Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
I think we’ve mentioned before that we know from Wildlife Waystation caregivers that Terry, Willy B, Dora and Honey B used to live together years ago. We also know that Mave and Gordo were roomies a while back too.
Today, when I was taking this video of Dora and Honey B, Willy B was grooming with Terry and Mave was grooming with Gordo. It’s nice to see these chimpanzee friends back together. ❤️
Many thanks to Arlene Smith for sponsoring a day of sanctuary for the chimpanzees and our tiny bovine family in honor of Patricia Levin!
“Happy Birthday to a wonderful woman who is kind, generous and has a heart big enough to hold the world.”
What a beautiful way to be thought of! Have an equally beautiful day of celebration, Patricia! Thanks to you both for making a difference in the lives of our sanctuary residents.
Foxie and Jody:
Annie and Missy:
Lucky:
Nutmeg and his mama, Betsy:
Dora and Rayne:
Negra:
Missy couldn’t resist poking Burrito in his little belly…
Negra was quick to investigate these Frisbee puzzles when we hung them in the greenhouse this afternoon. If an enrichment item involves peanut butter, Negra is first in line!
I wanted to share a fun little story from this morning! As I gave Annie’s group Young’s Hill, everyone including Negra rushed out. Once Anna brought breakfast out to the greenhouse all the chimps were heading back in to eat, except Annie. We couldn’t find Annie anywhere. It had been more than 10 minutes of breakfast being served and she was nowhere in sight. Annie does not miss a meal! Sofia came over to help do checks when I said I think Annie is on the Hill, but we can’t see her anywhere. Sofia told us she did this yesterday, but eventually came back for breakfast. We finally got a glimpse of her 15 minutes into breakfast, she was far up on the top of the Hill foraging for what I assume was grass or some kind of foliage. Apparently, that grass was so good she didn’t even come back for breakfast! Breakfast was not a concern for Annie, because when she finally returned and Anna tried to call her over for food, she very contently laid back on the platform in the greenhouse and took a little nap.
Today was a beautiful spring day so we took advantage of the weather and did a Hill forage for lunch!
Don’t worry Annie got plenty of food!
But Missy seemed to score the most!
Negra was quite pleased with her haul! She even worked pretty hard for her food too, look at Neggie on the Esher structure!
Jody with a mouth full of corn and hands full of forage!
Jamie collected her forage and then took all of it to a secluded hammock to eat alone.
Burrito cradling an arm full of onions:
Little Foxie was having a great day roaming around the Hill and hanging out with friends!
Bonus Photos!
Rayne was asleep in a cozy nest up on one of the leaves in the Marmot Room.
And sweet Dora was hangout in the window ledge watching her caregivers cleaned her playroom.
Enjoy a video of Jamie and Burrito’s breathy panting during a play sesh today!
In the event that you haven’t yet had the chance to see it, Sunday was not only our Mother’s Day celebration in honor of all the chimpanzee and bovine mamas and their children, but the day on which we celebrate our beloved Jody’s honorary birthday! Jody turned 47 this year!
One of Jody’s wonderful Chimpanzee Pals, Tobin, also sponsored a day of sanctuary in her honor (and through a handful of happenings outside Tobin’s control, we’re posting this generous gift a little late). But given that Jo is to be celebrated endlessly with at least a month-long birthday party, it’s perfect.
Tobin shared this special message about her kind gift:
“I want to join Jody’s many friends – simian as well as human – in honoring her on her birthday. I hope that seasonal delicacies such as lilacs will be in abundance on Young’s Hill for Farmer Jo to forage and harvest.
As a small – and admittedly misinformed – child, I wondered why the farms surrounding my small, Midwestern hometown didn’t have certain animals grazing on their lands. I would have been interested to see – let alone hear – a dinosaur in the pasture across the street from my home. Moreover, circa 1967 I was inclined to think that having a chimpanzee and an elf within my immediate social circle might prove to be a source of “enrichment”.
I never did cast my sight upon herds of Tyrannosauri or Brontosauri grazing in the countryside. Nor, ultimately did any of my pointy-eared human acquaintances declare themselves to be elves. Nonetheless, a half-century later I did fall head over heels for seven chimpanzees who reside in the Cascade mountains.
One of those seven – today’s birthday girl, Jody – will seemingly contort the shape of her ears into those of an elf when she is in good spirits. And when she feasts upon certain gourds from her garden – watermelon, squash, or pumpkin – she will evoke the grunting pleasure of a satisfied Stegosaurus.
To conclude, I not only treasure having Jody as my chimpanzee pal, but I am glad that she is in our lives as well.”
Many thanks to you, Tobin, for adding to our celebration of beautiful Jody and your long-time friendship of the seven (and now sixteen chimp people and four bovines!) who call the sanctuary their home!
Due to winter not as of yet being ready to entirely give up its time on the seasonal wheel, our local lilacs are just now barely starting to bud. But we know they will appear in their own time and a lilac celebration will hopefully ensue in a couple more weeks.
In the meantime, behold Jody, in all her endearing, elf-eared, foraging glory:
