Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Diana

Christmas in July!

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Today, you, dear blog readers, are invited to our silent opening of Christmas in July! We will be revealing more about this in the coming days. The secret preview for you is this: we want to add to and then empty our wish lists by the end of this month!

We are partnering with a local business, Jerrol’s, for some of this, which you will learn more about soon.

For today, for your first peek at some of the things we hope to get, please see our Amazon wish list. Our newly appointed enrichment coordinator Ellen has been busy thinking of some fun and creative enrichment items and puzzles for the chimpanzees, so you’ll see a lot of new items that have just been added today!

Let’s see how many items we can get during this silent opening!

Shhh – I mean, tell everyone!

More soon.

In the meantime, please enjoy these delightful photos that Kelsi captured today:

Negra having a private breakfast while her friends look for a snake on Young’s Hill:

Missy eating an orange series:

Burrito being Burrito 🙂

Sweet Annie:

World Chimpanzee Day 2024 Celebration

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Happy World Chimpanzee Day. I’m so glad there is a day to think about and celebrate our closest living relative, and it’s so fitting that July 14th is the anniversary of when Jane Goodall arrived to what was to become Gombe. Dr. Goodall has changed the world for chimpanzees, and has made millions of people aware of how extraordinary they are as a species and as individuals. We are all part of her legacy of scientific discovery and advocacy.

Enrichment is Fun

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If you are watching with sound, you can hear that I was unable to contain my laughter at one point. Nevertheless, I attempted to frame Burrito’s silliness in the most educational way possible ;). Thanks to Krissy for the brand new Jolly Ball that she made sure Burrito had today!

We stuffed cabbage and a few nuts in each of those red ball puzzles.

Please learn more about our enrichment by perusing the Enrichment Database!

 

Phantom Nesting and Coconut Cracking

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I hope you enjoy the video above and think about the different ways that primates (including human primates) learn.

I was searching for other blog posts where we talked about phantom nesting and found this video from way back in 2010 that shows Burrito and Foxie phantom nesting. It goes with this blog post, which includes some interesting comments. Anecdotally, I’ve talked with a caregivers at another sanctuary who said that they see phantom nesting mostly in chimpanzees who came from the same laboratory where Foxie was born.

I find the phantom nesting fascinating, but also incredibly sad, so I thought I’d lighten the mood a bit with the coconut cracking.

Speaking of lightening the mood, one reason this blog post is a bit tardy is because I was tuned into the end of the Sweet 16 Online Auction. There were so many items in Bid Wars! To add to the excitement, there was an anonymous donor who put us well over our goal with a super generous donation to “top things off” as she said.

I am so grateful for all of the incredibly talented artists who donated items for this auction and to everyone who participated in the auction by bidding and donating. Big congratulations to the winners. I’ll be in touch about getting your art to you!!

Send Love to the Caregivers

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Today is Animal Sanctuary Caregiver Day, a day co-founded by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS) & the North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance (NAPSA), as a way to celebrate and recognize the contributions of animal caregivers to the sanctuary field.

You know how amazing the staff and volunteer caregivers are at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. You know they are some of the most big-hearted, hard working people out there. They take their jobs seriously and put everything  into providing for the chimpanzees and bovines.

Their hard work and the results of that work are shared every day through this blog for you to get a glimpse into what sanctuary life is all about.

For this year’s Animal Sanctuary Caregiver Day, I once again invite you to share your thoughts about the staff and volunteer caregivers and the work they do in the comments. Let’s hear it for the caregivers!

staff caregiver Katelyn with Foxie
staff caregiver Anna preparing morning medication for the chimps
staff caregiver Kelsi placing a lunch forage up high on Young’s Hill
staff caregiver Chad playing with Burrito
staff caregiver Grace helping with Terry’s tooth extraction in the clinic
staff caregiver Jenna kissing Lucky through a window
staff caregivers Sabrina and Krissy serving Jamie’s group together
staff caregiver Ellen loving on Meredith
volunteer caregiver and occasional fill-in staff caregiver Dusty wrapping presents for the chimps

And a huge shout-out to all of the volunteers, who play various important caregiving roles. If you are interested in volunteering, visit our volunteer page!

P.S. The Sweet 16 Online Auction features a painting, Spring Rayne, by staff caregiver Ellen! Bid on it to celebrate all caregivers and the many talents they bring to our world!

In honor of the graduating primate students!

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April Binder sponsored today’s day of sanctuary with this message: “Congrats to all 2024 graduates of CWU primate behavior programs – BS and MS!”

Central Washington University and the primate program play a special role here at the sanctuary. Several staff members, past and present (present company included), got our start in this field at CWU. Co-Director J.B. went full circle and is now an adjunct professor, teaching Anthropology 201. And we’ve had dozens of amazing primate behavior students as interns here at the sanctuary, including this year!

So, we wholeheartedly join April in congratulating the students who are graduating today!