I do not jest
Jody loves to nest
For chimpanzees a nest is a bed
A place to put a heavy head
It’s a joy everyday to create a spot to lay
with blankets,
paper,
or hay
Sanctuary for Jody is the best rest
It’s a literal nest fest
Christmas in July!
Help Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest by donating items from our Christmas in July wish list
The past few months have been full of parties, as we celebrated Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest’s five-year anniversary, Negra’s 40th birthday, Independence Day and the announcements by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Institutes of Health. Plus the Roslyn Olympics celebrating Foxie and her love of troll dolls is just two days away (check out the new Facebook page)! With so many festive parties, it almost feels like the holiday season, so we’ve decided to celebrate Christmas in July!
The CSNW team sure knows how to stretch a dollar. We want to give the chimpanzees the best, and sometimes that means living with less than ideal things for ourselves. However, we are at a point where we need some items replaced so that we can operate as efficiently and effectively as possible. Take a look at our Christmas in July wish list that the whole staff put together, and consider making our day by selecting a present to donate. With your gifts we will be able to…
Organize the kitchen in the chimp house and office in the caregiver house:
Replace our humble office chairs:
Power clean the chimp house:
And, of course, we have some items for the chimps on the wish list too…
Thank you all for your continued support. We are looking forward to our newly stocked and organized office and chimp house and we look forward to sharing before and after photos with you!
What to do with a frozen towel
Debbie and I found some frozen towels in the freezer today. It seemed like enrichment right up Missy’s alley:
Jamie also enjoyed them:
Burrito’s Rain Display
As the video at the end of this post says, free-living chimpanzees in Africa sometimes perform rain displays. Jane Goodall and Bill Wallauer (two heros of mine) have witnessed these displays at Gombe National Park in Tanzania. We don’t get a lot of dramatic rainstorms here in Cle Elum, but today was an exception. The storm began with a clap of thunder. Based on what Bill Wallauer has written about the displays he’s witnessed, perhaps the initial thunder is what inspired Burrito’s display today.
It made me happy to watch Burrito’s “dance” and to think about how he is still connected in some ways to his long-lost family of the forest.
It also reminded me of the article that Joseph D’Agnese wrote for Discover Magazine more than a decade ago called An Embarrassment of Chimps. That article helped to connect many chimpanzee and human people. J.B. and I were working at the Fauna Foundation when it was written, and it inspired Keith to build Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest.
So, I guess today is about connection – to nature, to those who influence us, and to all the circumstances that bring us together.
Olympic Games, New Products, and an Evening Stroll
This is a blog post full of information! Today is the beginning of a heat wave in our area, and we decided to keep things open longer tonight so the chimps could enjoy the cooling-off period of the evening. Most of the chimpanzees followed their normal routine and went to bed after dinner, but Jamie and Missy took advantage of the extra time on the hill. I just got back from my second evening walk around the hill with Jamie. Missy joined us for the first one.
Hey – did you know that the The Roslyn Olympics are only three weeks away!? If you are within a 3-hour radius of Roslyn, WA, you need to attend this event. It’s a combination of the Troll Olympics and ARRF Animal Rescue‘s Doggie Olympics – it really is fun for the whole family. In fact, it might the highlight of your summer. This year, you could even win a visit to the sanctuary following the games! The video below explains what the Roslyn Games are all about:
The other news of the day is that we have some new stuff in our merchandise store! We just got some brand-new items from Hydro Flask – water bottles and travel mugs / thermoses with flip-top lids.
I am getting ready for the Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest booth at Seattle’s PrideFest on Sunday and have been making some special love buttons, so I thought I’d add those to the store too!
I hope everyone has a great weekend! Don’t forget to RSVP for the Roslyn Olympics and buy some stuff in our store – it helps the chimps!
Big Step
A big step forward for chimpanzees today. The NIH has decided to accept most of the Institute of Medicine’s recommendations proposed in January that include the retirement of the vast majority of chimpanzees supported by the federal government. Read the NIH press release here and the full report here.
It is unfortunate that the NIH plans to hold fifty chimpanzees for possible continued research, as recommended by the IOM. We don’t see fifty as a generic number – we know that each of those fifty chimpanzees is an individual who should live out the rest of their life in sanctuary, but, overall, today represents a leap forward for chimpanzees. There will be no immediate breeding within that group of fifty and the NIH will revisit whether they believe it’s necessary to maintain that group in five years. The NIH also did not accept the recommendation to provide 1,000 square of space per chimp for those chimpanzees who do remain in research – the NIH will be gathering more information on that recommendation.
Jody and the wild plants of Young’s Hill
Jody has really been enjoying “hunting” for wild plants on Young’s Hill. She’s not hesitant to pick the biggest ones she can find. Today, Elizabeth got some great photos of Jody solving the problem of how to carry a big plant back down the hill to enjoy in the greenhouse.
