Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Diana

Green Day Tickets and Resident Rock Stars

by

I just sent out an e-newsletter with the exciting announcement of an early Out of the Box auction item available for bidding right now – four exclusive tickets to the April 16th Green Day show in Berkeley, CA plus VIP after-show passes with a meet and greet with band members!

Big, big thanks to Adrienne and Billie Joe Armstrong for this awesome donation to kick off the auction, which is just a month away! AND for the awesome donation of a guitar signed by Green Day band members, which is featured in our online auction. Bidding for that and all other online items opens May 4th- mark your calendars! And buy your tickets for the Seattle gala today.

In honor of Green Day, here’s a photo of rock star Jamie with her purple ukulele:

web jamie play ukulele greenhouse IMG_9637

 

And in honor of Billie Joe specifically, who is a Burrito fan, here is Burrito in one of my favorite photos of all time – personally, I think Burrito should be on the cover Rolling Stone:

small ed Burrito arms crossed outdoor area IMG_1880

 

Peace

by

As J.B. mentioned yesterday in his post, we often remind ourselves that the chimps are experiencing even the simplest aspects of life for the first time at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest.

It doesn’t make up for all the years she lost, but after almost five years at the sanctuary, Negra has experienced the peace of a good nap in a safe place with a blanket over her head for approximately 1,730 days. Every time I see her enjoying this peace, it makes me as happy as the first day she arrived and she “wore” her blanket.

 

negra under red blanket 1

negra under red blanket close up

negra under red blanket 2

negra under red blanket close up 2

negra under red blanket close up 2

 

Negra on her own in the cabin

by

There are very few jobs that provide as much fulfillment as working for Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. It’s not a stress-free occupation, and there are some heavy issues that we deal with every day, but watching the chimpanzees settle into themselves and their lives at the sanctuary is the most rewarding work I’ve ever done. For me, a lot of that reward and the motivation to get through the stress comes from Negra.

It’s too simple to just say that I love her. I am devoted to her. Each new step she takes fills my heart even more. I mentioned this in my reflections for our 3rd Anniversary blog post, which is fun to read and hard to believe that was almost two years ago! I hope that Negra will be with us for many more years, but you never know what the future will bring. Each moment with her, and with all of the chimpanzees, is precious.

This morning was no exception. Volunteer Connie put out some lettuce on Young’s Hill and served the rest of breakfast in the greenhouse. Once Negra discovered the lettuce (one of her favorite foods) outside, she sat herself down in her cabin and enjoyed the warmth and comfort of the cabin that we named for her while all of the other chimpanzees were in the greenhouse. I didn’t want to get too close with the camera because Negra is at times weary of people taking photos when she’s on the hill, but I did take a few photos from a distance. I hope the photos make you as happy as seeing her out there made me.

Negra in cabin long view

Negra sitting in cabin with lettuce

full mouths, happy bellies

by

We’ve been taken every opportunity with the not-bad weather to spread food over Young’s Hill so the chimpanzees can forage for their meals. They LOVE forages, and it’s nice to see them doing a little bit of what they would do if they lived in the wild. Of course, free-living chimpanzees rely on the bounty of nature to provide their meals. At the sanctuary, the Cle Elum Seven rely on the humans to provide their food. Their food squeaks and full mouths are an indication that we’re doing an okay job.

This morning we spread out a breakfast forage of strawberries, grapefruit, and chow biscuits.

Here’s Jamie collecting strawberries:

jamie foraging

 

Burrito eating some grapefruit while on the move to find more:

burrito foraging

 

Annie and Jamie checking the shakey bridge for food:

annie jamie shaky bridge

 

Missy found the stash in the cabin:

missy eating in cabin

 

Annie put an impossible number of chow biscuits in her mouth, then attempted to also eat strawberries:

annie eating profile

annie full mouth

annie eating strawberry

annie full mouth missy behind

 

Relationship Status: It’s Complicated

by

Jamie and Burrito have a complicated relationship. Burrito is the man of the group, but Jamie is the boss. She often treats him like an annoying little brother. Sometimes she takes his food.

Early on, I’d say for the first year the Cle Elum Seven were at the sanctuary, Jamie would use Burrito during fights – I like to describe this and Jamie using Burrito as a henchman – Burrito would be all worked up and displaying, intimidating everyone, and Jamie would follow him as though she was saying to the rest of the group, “better watch out, he’s under my control.” But Burrito has wised up since then and tends to stay out of the fray more these days.

Though Jamie and Burrito do groom each other, they don’t really play together, and I wouldn’t describe them as friends (“frenemies” might be an appropriate term to use). This seems very personal to bring up, but we do get asked about it a lot, so here goes – I did see Burrito and Jamie in an intimate encounter once. Only once. And it was a long time ago. In fact, it is one of the only times we’ve seen that type of encounter between the chimps. It could be that Burrito just doesn’t see the ladies that way, or it could be that, like many captive chimpanzees, he is not sure what to do.

This fall, much to our surprise, these two frenemies would sometimes patrol the perimeter of Young’s Hill together (as seen at the end of this video). Maybe their relationship is evolving.

Today the sun was streaming into the windows upstairs  and all seven chimps were on the catwalk. Burrito and Jamie sat next to each other:

jamie and burrito sit on the catwalk

Jamie and Burrito sit on the catwalk 2

Negra in her cabin!

by

I took some photos last night and had a whole blog post about night bags ruminating in my head, but then, today, this happened…

negra sit in cabinNegra finally spent some time in Negra’s Cabin!

The thinking behind the cabin that you helped us build through our 4th anniversary fundraising, was that the chimps, particularly fair-weather-loving Negra, needed a spot on the hill where they would be protected from the wind and rain, which we had both of today.

Here’s the full story of Negra’s big venture to her cabin –

Now that the snow is gone and we’ve had some warmer days, Negra has been spending a bit of her time on the hill, especially when we spread food around for the chimps to find. Below is a photo from last night of Negra heading back towards the greenhouse after gathering some sweet potato:

Negra sweet potato in mouth

Generally, Negra’s been going out long enough to gather food, then coming back inside, but today was a little different.

The weather has been weird today. One minute sunny and warm, the next windy and overcast, and the next sleeting. There was a window of good weather around the chimps’ lunchtime, so we decided to set up a forage on the hill. We’re defrosting the freezer today, so J.B. took a hammer to some frozen watermelon that had been in the freezer for who knows how long and we included that in the lunch forage.

Jody went for the frozen watermelon in the cabin, and took her stash away as Negra approached:

Negra approaching cabin

Negra approaching Jody in cabin

Negra displacing Jody in cabin

Once in the cabin, Negra actually just sat for a while. I think and hope that she was realizing how great it is in there!

Negra in cabin 1

Negra in cabin profile

negra sit in cabin

Jody got all of the watermelon from the cabin, but there was still some other food that Negra found:

Negra reaching for food in cabin

Negra eating tomato in cabin

Hopefully this is the first day of many that Negra will enjoy the warmth and protection of her cabin.