Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Anna

The Great Potato Pilferer

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This afternoon we put out a lunch forage and everyone quietly and calmly collected their own meals. Missy gathered a large cache of potatoes and headed bipedally back to the greenhouse.

Here’s a poor photo of her forage efforts so you get the idea:

Once she made it back to the greenhouse, she sat down to leisurely finish her lunch:

Meanwhile, Negra went directly to “Negra’s Cabin” and sat down to collect the primate chow we had scattered in there before heading back inside with a big mouthful:

Look out Missy! The Queen charges an income tax.

Missy is a loyal subject and knows when to step aside, no drama necessary. Negra knows an easy “forage” opportunity when she sees one.

Her Royal Highness and her potato plunder:

Another Employment Opportunity!

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As I blogged about a few weeks ago, we are still hiring for a Full-Time Medical-Veterinary Assistant/Chimpanzee Caregiver, but today I get the pleasure to announce we are also looking to hire for a Full Time Chimpanzee Caregiver Position!  This is an exciting job posting for me to talk about since it doesn’t include any existing staff members exiting our team and will help us fill in a few scheduling gaps so we can keep giving the chimpanzees and cattle the best possible care they deserve (while also giving our hard working staff the support they deserve). Please check out both job postings on our website and feel free to share!

Here’s some photos of our sanctuary boss, Jamie Chimpanzee:

Bray all Day and a Special Guest

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As Kelsi blogged yesterday, we are finally comfortable with giving both groups of chimpanzees access to their respective outdoor enclosures at the same time! Today we gave both groups access to Young’s Hill and The Bray first thing in the morning and things couldn’t be calmer out there.

Gordo and Rayne even chose to eat breakfast outside:

 

In other news, the chimps received a special guest visitor today. Former staff caregiver Sam is in town to visit some of her favorite people (human and non-human)!

Just a quick reminder! We’re still hiring. Check out our website for more details about the Full-Time Medical-Veterinary Assistant/Chimpanzee Caregiver position and don’t forget to share the post with your friends!

 

Changes and an Employment Opportunity

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First the not so good news from the sanctuary… Sofía has plans this summer to relocate to the east coast and continue her vet tech career closer to family. We wish her luck with the next chapter in her life and thank her for all her hard work and dedication to the cattle and chimpanzees’ health and well-being over the last several years. We are all so grateful! I will let her write her own goodbye on the blog in the next couple of weeks.

With Sofía’s departure, we have a specialized job vacancy on our staff. We are now currently hiring for a Full-Time Medical-Veterinary Assistant/Chimpanzee Caregiver. Please share the job posting on our website far and wide so we can find that certain person who wants to work as a chimpanzee/cattle caregiver, but also has medical experience to contribute to their healthcare.

Here are some photos of Sofía in action over the years!

 

 

Forgiveness

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Just like humans, chimpanzee interpersonal relationships are complicated.  Chimpanzees laugh, play, grieve and generally display all the same emotions that we do. They also fight. Watching a chimpanzee fight can be extremely scary to an onlooker and in my opinion, is one of the least enviable aspects of having to be a chimpanzee.  This morning Jamie’s group got into a small fight after reentering the playroom when we finished cleaning (don’t worry, no one was hurt). During the conflict, Jamie and Burrito seemed to be targeting Foxie in particular with their wrath. Jamie would scream and Burrito would chase Foxie, then Foxie would scream at the top of her very considerable register and run away.  Rinse and repeat.  As you might imagine, it was hard to watch but things died down relatively quickly and we humans continued the cleaning process.

This leads me to one of the most enviable parts of being a chimpanzee… Approximately thirty minutes after the dramatic screaming match, I wondered out to the greenhouse and found Foxie and Burrito calmly grooming on a platform like nothing had happened. Their ability to forgive each other, make amends, strengthen their bond and move forward with their day is truly breathtaking.

 

National Best Friends Day

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Chad informed me that it is National Best Friends Day today. What better day than today to highlight some of the best friend pairs around here at the sanctuary!

Jenna took this photo of  Mave and Dora yesterday. I hope we are all so lucky to have a BFF that looks at us the way Mave looks at Dora.

Here are some other highlights of “Mora” from the last several years. You might notice a lot of hand holding and hugs from those 2.

 

On the other side of the building, I obviously have to highlight the other 2 famous BFFs of the group, Annie and Missy!

While Mave and Dora are more so a lounging and hand holding pair, Annie and Missy are often spotted adventuring and playing together.

 

Of course, they get plenty of down time together where grooming is the main event:

Wishing everyone a happy National Best Friends Day – make sure to call that special someone(s) and tell them how much they mean to you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you NAPSA!

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Last week Kelsi, myself, JB and Diana got the extraordinary opportunity to travel to Atlanta, Georgia where the North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance (NAPSA) was hosting its 2023 workshop. Volunteer Patti also joined in on the event! Please forgive me as I failed to take any of my own photos. Eventually NAPSA should be releasing more photos of the event on their social media pages.

It’s been 5 years since the last in-person conference so we were very excited to network with fellow sanctuary people once again. While the rest of our hard working staff kept things running smoothly back home, we learned more about such topics as compassion fatigue in care staff, veterinary care, enrichment, and group introductions (to name only a few).

We finished up our trip with a visit to a fellow NAPSA member sanctuary Project Chimps. It was fascinating to see a larger sanctuary in action and get to see some of our former interns who have graduated and are now pursuing their own caregiving careers at Project Chimps.

A huge thanks to NAPSA program director Erika Fleury for organizing the conference, Project Chimps for hosting our visit, the various sponsors of the event and all of our supporters for making these types of educational opportunities a possibility for our staff.