Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
In the mornings, especially with two groups of chimps, it’s either calm and playful or a little chaotic and loud, it’s rarely in between. However, this morning the chimps on both sides chose calm and playful. I hope you enjoy this nice long video!
Today is also wish list Wednesday. Donating on our Amazon wish list is really great way to support the chimps and staff!
Today, we celebrate Betsy, den mother of our tiny bovine herd, turning 15! Many thanks to Paulette Wrisley, for remembering, honoring and celebrating EACH of our sanctuary residents through generously sponsoring days of sanctuary in their honor! We so appreciate your gracious heart, Paulette.
Betsy may be the smallest member of her family, but I’d say Betsy just being Betsy often makes her feel like the largest. She is full of moxie and sass when she deems necessary, which is usually when looking after and protecting her tiny herd or letting the humans know just what she needs them to know. And Betsy’s spirit shows most of all in her love for her ginormous forever baby boy, Nutmeg.
The delightful and rare privilege of getting to watch this small bovine family being allowed to live out their lives together, mamas and their children spending their days in safety and peace, is just that, a privilege. Most importantly for them (thanks to you), but for all of us as well. Seeing them is an endearing testament to the love and bonds all animals share when allowed the opportunity and we are so grateful to all who make this possible, to all who help make our own hearts bigger.
You can learn more about Betsy by clicking here, and her family and their unique history here. You can also learn more about becoming a Bovine Buddy to one, or the whole tiny herd, here.
Happy Birthday, gorgeous Betsy!
Betsy (background) and her son, Nutmeg:
Betsy, Nutmeg, Honey and her daughter, Meredith:
Today we celebrate Gordo’s 34th birthday! You’re not going to want to miss the video from today’s celebration! There are berries boxes, and bounces!
We would also like to thank Paulette Wrisley for being the second sponsor for today in honor of Gordo Chimpanzee, and followers Tom Austin and Dan Oksiuta! Thank you so much Paulette for sponsoring today in honor of these three amazing individuals! And happy birthday Tom and Dan! We hope you were able to celebrate today and had as much fun as Gordo did!
Here are some bonus photos from today’s celebrations!
Birthday Boy Gordo:
Rayne:
Honey B bobbing for berries:
Willy B bobbing for blueberries:
Jody:
Burrito with an oatmeal wadge:
Burrito, Jamie, and Missy fishing for berries:
Many thanks to Terrell Stockdale for sponsoring this special day of sanctuary in honor of David Stockdale and Gordo (Chimpanzee 🙂 )!
“I would like to sponsor July 19 in honor of my son David’s 42nd and Gordo’s 34th birthdays. Hope everyone enjoys the party.”
Happy Birthday, David! We hope it’s the best one yet!
And we’re so excited to be celebrating Gordo’s second birthday with us since he and his group arrived to the sanctuary a little over a year ago! Terrell, it means so much that you included Gordo in your celebration of your son, David, and we’re happy to get to celebrate them both today.
Gordo is still rather a man of mystery for us humans. But although he tends to be a bit aloof with his human caregivers and chimpanzee friends (with the exception of his half-sister, Dora), we’ve been delighted these past few weeks to see him really beginning to feel more comfortable in showing us his silly side. He’s been engaging caregivers in wild games of chase and tickle all while sporting a huge play face, more often joining in play with his chimp friends, and even surprising us by adorably bunny hopping his way with excitement through parties (Gordo is his own person, but fingers crossed for today!). It’s such a privilege getting to know this handsome guy and we’re so thrilled to see him honored and celebrated today.
We are so fortunate to have two Sponsor a Days celebrating this handsome fella today! We hope you can join us on the blog later today for the celebration!
The days have been getting hotter out here in Cle Elum and we have been working to provide the chimps with enrichment to help them stay cool. In Sofia’s Ask Us Anything blog last week, she talked about how we gave them pools of diluted Gatorade as temps were close to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. We were able to snag some fun reaction videos from Cy’s group and I wanted to share them with you today! Enjoy, stay cool, and happy summer!
Rayne and Gordo:
Terry with one of the roses we put in the pools:
Sofia asked you last week for suggestions for upcoming blog posts… and we received MANY wonderful questions and ideas. Thank you for all of them! We will do our best to answer or touch on those topics in the upcoming weeks.
There were many quick questions so I thought I’d answer as many as I can today!
Question: What are the alpha dynamics in each group?
As many of you already know, Jamie is considered the alpha in her group. For our newly integrated group of 9, Cy is treated as alpha by all of his group members.
Question: Are things quite settled between Willy B and Cy? Is it understood that Cy is the “top dog” so to speak?
I would say so! When the group of 9 first started living together 24/7, we were not sure if Cy or Willy B would be considered alpha of the group. Once Willy B began submitting to Cy, it was a dead giveaway that Cy was considered more dominant in the hierarchy. Despite this, Willy B and Cy are good friends and spend a lot of time grooming together daily. While we don’t know what their hierarchy looks like long-term, this is how it stands now.
Question: Do the chimps recognize their name?
Yes! With the chimps being in captivity for decades, they are used to being spoken to. They do know and respond to their names.
Question: How many hours total a day are spent on cleaning, food prep, laundry, feeding, meds, play?
This is a tough question because it varies day to day! Some days we start laundry at 9am and don’t finish until the evening. Some days we finish by the afternoon. However, cleaning typically takes us about 4-5 hours everyday. Other than pre-washing fruits and veggies, we meal prep directly before the given meal. It takes about 20 minutes to prep a meal for both groups. Serving the meal also takes about 20 minutes! Although some meals go faster based on how excited the chimps are! We do meds prep prior to each meal as well. This is usually a quick process, depending on the medical needs of the chimps. As for play, we play all day long! Even if we’re in the middle of scrubbing the Playroom floor, we will always stop and play with the chimps when they’re up for it!
Question: Have you ever given them a video on a big screen?
Yes! Movies are considered enrichment. We don’t do this all the time, but the chimps love movies when we do! Especially while recovering from a medical procedure.
Question: Are the chimps allowed to go out on the trails whenever they please, or are the times structured by the crew?
The chimps are not allowed out on Young’s Hill without caregivers in the chimp house! However, they do have 24/7 access to their Greenhouses.
Question: Do you inspect the hill before letting them onto it?
Yes we do! Following the answer from above, we do a perimeter check of the hill before letting them onto the hill. It is important for us to make sure our electric fencing system hasn’t been damaged overnight.
Question: Do they like music?
Some do! Just like how some really enjoy watching movies and others do not, same goes for music!
Question: What is the biggest challenge in creating enrichment for 16 individuals?
Some individuals have more restrictions than others. So we operate by group! For example, Jamie’s group may get different enrichment than Cy’s group. This is based on our knowledge of what the chimps break or eat, when they’re not supposed to.
Question: What happens with your beautiful facility someday when (hopefully) there are no more lab chimps in need of rescue?
We are constantly working on what the future looks like for us. Unfortunately, there is still a need for homes for lab chimps. Also, just primates in general. Not to mention, chimpanzees live a long time in captivity (there’s captive chimps in their 60’s!). I would love to live to see a day where there is no longer a need for sanctuaries, but unfortunately, I don’t think it will be in my lifetime.
Question: Does Cy share his reading materials?
I don’t want to exclude anyone from this, but I’ve also seen Rayne reading magazines lately! We provide enough magazines to Cy’s group so that anyone who would like, can help themselves!
Question: How do you make sure each one gets their share of the food?
Caregivers hand-serve the chimps their meals. This means we are handing each piece of food to the individual. From there, it is relatively easy to monitor what they eat and what they don’t. Most of the chimps will not accept a food they don’t like. Therefore, we don’t usually have to worry that they take the food from us and abandon it elsewhere. We also keep an eye on any food thieves, which happens from time to time! In those instances, we will replace what was stolen for the individual.
Question: Do they all go to sleep and wake up at the same time? Are there early risers that get the other ones going?
The chimps usually are getting themselves ready for bed or are already in bed when we close the chimp house in the evening. The time varies but typically the chimps are early risers!
I hope these help! We will answer more soon!
Sweet Cy:
Gordo working on a raisin board:
Rayne working on a raisin board:
Jamie thanks you for the letters!
