Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Archives for September 2025

Summer Volunteers in Action

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It’s been a long hot summer here at the sanctuary. Thankfully we’ve had an amazingly dedicated volunteer and intern force coming in strong to help us all sail through these warm hazy days. Our volunteers fill many roles at the sanctuary like enrichment/food prep, community outreach, enclosure cleaning, a little comic relief from time to time,  and even serving and interacting with our sanctuary residents. Here are just a few of our FANTASTIC volunteers in action this summer!

Be sure to check out our website for more details about our volunteer program. We are always thrilled to have more people to join our team!

George: MVP of BP

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Last year the Great Ape Heart Project was kind enough to loan us a petMAP device, which is used mostly for companion animals like dogs and cats to get blood pressure readings by putting the cuff’s on their tails or front leg but great ape caregivers have been trying to adapt this to get voluntary blood pressure readings without the need for sedation’s. Check out today’s blog video to see this in action with George!

Almost birthday girl!

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Can you believe the incomparable Annie Chimpanzee turns 51 next week?! If you’re looking for a way to celebrate her big day, our Amazon Wish list is full of gifts to support Annie’s life at the sanctuary.

I somehow seemed to keep finding sweet Annie with the camera today:

 

 

Gordo the Observer

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Building a friendship with Gordo has been an extremely rewarding experience. For those who follow our blog, you may have heard us describe him as “aloof” or “shy”. In general, Gordo takes time to warm up to people. Gordo is an observer, and to earn his friendship, you in return have to be observant enough to notice his subtle tells. However, Gordo is quite a silly guy when you get to know him. For example, one day, I brought a long cardboard tube back to Cy’s side of the building to be able to play with one of the chimps. To my surprise, Gordo was the first chimp to want to be poked with the cardboard tube. He wanted to be poked/tickled on the back on his neck, side, and butt! Gordo thought it was the funniest thing and would start breathy panting which turned into a game of chase, bunny hop and all.

Being Gordo’s friend also means you have to have the patience to allow him to be a little spit-y or pokey! Often, Gordo incorporates spitting water while playing. He is not alone in that either, Foxie loves to spit water and spin away, before coming back to do the same thing all over again!

Finding a relaxed Gordo who wants to sit and groom really takes the cake – it’s such a rarity!

September celebrations!

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In Katy Hessel’s (of The Great Women Artists fame) forthcoming book, “How to Live an Artful Life”, she compared the last day of August to sometimes feeling like the ultimate Sunday night. I think summer holds a particular sense of freedom, time, and nostalgia for most of us. Even those of us (chimpanzee and human alike) who might could do without the occasional hellfire aspect. 😉 That said, I don’t think there is any season that doesn’t offer something for the chimpanzees and the humans who love them to look forward to and cherish.

Just the other morning it was lovely and cool which inspired the zooms in Foxie. I watched her and Burrito zip past as she chased Burrito up the hill of their outdoor habitat, him stopping here and there to wait and clap at her, meaning “hurry up!” This is something I typically only see him do when he wants his caregivers to race him around the hill, so it was pretty endearing. Especially given that the zooms are beginning to look a little different than they used to for some of our older chimpanzee friends, but no less spirit-filled. Perhaps even more so.

Despite having our warmest forecast yet for this first week of September ahead, as far as eastern Washington summers go, this one has been on the “mild” side given what’s possible. And as September tends to be one of our best months weather-wise, we are looking forward to all the celebrations it brings with it. So here we go:

Annie was born in 1974 and we’ll be celebrating her 51st birthday on September 10th!:

Quintessential Annie: walking around her outdoor habitat bi-pedally:

And of course, it’s hard to imagine Annie without Missy:

Beautiful and independent Meredith is turning 10 on September 23rd!:

Meredith with her mama, Honey (left):

And Mave is turning 36 on September 25th!

Mave (and Dora’s foot 🙂 ):

Mora (Mave+Dora):

With the arrival of sweet George, we’ve been so happy to welcome many new followers! And some of you might be wondering why, as you’ll see below, the monthly celebration posts include birthdays of the children of the chimpanzee mamas here at CSNW.

Of the original group of seven chimpanzees to arrive here in 2008, Annie, Foxie, Jody, Missy, and Negra gave birth to multiple babies during their thirty years in biomedical research. Chimpanzee mothers were typically anesthetized within hours or days of giving birth in order to take their babies, who would then be hand-raised by humans in the lab nurseries until they were old enough to be placed in research themselves. Breeding in labs was common practice and how chimpanzee populations were maintained for decades of use in research protocols.

Invasive testing on chimpanzees effectively ended in the United States in 2015 when the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) proposed they would end the split-listing of chimpanzees under the Endangered Species Act, changing the classification of captive chimpanzees from “threatened” to “endangered” to match that of chimpanzees in the wild. This same year the National Institute of Health (NIH) announced they would phase out research on federally owned chimpanzees following the 2011 recommendations from the Institute of Medicine (IMO) which determined after an in-depth study that the use of chimpanzees in biomedical research was no longer “necessary”.

It’s a devastating, heartbreaking history we cannot change. And by now you might be thinking, “Who wants to hear about this nightmare in a blog about celebrations?!” But knowing of the thousands of chimpanzees who endured biomedical research and reading the long lists of those named and their children (sometimes identified only by a number), it’s incredible to know that Annie, Foxie, Jody, Missy, and Negra’s still living children are all safe and cared for in accredited sanctuaries. This wasn’t the outcome for all of their children (or for the majority of chimpanzees who were in biomedical research). Knowing that and being able to follow a glimpse of their lives now is a profound gift worthy of celebration. It’s one small way we can honor their histories, their ancestry, and their connections that are no less real despite having been separated from one another. And it gives us the opportunity to celebrate our fellow accredited sanctuaries, caregivers, and donors who make their lives in their own sanctuary families possible.

While we all wish the chimpanzees’ lives had been different, we are so grateful for the lives they have now, in no small part because of you. And in the eyes and bodies and mannerisms of their beautiful sons and daughters, we delight in seeing glimpses of their mothers they carry with them, their mothers who we cherish so.

Negra’s daughter, Angel, who lives at Save the Chimps sanctuary in Florida, is turning 40 on September 4th (all respective photos courtesy of Save the Chimps):

Negra:

Annie’s daughter, Mariah, shares a birthday month with her mama and is turning 34 on September 19th:

Annie:

Jody’s daughter, Andrea (the 2nd), is turning 35 on September 30th:

Our profoundly missed Jody:

In other September news, early giving for Giving Day for Apes begins on September 16th and leads up to a live 24-hour day of giving on October 7th, with competitions and the chance for each sanctuary to win additional monetary prizes. The goal of this annual day of giving is to raise awareness and funds for participating sanctuaries in Africa, Asia, and North America in support of the apes in their care!

And autumn, wondrous, beloved autumn, arrives on September 22nd! (Which of course also means the season of “Jamieween”! If you’re new here, Halloween is boss babe, Jamie’s, birthday and one of the biggest parties of the year! Personally, I can’t wait to see what George thinks of this one! 🙂 ).

Annie lounging on a beautiful autumn day:

Jamie!

And another busy season of summer visits for our donors wraps up the last weekend of the month! Though we aren’t open to the public, we truly enjoy getting to welcome so many of our donors for these limited visits so they can get a glimpse of the chimpanzees (if the chimpanzees choose to give them a glimpse!) and of all they help make possible in the chimpanzees’ and cows’ lives. If this is something you are interested in attending next year as an existing donor, registration dates become available in early spring and fill up quickly, so make a note to keep an eye on this page for more information.

Missy foraging on Young’s Hill:

And right around the corner into October is HOOT! 2025 on October 3rd! You can join us for the celebration in-person in Seattle or online! For tickets to the in-person event, to RSVP to the live online event (it’s free!), for more information, or if you’re unable to attend, but would like to support the sanctuary with a contribution, PLEASE CLICK HERE!

As always, we appreciate you so much for being here for the chimpanzees and cows! And all of us humans, as well!

George’s Progress

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George has now been at CSNW for 3-1/2 months and he is finally in the thick of the dyadic introduction process, which means he is having one-on-one meetings with his potential group mates in controlled settings.

So far, George has done best when meeting other guys. He has now cruised through multiple intros with Cy, Terry, and Gordo. He’s engaged in lots of playful roughhousing, a few bouts of grooming, and some of the cutest hand-holding you’ve ever seen. More importantly, he has shown that he can adjust his own behavior to meet the needs of the chimps he is with. For example, if another chimp is too nervous to roughhouse, he will give them space and exaggerate his play signals to put them at ease. When Terry became overwhelmed with anxiety during an intro, George sat patiently in the middle of the room and beckoned Terry to come back, all the while nodding his head to provide reassurance. The amount of self-control he exhibits and his attention to the emotional state other chimps are both remarkable given his social history.

George ingratiating himself with the alpha male, Cy.

His meetings with the girls have been hit or miss. He’s had several great meetings with Rayne, but also a couple of minor conflicts that led to brief bouts of screaming and chasing, with a few slaps thrown in for good measure. The first may have just been the result of George not knowing that some females actually stand up for themselves in the face of typical male intimidation (you’re in Rayne’s world now, George!). The second was almost certainly a misunderstanding during play. Thankfully, neither of them were hurt in these encounters (outside of George’s pride, perhaps) but subsequent meetings have been a little more tense. Dora has only met George at the mesh and the intro didn’t proceed any further than that at the time due to Dora’s reluctance. We decided to have George meet Mave as an “easy” female intro, and it was—until Mave got a little personal with her grooming and George panicked. It was the typical Why are you screaming? Because you’re screaming! You started it! I thought you did!

Rayne introducing George to his new boss.

None of this is all that unusual or unexpected, even for chimps with lots of social experience. But one important skill that George hasn’t demonstrated yet is the ability to reconcile. Chimps have conflicts all the time but they go to great lengths to quickly repair any damage to their relationships and move on. When the girls have attempted to reconcile, George has given them the cold shoulder. That’s not going to cut it.

But he’s showing himself to be a quick learner and he’s got plenty of time. While we’re all eager for George to join a group, it’s more important that he has some time to test out and hopefully improve his social skills in one-on-one settings. George may be in good with the guys, but when he joins the group and the girls get mad at him—which they inevitably will—some of those boys will immediately remember which team they are really on (hint: it won’t be the one with the new guy).

With these new relationships being as critical as they are, we’re also hopeful that George will become more comfortable grooming. The other chimps are eager to groom him and he does accept, but with all the enthusiasm of a hostage (though I swear he was asking Gordo to groom him at one point this afternoon). He has only briefly groomed other chimps, even with Terry lifting and manipulating his hand to get him started. Grooming is currency in the chimp world. George does show interest in grooming humans, so hopefully he’ll start showing that same interest in his chimp friends soon enough.

Relax, George!

One area where George has really surpassed our expectations is the speed at which he adapted to the outdoors. Some chimps take years to become comfortable walking on grass or venturing far away from the indoor spaces that tend to feel safer and more familiar. But George walked straight to the top of the Bray on Day 1 and he has only become more comfortable since. He has yet to climb the towers at the very top, but it’s only a matter of time now. While I know that many people are eager for George to be joined by a friend or two on his Bray adventures, we’d like for his play dates to be a little more predictably uneventful before sending them off into the habitat together.

Three and a half months may seem like a long time, but just imagine the world from his perspective—the changes he’s endured, the fears he’s had to overcome, and the amount that he’s had to learn. It must be overwhelming. Thankfully, he’s off to a great start.