Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Archives for September 2025

The 50’s Club

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The 50’s club at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest is an exclusive, elite club with members of the highest caliber. Members must possess distinguished taste, class, offer expertise and wisdom to others, individualized talents, and well-refined knowledge of pan troglodytes society. Members that meet these qualifications are welcomed into this exclusive group only on their 50th birthday, per club rules.

I’d like to introduce you to the founding member of the 50’s club… Negra.

Negra, at a wise, 52 years old, sits on her throne surveying her subjects as they move about her kingdom. Her subordinates will bring her offerings to her throne, to gain her favor. Negra embodies wisdom and grace. Her talents include napping, demanding respect, nest-building, storing resources, and always dazzling the town with a pop of color.

Negra:

New members aspire to be like founding member, Negra, often enrolling in a one-sided mentorship.

Missy sits behind Negra:

 

The second member of the 50’s club… is Annie.

51 year old, Annie, is the definition of demure. Polite, quiet, somewhat shy, modest, considerate, mindful, classy, and fiercely loyal. Annie joined the 50’s club in September 2024 and has blended well into the atmosphere. Other members have been trying to find out Annie’s secrets for aging so beautifully, but she has remained tight-lipped.

Annie:

The third member that completes our club… Missy.

While only being a member for 3 weeks, Missy is taking her acceptance into the club very seriously and staying close to founding member, Negra. Missy is athletic, mysterious, graceful, has high standards, and overall hard to impress. She is the perfect member to the 50’s club to balance out the personalities of the other existing members.

We wish her well in the 50’s club, following her 90-day probationary period.

Missy:

Foxie is on the waiting list until August 2026.

Foxie:

Bonus photo of Lucky who won’t be entering the 50’s club for a long, long time:

Picture This: The Day in Snapshots

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Today was pretty calm around the chimp house, but I’m diving into the highlights and capturing some of the best moments from the day.

 

This morning with Mave:

 

Dora enjoying her nut, which she played with for awhile but ultimately never ate:

 

Negra found a giant zucchini we put out on Young’s Hill for a forage, she had to take breaks while snacking on it:

And Cy enjoying a pepper during his lunch:

Annie’s 51st Birthday!

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Today we celebrated Annie’s 51st birthday! Today’s party menu was really fun, all planned by our very own Dr. Erin Zamzow.

  • Obviously Sunflowers for Annie!
  • Lettuces bowls filled with rice noodles, tofu, green onions, cucumbers, red peppers, purple cabbage, with a drizzle of peanut sauce! (Annie and Foxie loved these bowls)
  • Heads of lettuce & bok choy
  • Lychee, Dragon fruit, & grapes were in the bowls or spread around as well!
  • And sparkling cider, to top it all off!

I honestly can say, I can’t believe Annie is 51, I hope I age as gracefully as she has! I love celebrating Annie because she is a quieter chimp. Annie is the type of chimp that is usually busy with her chimp friends and does not demand a lot from her caregivers. One could say she is a little bit more low key, which is why she deserves a big party to celebrate her. Annie is a genuinely sweet soul, she has many different layers to her, but to her core she is a gentle and kind, unless she is grooming, she is not so gentle then ;). It has been an honor to watch Annie turn 51 and see her flourish in sanctuary. Though she may be lower ranking, every year we watch Annie become more comfortable, a little bolder, and more content.

I also want to extend a heartfelt thank you to Paulette for generously sponsoring Annie’s birthday party today!

Jenna went out this morning to get more sunflowers from a local farm, you can never have too many sunflowers!                 

Annie and Foxie pretty much had a private party out on Young’s Hill, while everyone else foraged in the Greenhouse. Look out for the party video tomorrow!

Annie:

Bonus of Foxie:

Breakfast With Burrito And Friends

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Today started very Fall like.  This morning was a little darker, a little drizzly and a little bit chilly.   The chimpanzees are really enjoying the cooler temperatures, and Jamie’s group of 6 headed right out onto Young’s Hill for their morning patrol.  Even Negra ventured out, with a doll tucked into her pelvic pocket!

Come breakfast time, everyone meandered in from the Hill at their own pace.  And surprisingly, Annie was the last one in, making Burrito pretty impatient for his breakfast!  But then, Burrito doesn’t like to sit still for anything.

Come have breakfast with the chimps!

One More Walk

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I can’t tell you how many times I have wished that Jamie would just go to bed.

On a typical day, we close off the chimps’ outdoor habitats around the time that they bed down for the night in the greenhouses and indoor playrooms. Given the sanctuary’s relative proximity to a public road and the unfortunate abundance of rattlesnakes in the area, we require at least two staff members to be on duty at the chimp house when the chimps are in the habitats so we can respond promptly to an emergency. Diana and I are on site nearby overnight, but we need to sleep, too.

If the chimps decline to go to bed after dinner, and instead decide to stay outside, the staff put in a little overtime. For most of the year, shorter days and cooler nighttime temperatures discourage late-night outdoor activities. But summer demands them.

Jamie has always had unique ways of exerting control over her caregivers. Some are obvious, like a spit in the face or a well-aimed handful of feces. Others are more subtle. Most nights, Jamie has a list of last-minute demands as we are closing up for the night. It could be a favorite pair of boots or a page torn from one of her books about bonobos. It’s not the items themselves that matter; if it were she could easily ask for them earlier in the day. It’s her way of deciding when the workday is over.

We’ll do just about anything to get Jamie what she needs before bed, but we could still close the chimp house door and walk away if we were so inclined. Not so when the chimps are on Young’s Hill. Jamie has been here for 17 years. She knows the rules, and how to use them to her advantage.

There have been summers when Jamie would keep us late almost every day of the week. If we were lucky she’d let us off after a couple extra hours. Other times we’d be here until 10pm, with only the moon to light our paths. And by late summer, after months of these long workdays, we’d be praying for Jamie to lose just a bit of her stamina. As we’d crest the top of Young’s Hill on our third or fourth walk of the evening, I’d look down to see the glow from my living room window. I’d imagine sitting down to dinner or sipping a cold beer on the porch. I’d imagine climbing into my own bed.

But with the flick of her wrist, Jamie would insist that we march onward.

Jamie was a walking machine then. Her record was 14 laps in a day, which adds up to about 3.5 miles up and down a hill with a more than 100-ft elevation gain. These days she rests more. She’ll make us wait while she climbs a tower and watches the sun set over the mountains. I don’t know if she’s gained more of an appreciation for the natural beauty of our surroundings or if she just needs an excuse to catch her breath. Perhaps it’s just another control tactic. Whatever the reason, these are some of my favorite moments.

Jamie and I were both 30 years old when we met. When you’re 30 you only think about the future. I’m speaking for the both of us here, but of course we can’t know for certain what chimpanzees think about. She certainly had nothing in her past worth remembering.

Now that we’re both a lot closer to 50, the walks feel different. There are fewer of them, and they feel more special. I can’t help but feel that for Jamie, too, they are imbued with nostalgia.

In hindsight, I can’t believe how much I used to hope that Jamie would let us go home on time. Now when she watches me close the door, I want to ask her:

Are you sure you don’t want to take another walk?

Reaching Out

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I wanted to do something a little different for today’s blog. I am sorry for such a dark yet important topic. I promise there will be some nice photos sprinkled throughout to give you a serotonin boost. I should also note that this blog isn’t representative of any staff member here, just statistics I pulled from various government and academic sources.

Honey B looks on as an incoming thunderstorm rolls in

As some of you may know, September is recognized at Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. It’s a month dedicated to raise awareness, promote hope, and normalize seeking help. The reason I want to post about such an important topic is to provide as much insight and resources as I can to all my fellow caregivers out there at other sanctuaries, zoos, clinics, and other facilities that house animals. But this is also for you, the reader, as well if hard times have bestowed upon you.

Negra with a mouthful of cabbage during a lunch forage on Young’s Hill
And don’t forget Strawberry Shortcake!

Mental health is not talked about in the open enough, I feel, and it should. Depression and suicide is high per capita in the animal welfare career field, particularly among veterinarians and veterinarian technicians, which can be anywhere from 2 to 5 times higher than other professions. Though no thorough study has been conducted to date, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggest the rate over of those in animal caregiving/rescue is five times higher that other professions as well. That suggestion should be taken with a grain of salt though as those labeled “animal caregiving/rescue” included the professions of veterinary care, shelter workers, lab scientists, firefighters, law enforcement, zoo keepers, etc. Let this be my call there should be a proper study done on this topic focusing on the animal welfare profession.

Honey, Meredith, and Betsy grazing on some supplemental hay in their pasture

Even though no official study has been done on the suicide rate of animal welfare workers, we do know things like compassion fatigue, post-traumatic stress syndrome, and moral injury contribute to burnout amongst caregivers, which then leads to mental health deterioration.

(Not so) Teeny Tiny Terry

If there is one thing I do know without having to rely on government and academic statistics, is that burnout runs rampant amongst the caregiving community. Burnout in the sanctuary world is like an uncontained wildfire, it spreads at an accelerated rate and leaves ghostly shells of things that were once vibrant. Many of the the facilities in the sanctuary world have been putting forth the effort to try to combat this fire, but it’s still a little too early to see how efforts will play out.

Missy eating a green bean during her lunch forage on Young’s Hill

I can’t speak for anyone but myself, but it took me a very long time to admit and acknowledge my burnout. For some, burnout could be caused by things that just keep piling up without trying to acknowledge and work with them. For others it could be a single event that sparks that match. I know for myself, it was when we lost Jody.

Willy B trying to spy what was in his neighbor’s forage

For me, Jody’s passing, and subsequently Nutmeg’s passing, were the things that triggered the PTSD that led to my burnout. And yes, as combat Marine veteran, I can and will say PTSD is not exclusive to combat. Really it can be any event that takes you down that rabbit hole and nobody is immune to it. In my time, I have learned there is no cure to PTSD or burnout, but there are ways to cope with it and make sure it doesn’t consume you.

Burrito, Annie, and Missy surrounding a pacific racer snake they spotted on Young’s Hill during today’s lunch forage. No need to fear, the snake escaped and everybody is fine.

I guess this next part is for any animal caregiver out there whom may read this:

To my fellow caregivers out there, far and wide, I will not claim to be a trained professional in the subject but merely letting you know what helped me to get the burnout monkey off my back. These are the guides I follow:

Jamie surveying her kingdom

Be the caregiver you want to be

Remember  when you were hired you were taught how to perform the tasks to be a caregiver, but you weren’t taught what kind of caregiver you want to be. You took on this job for a reason. If you get bogged down with everything that isn’t the reason you came onboard, then remember why you came onboard. Though we each have our own way of doing things and our own focuses, circle back to why you wanted to work with the species you work with. For me, even though I have other duties outside of the caregiving, it’s the caregiving aspect that has the most direct impact in their day-to-day lives. Knowing that they’ll have a clean space, as much space as they can have, full bellies, and stimulated minds at the end of the day is what makes me happy.

Willy B with a fistful of chow
The Pacific Northwest Chimpsquatch

Talk to each other

You are not alone. There’s a chance your fellow caregivers, whether the ones you work with or ones at another facilitiy. Reach out to each other. Talk to each other. I can’t guarantee results, but you can reach out to me if you aren’t comfortable with someone you work directly with. I’ll at least try to point you in the right direction.

If you are feeling down or are going through a crisis, then please reach out to any of the resources available. Dial the number 988 if you need someone to talk to right away. There are trained professionals that can help you. Or you can go to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to find the resource that is right for you. And just remember, you matter!

And now a series of Burrito playing with Caregiver Ellen!