestling!

Mave enjoying her whole mango! Mave was so excited, her food squeaks were unreal!

Wildcards…plus a medical update

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We have a had a lot of things going on for the past weeks so here is a brief update from your friendly veterinary assistant regarding Bubba’s encounter with a rattlesnake. After Burrito’s sedation to infuse the antivenin, we had him apart from the group for almost a week to ensure he was recovering correctly. During this time he was getting medications to help with overall itchiness and discomfort after exposure, and we were also collecting fecal samples. The importance of these samples was to monitor his coagulation factors after being exposed to rattlesnake venom. Such bleeding abnormalities can show up days after the exposure, which made it crucial to monitor him for at least a week.  All of our caregivers were on poop duty and thankfully all of the samples came back negative for occult blood which meant that his clotting factors were not affected. This guy was the best patient, he took all his medications in food and wanted to engage in play at all times. Right now, he is doing awesome and has been keeping us all caught up with our daily cardio.

Caregiver Anthony took these photos of Bubba today and if they don’t reflect this guys goofiness and constant happiness, I don’t know what does

On the other side of the Sanctuary, one-on-one introductions continue. One of our wildcards is Gordo, he tends to be a little unpredictable when it comes to neighbors although he has been showing a lot of interest in Mave since their arrival. He first met Willy B, nothing super exciting, they had a brief positive interaction and parted ways. Next up was Gordito’s crush, Mave. This introduction was very lighthearted as both engaged in some very amusing grooming sessions. Because we had some extra time, we had Honey B meet Gordo through the mesh. She was a little amped up about the situation and we decided it was best to keep a barrier between the two individuals. Through all of this, Gordo seemed unfazed and behaved great. Next up was Cy meeting Honey B through the mesh. At this point, both Cy and Honey B had so much energy going on that after a few interactions through the mesh, both individuals returned to their groups for dinner.

Here is Mave and Gordo in one of their grooming sessions today

BONUS: Negra nesting this morning in the green house

The Rayne Attraction

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Last week, I introduced you all to… uh… well… introductions.

You can read that blog post here if you need to catch up. Since then, we’ve posted the following updates related to social integrations: Chad’s Today’s Forecast: Rayne, Kelsi’s Exhilarating Day, J.B.’s Ups and Downs, Diana’s Play During Intros, and Sam’s The Introductions Continue!

Well, today was another exciting day…

Rayne met Willy B in a controlled introduction session!

Willy B
Rayne

They took a few minutes to warm up to each other, but they both behaved in a friendly and respectful manner. Eventually, they “broke the ice” and began to playfully stomp around and wrestle. It’s remarkable how two chimps who have never been together before can suddenly decide to inundate each other with goofy gestures of affection. Their exuberant facial expressions and thunderous chuckles lit up the indoor area where their meeting was staged.

We’ve learned that Willy B has a tendency to start introduction sessions with enthusiasm but quickly grows bored. In today’s meeting, the opposite happened; Willy wanted to keep playing but Rayne eventually grew tired and began to watch the humans expectantly.

Rayne and Willy B amicably separated shortly before dinner and voluntarily returned to their respective social groups in the new playrooms and greenhouse enclosures.

Tomorrow, we hope to continue the integration process by facilitating more introductions!

The Introductions Continue!

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The introductions just keep on coming. Today Cy and Willy B met! I would say it went pretty well. We always let them interact through the mesh before opening any doors between them. Willy B and Cy groomed for awhile at the mesh and had some amazing grooming sounds. They groomed everything from toes to heads to backs to faces. After we opened the door they played a little bit of chase from room to room. They did this on and off and was initiated a lot by Cy’s playful foot stomps. Even though the door was open they still preferred to groom through the mesh at first. Willy B would go over and sit on one side of it and head nod at Cy then Cy would join him in a grooming session. Eventually they felt comfortable enough to groom without mesh between them. They didn’t interact the whole time they were together and during these periods Cy would pull out his magazine to read while Willy tried to see what new potential friends were on the other side of the door.

Click here to see a short video from their grooming session today!

Willy B and Cy grooming.

 

Here are some bonus photos from today.

Lucky wearing a nice scarf.

Missy grooming Annie.