Anna

Pear-adise

February 11, 2021 by Anna

As the snow falls outside, the staff are continuing our PRT Zoom training from our respective office spaces and the chimpanzees are snuggled into their nests. Please enjoy these photos of Negra and her breakfast pears as my submission for “quick blog of the day.”

Staff training

February 4, 2021 by Anna

Today (like last Tuesday), the staff are Zoom training to sharpen our skills in positive reinforcement training (PRT) so blogging will be quick! In the meantime, take a look back at some of the posts we’ve done in the past about our ongoing training program.

Our first blog post about our program comes all the way back from May of 2015.

Next comes a post just a short time later from former staff caregiver Debbie about Negra’s PRT progress

And here’s an August 2015 update a November 2015 update and a November 2016 update

And another Negra update from October 2017

Here’s Jamie in January of 2018

Here you can see Negra’s progress from September of 2018

We’ve also been working with the Californians

Most recently, the concern of COVID-19 has made taking temperatures a priority.

Stay tuned as we get to share more progress with you in the coming months!

We’re hiring! Part 2: Looking for that special Vet Tech!

January 28, 2021 by Anna

In my blog last week I had the pleasure to announce that we are hiring 2 more staff members to join our team this spring! In case you missed it, here is a link to the Full-Time Chimpanzee Caregiver position description. Along with the caregiver position, we are also looking for someone that can take on a unique role at the sanctuary. We are looking for a Vet Tech that also wants to be a chimpanzee caregiver!

In addition to the the extensive job duties of “caregiver,” the current staff at the sanctuary each take on different roles within our organization. Our individualized roles are determined based on prior experience and current sanctuary needs (long time blog followers might notice that some staff roles have changed over the years). Veterinary technician skills are something we are looking for to enhance our team and assist our amazing veterinarian Dr. Zamzow, particularly in emergency medical procedures.

Help us spread the word about this exciting new opportunity!

We’re hiring!

January 21, 2021 by Anna

This spring we get to do something special, we get to hire 2 new employees to join our team! It’s extremely rare we get to actually create new positions, but as you might know, we are expanding our world to make more room for Honey B, Willy B and Mave and provide a new home for Cy, Lucky, Rayne, Terry, Dora, and Gordo! An additional group of chimpanzees living at the sanctuary means we need more staff to help provide the excellent level of care we strive to achieve. An added bonus for blog readers is that you’ll get to read stories from new blog authors and hear about the sanctuary from their unique perspectives.

Our first position we get to advertise for is for a Full-Time Chimpanzee Caregiver.

Feel free to help spread the word about this opportunity and stay tuned for our second job posting. We will also be advertising in the near future for a Full-Time Vet Tech/Caregiver position (job description coming soon). Looking forward to all the new exciting changes this year has in store for us!

A happy little video for your Thursday afternoon!

January 14, 2021 by Anna

Chimpanzees playing- as far as the eye can see!

Ordinary

January 7, 2021 by Anna

Today was just an ordinary day at the sanctuary. Considering the chaos in the world right now, “ordinary” seems like a VERY good thing to be experiencing. Let’s all take a short break and drink in a little bit of that sweet sweet “ordinary.”

Simple, ordinary moments like…

Missy building a nest in the greenhouse:

Mave (right) grooming Willy B (left):

Willy B looking handsome:

Mave coming along to interrupt my Willy B photo shoot:

And turning it into a Mave photo shoot:

This raffle ticket nest I found in the playroom:

And just a peek at our new (coming soon) normal. Here you can see Honey B playing chase with Anthony in the window. The photo is backlit because we have electricity in phase 2 now (!!!) and you can see the staircase going up to a loft in one of her new (coming soon) playrooms!!