Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Missy had such an amazing birthday party yesterday! Because we had so much to cover for her party we weren’t able to share what happen over on Dora’s side of the building! They also had a lunch forage to celebrate Missy. Please enjoy the video and photos from yesterday!
Willy B with an arm full and a mouth full of chow:
Rayne in all her pepper glory:
A very distinguished Mave:
Mave swooping in to grab tomatoes:
Gordo with a mouth full of what we think is chow:
Sweet Dora:
And for our second day of sanctuary, many thanks to long-time chimpanzee and bovine friend, Tobin, for sponsoring today in honor of her friend, Becky Babcock!
“I am sponsoring this day for my friend, Becky, who celebrates her annual 25th birthday today. I was going to give her a call, but then I remembered that she has (at least) 98.76% of the same genetic material as her friend Mave. Also, today is Wednesday, and if I recall correctly (from the alternate universe where Becky socializes with Mave and her coterie), the ladies in Mave’s social circle were going to host a surprise party for Becky’s birthday today. The six of them always have so much to talk and groom about. Later on, Gordo might stop by…”
Happy Birthday, Becky! We hope you have a magical day of celebration (alternate universe or otherwise 🙂 ):
Mave and her beloved friend, Dora:
And this handsome guy, Gordo:
Gordo and Dora:
Thank you so much, Amy Boles, for sponsoring a day of sanctuary for the chimpanzees and Carolyn O’Shields!
“Happy Birthday, Aunt Carolyn!”
Carolyn is one of our amazingly committed and greatly appreciated Wishlist supporters and has done so many things to help us keep the chimpanzees happy and healthy and their home clean, comfortable and enriching.
We are so happy to be able to join in your celebration, Carolyn! All of us here wish you the best of birthdays!
Honey B loving her paper:
Mave, tuckered out after playing with her wrapping paper:
Willy B enjoying his food puzzle of nuts and seeds:
Jamie and her beloved bonobo books:
Burrito and the ever-popular slinky:
Sweet Dora:
We are so lucky to have a double Sponsor-a-Day of sanctuary day! Stay tuned for the second celebration! 🙂
Hi, everyone, and welcome to the birthday edition of our daily blog! Today, we celebrated Missy’s 47th birthday. She adores all things tomato, so of course we had to have tomatoes at every turn for her birthday party. Missy is a special chimp who is more acrobatic than any human I know- seriously, she will sprint across Young’s Hill in no time. It is very impressive. She often spends time in play sessions with her BFF Annie (there might be a few extra precious clips of this on today’s blog:) ) and she is witty, loyal to her friends, and often too cool for her human caregivers.
Missy’s journey to sanctuary has been a special one. Back in 2014, Diana wrote a blog post about Missy and how she almost didn’t make it to CSNW. Diana said it best, so I have copied some of that blog here:
“About a month before the chimpanzees left Buckshire in Pennsylvania (the private facility that owned them and leased them to different laboratories for decades), all of the chimps had health check-ups. During these check-ups, the veterinarian discovered that Foxie and Missy had uterine tumors.
Buckshire quickly arranged for both of them to have hysterectomies. The surgeries went fine, but when they were transporting Missy back to Buckshire, she crashed. She was brought back to the veterinarian under manual ventilation and had a very weak pulse. From what we were told, they “worked on her for 10 minutes and brought her back.”
We didn’t find out about this until later, and it came as a shock to know that she was so close to not having her chance to enjoy a sanctuary home. It remains a reminder to me that each moment of sanctuary, each moment of life, is invaluable.”
We are grateful every day for Missy, her group of 7, and the newly integrated group of 9. Every moment spent with them or in their presence is unique and priceless.
Happy, happy birthday to you, Missy!!!!
Cy’s group also got to celebrate and that video will be coming tomorrow (thanks, Kelsi!). 🙂
One more note- there is still time to register for the Chimpanzees in Need virtual update meeting on Friday, August 26th at 4pm PT! We are so close to safely re-homing all of the Wildlife Waystation chimps and this will be a short online Zoom meeting where NAPSA will share updates on construction of new homes, transportation efforts, and where we are with raising the funds to complete the campaign this year. There will also be an update from us, CSNW, on how the 9 are doing! Be sure to register now and tune in for the update.
Now, some photos of Missy throughout the day:
One of our favorite party decorations:
Burrito enjoying the forage:
Negra, enjoying her loot from the forage in the comfort of the green house:
Jamie watching everyone participate in the forage:
Thank you to everyone who donated party items for today!!
Heartfelt thanks to longtime friend of the chimpanzees and bovines, Marcie Milam, for sponsoring this special day of sanctuary in honor of Missy Chimpanzee and her 47th birthday!
“Happy Birthday, Missy. Missy is a chimp with a quiet demeanor and seems to approach life with an unassuming attitude. Her love of running and Olympian level splits are a joy to watch. May your birthday celebration be a special one for you.”
We truly appreciate you thinking of Missy today, Marcie! Thank you for all you do to make a difference in the lives of all our beloved sanctuary residents.
If you’ve followed us for awhile you are probably aware that Missy is mad-crazy-wild for tomatoes. Her heart sings with tomatoes. If there are tomatoes on offer for part of the chimps’ meals, Missy will refuse all other food until she gets those tomatoes! We haven’t yet seen her reach her tomato “threshold.” So of course, amazing tomato-themed party preparations are underway in the chimp house this morning.
A funny side note – we always make certain that there are a variety of Missy’s beloved tomatoes on hand for her party. Romas, cherry, hothouse beefsteak, heirloom, you name it, everything we can find. In addition to our incredible deliveries from Charlie’s Produce, we are usually cleaning out our local markets small tomato supplies. Well, it seems a gift from the tomato fairies was bestowed this year and due to some surprises on the humans’ parts, instead of the 20 beefsteak tomatoes we had hoped to find, we wound up with 60! Of course, we can’t put out all 60 giant tomatoes in one go for the chimps (sorry, Miss!), but it made us laugh. So it seems safe to say Missy is going to have an amazing day, thanks to everyone making that possible. Be sure to tune in later today to join us for the festivities!
Happy Birthday, Missy!! We love you so very much!! (A revisit of last year’s great birthday tomato forage):
We all know that Missy is an accomplished athlete.
She tirelessly outruns the fastest Gators, deftly balances on the thinnest tightropes, and snatches the juiciest tomatoes from her opponents with ease. Her cunning and skill have been lighting up the blog for years. This stocky, springy chimpanzee truly know no bounds.
All of her feats are even more impressive when you take her age into account. We will be celebrating Missy’s 47th birthday at this time tomorrow!
How does one stay so energetic and spry into their late 40s? Missy’s keys to success seem to be regular practice and excellent nutrition. Athletes have to “limber up” before strenuous physical activity so that they’re ready to perform when the stakes are highest, and Missy never forgoes an opportunity to sharpen her skills. The tomatoes she acquires along the way are just extra motivation to keep moving.
Today, we scattered an exciting “pregame” lunch of fresh veggies for the chimpanzees to forage in their grassy outdoor enclosure. This afternoon’s spread wasn’t nearly as exciting as tomorrow’s party forage will be, but Missy and company spent a good amount of time searching for produce in the tall grass. Afterwards, they returned to the Greenhouse to engage in another of Missy’s favorite activities: social grooming.
Jody:
Jamie:
Missy:
Jamie:
Negra:
Missy grooming Jamie:
Jamie being groomed:
Burrito:
Be sure to check in with us tomorrow to wish Missy and her companions a happy, tomato-filled 47th birthday!
(In case you want to review the record books, here are links to Missy’s most recent birthday celebrations: 44th, 45th, and 46th.)
P.S. Here are some bonus images from this morning: Cy and Gordo hanging out in the shady Oakwood Greenhouse!
Gordo:
Cy:
A few days ago, I saw someone ask on our Facebook page how we can tell the chimpanzees apart from one another. Just like humans, the chimps have their own individual features that make them unique. Today, I wanted to walk you through some ways that I have found that help when identifying our 16 chimpanzee residents!
First identifier, size/build. While it may be hard to determine overall body size in photos, it is easily one of the first things I notice when I see a chimp.
Our males, with the exception of Burrito, are larger than our females. In the photos below, Dora appears smaller than the males she is next to.
Dora (left) and Terry (right):
Dora (left) and Willy B (right):
Gordo (left) and Dora (right):
Burrito is a smaller guy. While he is larger than some of the girls in his group, he is not larger than all. Here he is next to Jamie, who he is smaller than.
Jamie (left) and Burrito (right):
Jamie (left) and Burrito (right):
Missy is smaller in size, although has a very athletic build.
Missy:
Burrito (left) and Missy (right):
Next identifier, hair.
Hair? Yes, hair!
Hair helps identify a chimp quite easily as well. Hair that stands up on their shoulders, on their head, whatever it may be, helps.
Notice here that Willy B’s hair on his shoulder curls upwards into a “horn-like” shape.
Willy B:
Rayne, on the other hand, has thicker hair on the back of her head. Sometimes, the hair on the top of her head is standing upright. But not always!
Here are a few examples:
Rayne (hair sticking up):
Still Rayne but hair down:
Speaking of hair, the hair queen herself… Mave.
Between her freckled face or her thick, fluffy hair, some may find her easily identifiable.
Mave:
But, we have another chimp who also has freckles and thick, fluffy hair. That is Terry!
Terry:
Hair, or lack thereof, also makes a chimp more identifiable.
Negra has some parts of her body with small amounts of hair.
Negra:
Honey B also has thinner hair on her chest and stomach.
Honey B:
Next identifier, eyes and brow ridge.
Jody has beady eyes and a rounded brow ridge.
Jody:
Dora’s eyes also are unique. Her brow ridge is not as defined as Jody’s.
Dora:
I don’t know how to truly describe Honey B’s eyes, but they stare straight into your soul.
Honey B:
Next identifier is ears.
Annie has larger ears that sit high on her head.
Annie:
Negra is missing half of an ear. So is Foxie!
Negra:
Foxie:
Common mix-ups:
A tough pair to tell the difference between: Honey B and Rayne. They have many similarities. They are both lean and tall. They both have a white beard and similar ears. However, Honey B has light-colored lips and Rayne does not. Rayne’s face is overall darker in color, apart from her forehead. Honey B’s eyes are just a tad lighter.
What else do you notice?
Rayne (left) and Honey B (right):
Rayne:
Honey B:
Telling the difference between Willy B and Cy can also be a tough one. They are both large bodied males with hair that sticks straight up, strong brow ridges, and white beards.
What do you notice the differences are?
Cy (left) and Willy B (right):
Willy B (left) and Cy (right):
Willy B (left) and Cy (right):
Cy:
Willy B:
Cy and Lucky, full-siblings, have some similar features. Same white beard, strong brow ridge, same nose, similar eyes. However, Cy is bigger in size and also has more hair standing up-right on the top of his head.
Dora (left), Lucky (center), and Cy (right):
Lucky:
Cy:
