Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Archives for July 2024

Gordo’s 36th Birthday!

by

Today is Gordo’s 36th Birthday!

We celebrated by having a lunch forage of his favorite foods, including a fan favorite that we save for special events, mangoes! Along with the forage, we included small, individual smoothie cups because they’re one of Gordo’s favorite things. Caregiver Ellen also made an oatmeal based “cupcake” for the chimps (you’ll see them in the video) consisting of oatmeal, banana, peanut butter, chow dust, sugar-free vanilla pudding as frosting, with a raspberry on top! The chimps absolutely loved them.

Gordo is a special guy and we hope he had the best day! If you’re new to our blog, I wrote a blog back in February about Gordo’s personality and all of his unique quirks. I will link it here!

Gordo probably thought it was Christmas today with his party and all the boxes we gave him! Since July is a month full of celebrations, we are inviting you to celebrate by emptying our wish lists for Christmas in July!
We are excited to introduce two new wish lists to choose from. First, we have partnered with Jerrol’s, a family-owned shop that has been in nearby Ellensburg since 1947. Rolf and Jessical at Jerrol’s have helped us create a custom wish list that we will be adding more items to as we discover what we can source from them instead of Amazon, and they will deliver gifts right to our door at the sanctuary – how great is that?!
We were also just approved to have a Chewy wish list! We will be able to get some supplements and toys for the chimpanzees and cows directly from Chewy now.
We aren’t getting rid of our Amazon wish list entirely just yet, and we’ve added more items to that list too. Thank you to alert blog readers who have already purchased fun items from Amazon for Christmas in July. You all are the best!
Our hope is to empty all of those wish lists by the end of this month so we can stock up on some staples and treat the chimpanzees to new and fun food puzzles and toys. Thank you for being santas and helping us celebrate Christmas in July!

Happy Birthday, Gordo and Dave!

by

Many thanks to Terry Stockdale for choosing to sponsor this day of sanctuary for her son, David, and his amazing birthday twin, Gordo!

“I would like to again sponsor July 19 to celebrate the birthdays of Gordo Chimpanzee and my son David. They both bring joy and happiness to my life.”

Happy Birthday, Gordo and Dave!!

Classic Gordo sass 🙂 :

Gordo and Rayne:

We love this special guy so much and can’t wait for his party today:

The Summer Melt

by

‘Tis the season for laying low and keeping cool. With an expected high of 96 degrees today, the sanctuary is on the brink of a Heat Weather Advisory for this coming weekend. The chimps in response have melted into fuzzy puddles all around the chimp house.

Gordo:

Dora:

Despite the heat, spirits remain high. Here’s Rayne and her sweet, glistening face:

Mave visiting the “water cooler” trough for some hydration:

Burrito still seems to have as much energy as ever:

Toy goes on head, signaling time to play:

 

Christmas in July!

by

Today, you, dear blog readers, are invited to our silent opening of Christmas in July! We will be revealing more about this in the coming days. The secret preview for you is this: we want to add to and then empty our wish lists by the end of this month!

We are partnering with a local business, Jerrol’s, for some of this, which you will learn more about soon.

For today, for your first peek at some of the things we hope to get, please see our Amazon wish list. Our newly appointed enrichment coordinator Ellen has been busy thinking of some fun and creative enrichment items and puzzles for the chimpanzees, so you’ll see a lot of new items that have just been added today!

Let’s see how many items we can get during this silent opening!

Shhh – I mean, tell everyone!

More soon.

In the meantime, please enjoy these delightful photos that Kelsi captured today:

Negra having a private breakfast while her friends look for a snake on Young’s Hill:

Missy eating an orange series:

Burrito being Burrito 🙂

Sweet Annie:

A Budding Friendship

by

We’ve said it many times, but it’s still just as true- watching the group of nine expand on and build new friendships since their integration in 2022 has been one of the most amazing things to witness. While they still have their tense moments, the little happy and peaceful moments we catch throughout the day between individuals who were originally in two separate groups are always exciting.

Last week I came in one morning and before breakfast was served I went over to say good morning to Cy’s side. I walked in and found Terry and Willy B grooming, quite intensely, in the front rooms. I went around to say hello and they were still grooming when I came back up, and they let me capture some of it on video. 🙂 Seeing these two big guys spend some quality time working on their relationship was a really nice way to start the day.

World Chimpanzee Day 2024 Celebration

by

Happy World Chimpanzee Day. I’m so glad there is a day to think about and celebrate our closest living relative, and it’s so fitting that July 14th is the anniversary of when Jane Goodall arrived to what was to become Gombe. Dr. Goodall has changed the world for chimpanzees, and has made millions of people aware of how extraordinary they are as a species and as individuals. We are all part of her legacy of scientific discovery and advocacy.