Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Archives for October 2024

A Few of Her Favorite Things…

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No one ever has to guess what makes Jamie happy.  Or unhappy, for that matter!  But today, we’re talking about what brings Jamie joy.  What tickles her fancy.  What makes her giddy.  What stops her in her tracks.  What gets her realllllly excited!

Grab bags

Food puzzles

Pears

Walks on the hill

Leeks

Grooming caregivers

Big, comfy, expertly crafted nests

Mummies

Books and magazines

Bonobos

Aaaaaaand…..  BOOTS, BOOTS and more BOOTS!

Jamie is not Jamie without a boot nearby, in a nest, under her chin, or in her pelvic pocket.

Cowboy boots, knee high boots, shiny black boots, fuzzy boots, sparkly boots, leather boots, ankle boots, high heel boots, hiking boots, rubber boots, thigh high psychedelic boots…you get the picture.  Jamie is a fan of the boot!

And guess what’s just around the corning?  Possibly our biggest and most anticipated celebration of the year!  It’s Jamieween, naturally!  An opportunity for you, dear reader, to make Jamie’s birthday extra special.  We are busy adding some of Jamie’s most favorite things to our wish lists, which of course includes boots!  (Bear with us while we populate the wish lists – we will be adding things throughout the week!)

So, mark your calendars!  Carve your pumpkin!  Pick out your costume!  Stockpile some candy!  Cue your favorite spooky movie!  Get ready for JAMIEWEEN!

Helping Rayne’s Dry Skin

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Caregiver Ellen has previously wrote a blog about Rayne’s dry forehead treatment and today is a follow-up! During Positive Reinforcement Training sessions, we continue to work on applying lotion to Rayne’s dry forehead so she’s more comfortable and less itchy. Her dry forehead seems to be genetic and as you can see, she is quite tolerant of allowing us to apply topicals to her head to help treat it. It takes a few minutes to cover the entire surface because we do smaller strokes with the brush. However, there were a few moments in the video where she let me do several strokes back and forth before bringing her hand up, which was awesome.

Good job, Rayne!

Stay Golden Annie Bird

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First off, we’re excited to announce a giveaway with Vegancuts– a vegan, cruelty-free snack and beauty box subscription company. Every month they choose one sanctuary to partner with, support, and spread the word about and we’re thrilled that they’ve chosen CSNW for the month of October! We’re doing a fabulous give-away where you can enter to win a 3-month snack box subscription plus a CSNW Hydroflask and stickers! The contest runs for one week starting today (10/10/24) and will end October 17th, with the winner being announced October 18th. It’s super easy to enter- just go to our Facebook or Instagram, make sure you’re following CSNW and Vegancuts, like our give-away post, and tag a friend in the comments!
They’ve also given us a code to share for 30% off your first subscription box order- use code VEGANCUT30OFF at check out. 🙂

We’ve been extremely fortunate to be able to enjoy some mild Autumn weather at the sanctuary lately. Central Washington has this golden hue right now that makes the chimps pop out in our beautiful landscape.

Annie:

Jamie:

Lucky:

Lucky, Terry and Gordo:

Rayne:

Pumpkin Season

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Pumpkin season is finally here! As a Fall-lovin’ girl, this is my favorite time of year. I love watching the PNW trees change color, the air gradually getting colder, and having to unpack my sweatshirts from storage bags. It’s the best!

Today, despite it being in the 60’s, it was a beautiful day for a forage on Young’s Hill and The Bray. Along with vegetables, the chimps enjoyed pineapple as well as mini pumpkins! We don’t usually have pumpkins ahead of Jamieween, so they were extra amped to see them on the menu. Even Queen Negra left her warm cozy nest to venture out to score one of the pumpkins, food squeaks and all.

I’d also like to give a special shout out to Caregiver Chad for snapping these photos for me! I knew he’d be my best bet to get some quality shots of the chimps grabbing the pumpkins. Enjoy!

Annie foraging:

Burrito:

Foxie pant hooting:

Jamie (left) and Burrito (right):

Jamie:

Missy:

Neggie:

Paper Party Part 2 (Burrito’s Version)

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A generous donor recently sent us quite a few new, very durable toys for the chimpanzees from our Wildlife Toybox wish list! We are so grateful and have been excited to see the chimps get to use these new items. One of these items is a giant green cube, which I hoped the chimps would enjoy being able to move around to sit on wherever they would like. Burrito is known to sit on top of his blue barrel to get the best view of the neighbors next door (especially when any drama is happening), so I hoped these could be another option for him and others to enjoy. Grace and I decided to wrap up not only the new toy we were giving to Burrito’s group, but also all of the other large toys already in their space. Burrito seemed to really enjoy this! Check out today’s video to see Burrito unwrap all the toys new and old, and enjoy sitting atop his new giant green cube. He made a lovely paper nest once he was done unwrapping everything, and in true Burrito fashion he remained ready to play despite having such a cozy nest! Thank you to the generous donor that gifted us and the chimpanzees all of these wonderful new toys, and to all of our donors who continue to make a difference in the lives of the chimpanzees and cattle who call CSNW home!

We are sending big PANT HOOTS of thanks to everyone who has donated to CSNW in honor of Giving Day for Apes today! You are helping us get closer and closer to our fundraising goal. Every donation goes to the care of our amazing residents and two exciting projects here at the sanctuary. The first project is a memorial garden that will honor the residents whose memory we will always love and stories we will always honor. The second is a support building for our growing staff, that will include space for educational presentations to visitors!
We still have some funds to raise to meet our goal and we are asking for your support. Donate before 9pm PT / 11:59pm ET today (October 8th, 2024)- every donation counts! Plus, there is a $500 prize for the organization that receives the last donation of the night. 🙂 Click here or at the link below to follow along on our progress, donate, share, and help us win that prize!

King of the Crow’s Nests

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Willy B decided he would try a few new things today.

He began by climbing to the top of Ryan’s Lookout. I was impressed just to see him do that much and thought he might have called it quits after that, since it took him several minutes and multiple attempts to figure out how to get back down. We have a backup plan for almost any situation imaginable but getting a chimp who is afraid of heights down from a climbing structure would not be easy.

But he was undeterred by that experience, or maybe even invigorated by it. He then set his sights on a crow’s nest.

Who is this guy? And he wasn’t content to climb just one crow’s nest. As soon as he awkwardly climbed down from the first, he headed straight to another one.

He spent quite a while up there, taking in the view and even watching intently as volunteer Carrie drove down the long driveway and off into town.

Getting down from the second crow’s nest was a bit quicker but no more graceful than from the first.

Willy B’s old buddies, Honey B and Mave, were outside keeping an eye on him during his many adventures. One of Honey B’s new favorite places is the Escher climbing structure, which is about halfway up the hill. It still surprises me to see her out there. She has a touch of light sensitivity and can often be seen shielding her eyes when outside in the bright sun. Either that or she’s trying to conceal her identity.

Mave waited patiently at the end of the boardwalk.

While Willy’s conquering of the crow’s nests may have been the biggest news of the afternoon, it was something more subtle that really caught my attention when he returned.

Mave was waiting to greet him at the bottom of the hill.

After bouncing and pant-grunting, Mave walked with Willy B back to the chute to be with the rest of the group.

And neither utilized the boardwalk.

This is a guy that couldn’t let his tender little toes touch grass even when his favorite foods were just a few steps away.

It’s a good reminder that progress in sanctuary work is often measured in years, even decades.

Don’t forget about Giving Day for Apes! We are hoping to compete for the most dollars raised for a North American sanctuary during the “Power Hour” of 10 – 11 a.m. PT / 1 – 2 p.m. ET tomorrow. Please consider making a donation to Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest at that time!

Chimpanzees’ PR Problem & Giving Day for Apes

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Long before the HBO docuseries Chimp Crazy aired, I’ve been concerned about the view that humans have of chimpanzees and how they are portrayed in the media.

Since Chimp Crazy, those questions and concerns have amplified.

Andy Gray, Director of the North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance, and I have been hosting discussions via zoom about Chimp Crazy with the goal of talking about and processing the content of the documentary and its potential impact by having expert guests join us. You can watch recordings of these discussions on the sanctuary’s YouTube channel.

Our latest discussion included guests Debbie Metzler, Senior Director of Captive Animal Welfare at PETA Foundation (and former CSNW caregiver) and Kate Dylewsky, Assistant Director, Government Affairs at Animal Welfare Institute (AWI).  Kate shared that she has been lobbying for animal issues with AWI for eleven years, and all of those years have included lobbying to pass the Captive Primate Safety Act, which was first introduced in 2007. This bill would make it illegal to possess, buy, or sell monkeys and apes as pets (current owners will be able to keep the primates they own but will be required to register their animals, and it will be illegal to breed them).

The good news is Kate said she’s never felt more hopeful that the Captive Primate Safety Act could pass, in part because of the success of the Big Cat Public Safety Act that was put into law at the end of 2022 and also due to the spotlight that the Chimp Crazy docuseries has shone on primate (particularly chimpanzee) ownership.

You can help by checking to see if your representatives are co-sponsoring the bill in the house of representatives and the senate. You can enter your address on this page to have personalized messages sent to your senators to encourage them to become co-sponsors if they are not already.

Federal law regarding the ownership of primates is long overdue, and if Chimp Crazy has a positive impact on this industry, potentially protecting tens of thousands of pet primates in the future, it’s well worth it.

I do still wonder, after people have watched Chimp Crazy, what is their view of chimpanzees?

The docuseries shows the two extremes that seem to remain in most people’s imaginations and delusions about chimpanzees; either they are viewed and treated as funny stand-ins for humans or even surrogate children,  dressed up and laughed at, or they are vicious heartless beasts who will “eat your face off.”

We have written about this problem before, of course. On the one-year anniversary after a chimpanzee named Travis severely mauled a friend of the person who owned him, I shared this blog post, which linked to J.B.’s eloquent and still highly relevant blog post he wrote after the incident with Travis that resulted in his death.

Travis’ story, or rather the human-side of his story, is told in Chimp Crazy, with rather alarming details. Will that be what viewers remember the most? Is that okay, given that the story is factual and certainly an clear example of why chimpanzees never, ever, belong in people’s private homes?

I know, though we will never have the reach of an HBO documentary, we play a role in how chimpanzees are viewed. We post every single day on this blog and we share images and videos on social media.

While we try to place the chimpanzees and their stories into a broader context of what the sanctuary is about and what we believe – that chimpanzees do not belong in captivity – that context would be easy to miss if someone is casually scrolling or sees a single blog post.

Like today, I found Burrito with a yellow “cheese” Nylabone in his mouth and a purple scarf jauntily thrown over his shoulders.

Burrito was once a pet too. His story could have ended in tragedy.

I want to share these images and moments, because it shows Burrito being the delightful person he is, as misplaced as he is as an individual. But today I share them with all of these thoughts in the background.

I will wonder how many people will simply see a silly chimpanzee without knowing who he is or what he’s been through, and how he still needs people to help him continue to live a good life where he can be himself without misguided preconceptions on the part of the humans who have power over him.

One way that you can help Burrito and many other apes this week, giving towards organizations like ours that work to right the wrongs that humans have inflicted upon them, is to support Giving Day for Apes. This day of giving, organized by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries, is both a fundraising opportunity and a friendly competition among the participating sanctuaries and rescue centers.

We are hoping to compete for the most dollars raised for a North American sanctuary during the “Power Hour” of 10 – 11 a.m. PT / 1 – 2 p.m. ET on Tuesday. I hope you’ll consider making a donation to Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest at that time!

And I hope you’ll be a part of letting people know what you know – that chimpanzees are complicated and amazing. They are both violent and silly. They are extremely social and adaptable, adopting aspects of the cultures into which they are born, but they remain wild animals. They need us to understand and respect them for who they are so that we can help their wild populations thrive and end the need for keeping them in captivity.