Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Diana

Negra out and about on her birthday + the 7th anniversary celebration

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Below is a video of the elusive Negra, who was very active on her honorary 42nd birthday! All seven chimpanzees were in terrific moods and very busy all day. There are a few photos below the video.

Negra wasn’t the only one who enjoyed the surprise breakfast night bags. Burrito savored his too:

Burrito eating breakfast night bag

Thanks to supporters who sent party supplies, today’s celebration featured many piñatas.

If you attended our recent successful HOOT! fundraiser, you will recognize this piñata, which Annie is looting:

Annie treasure chest piñata

Jody scored the dog piñata:

Jody with dog piñata

And Jamie (not surprisingly) got her hands on more than one piñata, then decided to take them into the front rooms:

Jamie with pinata 3

Jamie with pinata 2

Jamie with pinata 1

Foxie had her favorite France Dora with her for most of the day:

Foxie with France Dora

 

Until we gave her a new, more compact Dora that was left at the gate by some anonymous donor with some other fun new gifts:

 

Foxie with little Dora

To set up the lunch forage, volunteer Lynn climbed the new tall towers to hide food there. Jody and Missy were the first to partake:

Jody and Missy climbing

Though we haven’t yet seen Negra climb the new structure, she surprised us by climbing another platform today to get some lettuce:

Negra climbing

Negra on top of platform

And then we only caught glimpses of her this afternoon as she confidently explored the hill:

Negra walking in the tall grass

Proving, once again, that the Cle Elum Seven chimpanzees have been aging in reverse for the last seven years. Thank you to everyone who has helped to make this possible!!!!!

taking care of each other

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Today Annie and Missy spent a good part of the hot afternoon grooming each other in the greenhouse.

Notice in the photo below that Missy is grooming her own arm with a twig while Annie grooms her head. Classic Missy.

Annie grooming Missy's head

 

Missy had a bit of an injury to her left eye (nothing serious), so Annie was very interested in that, but she took her time working her way around to grooming that spot:

Missy and Annie grooming close-up

 

Once she got there, she didn’t hold back:

Annie grooming Missy's eye

 

Annie grooming Missy's eye close-up

 

It turns out that Annie had a bit of an injury on the back of her left year, which I noticed because Missy noticed it. In this photo and in the one above when Annie starts grooming Missy’s eye, both chimpanzees have a relaxed face with slightly parted lips – a sign of concentration.

Missy grooming Annie's ear

 

Though injuries and even old scabs are really interesting, there’s always different areas to check out – here’s Annie removing something that was stuck to the hair on Missy’s arm:

Annie grooming Missy's arm

 

Who needs a spa when you have such fastidious friends?

Annie grooming Missy's head close-up

 

Chimpanzee Problem Solving

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This is the story of Jody and the sheet. Jody was quite determined to untie this sheet from the fire hose and bring it in with her to make her evening nest.

It appeared to be an easy task at first – she quickly untied one end, but the second end proved more difficult because it was just a bit out of reach. She tried to climb the hose and untie the sheet at the same time, but, even with opposable toes, this did not work out.

She came up with a pretty brilliant solution.

Jody is not known for her athletic skills or her desire to solve puzzles, but when she wants something, she is one determined lady. It goes right along with our most recent e-news article about chimpanzee minds and bodies at work.

I think my favorite photo is #19. What’s yours?

Today is in memory of Toby

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Today’s day of sanctuary was sponsored by the Wagmans in honor of a special dog person named Toby.

Tobias Zacharias Wolfe, adopted from a shelter in Los Angeles, blessed the life of CSNW’s former executive director Sarah Baeckler and her human family for several years.

As is often the case with rescued animals, he was both rescuee and rescuer to Sarah, providing joy and love with every wag of his tail and doggie kiss. He was independent and self-assured – not afraid to stand up to much bigger dogs who got out of line, and affectionate to those he cared for in that way that meant everything to the humans lucky enough to know him.

You all, as animal friends, know how difficult it is to lose the non-humans that find their way into our lives and make themselves a home in our hearts, as Toby did with Sarah and her family.

Having a day of sanctuary for the chimpanzees who have also made a home in Sarah’s heart is a great tribute to a special pup.

Toby

 

Hugs to you, Sarah and family, in your time of loss.

Jamie hug stuffed animal

 

Who’s There?

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We had a group of students visit today from The Northwest School, and the chimpanzees were very curious about them.

It was our first group visit at the observation area this year, and the weather was beautiful! Just like our summer visits, a staff member (J.B. today) gave a presentation first in the barn, providing information about the history of the sanctuary and chimpanzees in general, including the use of chimpanzees in the pet, entertainment, and biomedical industries.

Once the group came to the observation area, Jamie, being Jamie, was outside in a flash and spent some time checking out everyone’s footwear.

Negra, on the other hand, held back for a bit. Sometimes it seems that Negra avoids visitors, but today she went out on the hill, ignoring the forage at first, and just calmly checked out the visitors from a distance.

Negra looking at visitors

 

Negra looking at visitors 2

 

Negra sitting arms crossed

 

Satisfied, she then went about her business looking for lunch forage scraps

Negra walking

 

Negra climbing over log

In addition to providing an educational opportunity for supporters of the sanctuary, it’s our goal for our limited visitor program to add something new and interesting for the chimpanzees in a way that they do not feel at all threatened, so it was great to see Negra react with such calm curiosity today.

 

Burrito was curious when the group was loading back on the bus, after he had his fill of the forage. He chose to watch their departure from the greenhouse, where he could see them but they couldn’t see him:

Burrito looking at visitors leaving

Another sign of Spring

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J.B. mentioned last week that the real first day of Spring at the sancutary is Negra emerging from the cozy indoors onto Young’s Hill. Well, Missy has her own way of indicating that it’s Spring.

Missy can be a pit preoccupied with having what we call the “barn doors” open – even during the winter months. The barn doors are the two wooden doors that cover the steel doors that open up to the playroom from the outside.

barn doors

We keep them closed during cold weather, but sometimes Missy will still ask for them to be open even when it’s chilly. If we oblige, she will usually just walk away.

But, when it gets warmer, we prop the wooden doors open and the chimpanzees can spend time in the sun in that spot as well as the many other sunny spots in the building, in the greenhouse, and on the hill.

Today, volunteer Denice came by to do some garden prep, and Missy was curious about her activities, overseeing Denice’s work and looking out the window where she’ll be able to see the tomatoes growing in just a few months:

Missy hanging on window

With the warmer weather and barn doors open more regularly now, Missy, for whatever reason, tends to initiate more interactions with her human caregivers.

Here are some photos of Missy enticing me to play by showing me a towel and pushing it through the mesh of the steel barn doors:

Missy hold towl

Missy look at camera with towel

Missy pushing towel through caging

Missy pushing towel through caging

Missy pushing towel through caging

I responded by ditching the camera and running over to the barn doors where Missy was waiting, and she quickly whisked the towel away and waited by the doors where I had been standing inside the building, pushing the towel through there. This process repeated, sometimes with Missy allowing me to grab the other end of the towel and playing tug of a war for a few seconds.

To me, Missy initiating tug of war and having me run around from inside to outside is the final sign of Spring.

Thank you, Missy!

Missy sitting aginst wall

Missy looking up