Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Archives for April 2022

Love a Chimpanzee Day 2022

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Today was a Love a Chimpanzee Day for the books! Not only did Monica continue her tradition of generosity by paying for party supplies (including a bunch of stuff like scarves and giant stuffed animals that are not pictured here, but the Primate Awareness Network at Central Washington University also got involved and planned the party! It was bug themed and the food for the day included bugs on a log (celery with peanut butter and berries), whole sweet potatoes, watermelon radishes, kale, bok choy, and Swiss chard.

We didn’t get a lot of photos of all of the elements of the parties because the chimpanzees were a blur of excitement, but Kelsi and Anna got some great photos of the chimpanzees. There were so many, I had a difficult time selecting only a few.

Thank you to those who have already donated on my and Monica’s GiveBIG fundraising page in celebration of Love a Chimpanzee Day. Monica’s matching donation is live, so your donations will be doubled.

Huge hugs of thanks to Monica, and Happy Love a Chimpanzee Day to everyone!

 

Gordo enjoying Swiss Chard:

 

Terry enjoying bok choy:

 

 

Beautiful Rayne:

 

Some set-up shots of creative party elements that the Primate Awarness Network made for the chimps:

 

Negra digging into a box and later eating some greens on the hill:

 

 

Willy B with the big party banner:

 

Missy slack-lining and carrying sweet potatoes:

 

Burrito with a watermelon radish and bok choy then “hanging out”:

 

Annie with some kale:

 

Jamie was the first on the hill and collected as much bok choy as she could:

 

A goodnight photo of Mave grooming Honey B while Honey B was in her nest:

Happy Birthday, Marya!

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Wonderful friend of the sanctuary, Marya Barey, sponsored this special day of sanctuary in memory of her parents. And as though that isn’t lovely enough, it also happens to be Marya’s birthday AND our official/unofficial holiday (created by another wonderful friend, Monica), Love a Chimpanzee Day!  

Side note: If you are interested in helping celebrate Love a Chimpanzee Day with a donation to the chimpanzees you love, check out the GiveBIG page from Monica and Diana!

Thank you, Marya, for all you help make possible in the chimpanzees’ and bovines’ lives! Sharing your special day and beautiful message with us all means so much!:

“I’m thrilled that my birthday, April 23, is also “Love a Chimpanzee Day” and am happy to sponsor this day not only for all the wonderful chimp and people beings at CSNW but for all chimpanzees. I’m grateful for their presence, their intelligence, their adaptability, their antics and their depth of soul and spirit. And thanks to this marvelous community of human primates who help to support this and other wonderful sanctuaries. My parents gave me a love of all nature and it has sustained me through very difficult times so I’m thankful to them for their sensitivity and for passing on their commitment to me.”

Happy Birthday, Marya! Happy Love a Chimpanzee Day, all!

Love’s a funny thing. Sometimes, when we’re very lucky, we meet someone and think our hearts cannot possibly hold more love for this person. And then you meet fifteen more people…

Cy:

Jamie:

Honey B:

Honey B’s mama, Missy:

Annie:

Negra:

Dora:

Mave:

Willy B:

Foxie:

Jody:

Rayne:

Lucky:

Terry:

Gordo:

Earth Day, Today and Everyday

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Today is Earth Day- a day to think about our impact on the earth, to learn how to live more sustainably, and to celebrate conservation and preservation of the environment.

Here at the sanctuary we work to be as sustainable as possible, with an active recycling program and food compost station (just to name a few). It’s hard, though, to not think about greater conservation issues when you spend your days working with a species that is currently classified as endangered by the IUCN, with wild populations of chimpanzees decreasing. I often find myself too overwhelmed to think about it, with the issue being so large and complex, but to honor the day it does seem appropriate to think about little things we can do to become more environmentally friendly in our everyday lives. My goal is to prioritize local and seasonal eating, along with learning how to compost our food scraps. What’s yours?

The chimpanzees got to celebrate Earth Day today as well, as it was another perfect day for a forage on Young’s Hill! Everyone seems to be enjoying the sunshine today – and what better way is there to appreciate Mother Earth?

Annie enjoying her forage, a thread:

 

Lucky basking in the sunshine of the Oakwood Greenhouse:

Jody enjoying some after-lunch yoga in the Greenhouse. Happy baby, anyone?

Happy Earth Day!

Appreciation during still uncertain times

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This week is National Volunteer Appreciation week and I’m finding that there are not enough words to express how much our volunteers mean to us.

As the pandemic hit in March of 2020, we made the extremely tough decision to limit the numbers of humans that we had coming to the sanctuary in order to help protect the chimpanzees. This meant we had to lay off the bulk of our extremely valuable volunteer and intern workforce. While only a few volunteers were able to adapt to our strict protocols and qualifications, others found different ways to help at a distance. They filled bags of primate chow from home,collected enrichment and helped plan fundraising events. Their creativity and resourcefulness has been astounding!

Now, 2 years later, we are still working with a limited (although slightly larger) group of volunteers. Our COVID protocols have adjusted over time, but our resources (high quality masks and rapid tests) remain limited, so we currently have an active group of only 6 volunteer caregivers. While there are still many of our loving volunteers on hiatus through no fault of their own, we wanted to specifically recognize the very hard work and dedication of our current “Level 3” caregivers.

Please join me in thanking Patti, Lisa, Elizabeth, Keri, Lizz and Krissy for all their hard work during this ongoing pandemic. We seriously couldn’t have done it without you and we can’t wait for the day when we can welcome more volunteers back to the sanctuary!

Besides hard working, our volunteers can also be elusive to photograph, so we have a mixture of old and new photos of them.

Patti cleaning the front rooms:

Lisa and Foxie:

A 2015 throwback photo of Keri and Jamie:

Elizabeth and Honey B:

Krissy disinfecting the front rooms:

Lizz grooming Jamie:

 

 

 

Big Yawns

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As I walked around the chimp house today I felt really tired. I kept thinking, how could I feel so sleepy? Then I figured it out! I was looking at these cozy lumps all day ;).

Dreamy Cy:

The handsome Terry:

The ever so wonderful Lucky:

And of course the beautiful Jo in the portrait studio:

Snapshots of the Chimp House

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Today is one of those days where the chimp house is just a’ bustlin. I am still in caregiver training, we have our staff meeting this afternoon, and our team are busy with daily tasks. I did take some time this morning to try and improve my photography skills and these are the results – enjoy!

Terry (henceforth in this blog known as Sir Terrance) engaged in some auto-grooming and enjoying the warm sunshine in the Oakwood Greenhouse.

Dora soaking up the sunshine in the Oakwood Greenhouse.

Negra taking a mid-morning nap in the playroom.

Burrito up to his morning antics.

Have a lovely Tuesday, everyone!

Consistency in Change

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How many times have you heard the old adage that the more things change the more they stay the same? I’m not sure if it holds up, but it seems to ring true here in the chimp house.

When I was here last it was 2019 and driving up a few months ago for my first shift was jaw dropping. The sanctuary has always been beautiful, tucked away in the mountains around Cle Elum, and it has retained that beauty. Now, though, it is home to 9 additional chimpanzees and the sanctuary has grown so much. When I came to CSNW for my first ever intern shift, with fellow caregiver Chad, we had our volunteer orientation in a trailer outside of the kitchen. Where I am sitting now to write this blog did not exist – or, rather, it was outdoor space between the kitchen and the trailer. Now there is a lobby, a full bathroom (!), a clinic, and the new additions for chimpanzee space.

This photo is from the archives of my phone photos – a long ago trip around Young’s Hill, with the Cle Elum 7, in 2019 (don’t worry – my blog photos will get better, promise). If you squint you can see the original building plus Phase 1, since construction began a few months before I left.

A quick search through archived photos also produced this gem – Desert Fox, the O.G. clinic and meeting space. This is where we had our initial volunteer orientation and it will always be one of my first memories of CSNW.

 

This photo (thanks, Anthony!) has been used in previous blog posts, but it really lets you see how much has changed. After Phase 1, Phase 2 and 3 were added. It truly is amazing to see how the sanctuary has changed and to witness the positive impact of such a big change.

I think that’s what it comes down to- pulling up to the sanctuary now after a few years away, it’s hard to ignore how much of everything around me is new. For a while it was intimidating, until it started to settle in that what makes CSNW so special has remained through it all. Thank goodness some things never change.

Bonus Photo: Jamie enjoying her loot of mini peppers from the Easter forage yesterday.