Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Diana

Happy Birthday, Tracy Headley!

by

Tracy Headley sponsored today with this message, “I celebrate my friends at CSNW on my 50th birthday.”

Tracy is an impressive supporter of the sanctuary. You may recognize her name because she has sponsored several days, has had days sponsored in her honor, is a Chimpanzee Pal to more than one of the chimpanzees, and donates literally whenever we have any kind of donation opportunity, including sponsoring the HOOT! gala.

Tracy is clearly an incredibly giving person and a friend to all of the primates at the sanctuary. I was so excited when she and her husband Bruce signed up for a Summer Visitor day this past summer and got to see Foxie’s birthday party – – because there’s not much that tops seeing a party thrown for the chimpanzees.

Here’s a photo of Foxie from that day as she scrapes every bit of watermelon out of its skin:

Foxie's face in watermelon

and here’s a bonus photo of Burrito, who’s always up for a party:

Burrito eating apples

Thank you for all of your generous support, Tracy, including sponsoring today.

Foxie, Burrito, and crew wish you the best of all birthdays today and we hope you are throwing yourself a big party!

I know Tracy would want everyone to know that we need only five more sponsored days to reach our goal of 50 new sponsored days before the end of the year. Help us get there by picking a day to sponsor for yourself or a loved one.

 

Favorite staff photos

by

J.B. and I played a bit of a trick on Elizabeth, Debbie, Katelyn, and Keri recently.

I asked each of them to send me their favorite photos that they had taken, with the reasoning that I wanted to do an end-of-year “staff photo picks” blog post. Our real intention was to get them a Christmas gift with their favorite photo printed on metal. Pretty sneaky, right?

It worked beautifully – they were genuinely surprised by and (I’m pretty sure) happy with the gifts. Of course they couldn’t pick just one photo each, because they are all such great photographers!! Plus they love all of the chimps so much. So I had to narrow it down from the several photos they picked. There were a variety of factors to consider, including which photos would likely look best once printed on the metallic surface.

I figured I may as well go ahead with my cover story and share the photos on the blog so you too can enjoy them.

These are the four photos I had printed for their gifts:

Debbie’s photo (Foxie):

Debbie's fav photo

 

Keri’s photo (Annie):

Keri's fav photo

 

Elizabeth’s photo (Burrito):

Elizabeth's fav photo

 

Katelyn’s photo (Foxie):

Katelyn's fav photo

 

Just because I feel the need to have all of the chimps represented, here are a few more favorites:

 

a photo J.B. took of Missy in her element:

Missy balancing on fire hose

 

Another of Katelyn’s – this one I am guessing will always be a classic of Jamie:

Jamie looking at camera holding boot

 

This was another of Keri’s picks. I really like it because of Jody’s extreme relaxed face:

Jody with relaxed face

 

I took this one of Negra in October, but it might be my all time favorite photo of her (except for the other 15 all-time favorite photos I have of Negra, taken by various staff photographers):

Negra looking at camera with night bag

 

If you have a favorite photo of one (or more) of the Cle Elum Seven, let us know – we’d love to see what your favs are too!

 

Missy in winter light

by

Today, the day after Christmas, was absolutely gorgeous! Clear skies and very little wind, which meant the chimpanzees got to spend some quality time on the hill. And a gorgeous day makes for beautiful photos of the chimpanzees.

Before taking a look at the photos below, be sure you’ve watched the video from yesterday’s holiday party. It’s our most shared video on Facebook, so you should probably check it out (and share it!) if you haven’t already.

I felt lucky to get these photos of Missy on one of my many walks around the hill today.

Missy was actually sitting still for a few minutes, seemingly taking it all in:

missy side view look away

missy side view

 

And, even more rare, she stood still for a few moments:

missy stand look left

Missy look right

Missy look camera

 

But just a few minutes – pretty soon she was off running, as per her usual pace:

missy run away

It still thrills me to witness how much Missy enjoys running, and to know that she can now run as much as she wants.

Are Chimpanzees Picky Eaters?

by

People are often curious what foods the chimps like. The Cle Elum Seven as a group are not very picky – not nearly as picky as other chimpanzees I’ve known. The bulk of the food we provide for the chimps is raw (or sometimes baked or otherwise cooked) fresh produce, and almost everyone eats almost everything we serve. There are a couple of exceptions, of course.

Jamie, for example, eats almost everything, but really does not appreciate the skin of carrots, so we peel hers for her. She also will often turn up her nose if there’s raw spinach in the chimps’ morning smoothie, though I discovered the other day that cooked spinach (frozen and then thawed and blended up with some fruit and almond milk) is better than okay in her opinion. Foxie is probably the pickiest, and declines several different vegetables, preferring fruit. Surprisingly, she loves smoothie with either raw or cooked spinach, even though it’s doubtful she would eat spinach on its own.

Strangely (or maybe not so strange for those who agree with their tastes), as a group they don’t seem to care much for zucchini or summer squash, but they love pumpkin and they like spaghetti squash, so we’re always asking each other – do you know if they will eat this squash? This is what happened tonight when Elizabeth and volunteer Tania were getting dinner together. Elizabeth held up a butternut squash and asked if I knew if the chimps liked that variety. I really wasn’t 100% positive, but Negra gave us the answer with her food squeaks:

Negra eating butternut squash

Negra holding squash

It turns out they all loved it. Missy was probably the most excited, but was moving far too fast to get photos. We’ve learned it is always best to give things a try, even if there’s a chance that one of the chimps might not like one of the foods we serve. Sometimes tastes change, and, because we provide as large a variety of produce as possible and always have three or more choices in a given meal, there’s always something for everyone.

Snuggling up with blankets: A retrospective

by

This post may reflect what I would like to be doing on this cold and damp day…

In any case, below are some photos – some oldish and some newish – of the chimpanzees getting snuggly with blankets. We give out at least 60 blankets a day. Sixty is a somewhat arbitrary number, but it’s based on the amount that we can successfully get washed in a normal day with our current washer. We (and the chimps) like fleece blankets, because they are very comfy and the wash and dry fast and easy.

As you probably know, Negra is never far from a blanket, and she often has one draped over her head and/or shoulders:

negra under red blanket 1

The photo above is on the holiday card available for purchase in our Zazzle merchandise store!

 

Negra blanket covering body

 

Missy sometimes “imitates” Negra’s blanket style, even nesting in Negra’s usual spots:

Missy under blanket

Always the athlete/acrobat, however, Missy incorporates interesting moves when she is nesting. For the full nesting sequence the  photo below was taken from, see this post:

missy headstand in nest

 

Jamie also occasionally sports a blanket over her head when nesting:

Jamie blanket over body

though she often chooses a sheet instead of a blanket for the job:

Jamie under sheet eyes closed

 

Jody is known for her nest making (she also likes straw nests – see this video from 2009 as an example):

Jody nesting

I don’t think I’ve ever seen Jody with a blanket over her head, but she still looks darn cozy when she’s curled up in her blanket nest:

Jody sleeping

 

Annie is also a nest builder, and can frequently be found gathering nesting material and moving it to another area:

annie carrying blanket

Once she’s made her nest to her liking, she always strikes me as very satisfied:

Annie nesting

 

Burrito and Foxie are not much into building nests. Though nesting has a strong instinctual component, it seems there is a period of learning involved. Both Burrito and Foxie do mostly what we call “phantom nesting.” Once in a while, Foxie will actively nest with blankets:

Foxie in nest

but more often than not, she has a more passive relationship with all of the blankets we give out:

Foxie on blankets

 

Burrito is also more on the passive side of the spectrum when it comes to nesting, though he does like to snuggle up, particularly when someone else has done the work of making the nest:

Burrito on blanket

 

web Burrito nest paper tutu playroom DSC_0069

 

Let us not forget, blankets are not just for nesting, but can also be great props when playing too:

Burrito clutching blankets playing

web_Burrito_bipedal_fling_blanket_bite_toy_ghost_enrichment_play_initiation_GH_ek_IMG_9086

ghost play

Burrito blanket play

I hope this inspires you to get snuggled up in your own nest tonight, or maybe play a game of ghost with a friend?

Video and Image to Share for #GivingTuesday

by

If you read this blog, you hopefully also get our e-newsletter, so this video may have landed in your inbox early this morning.

#GivingTuesday is the big kick-off to holiday giving for nonprofits, so we wanted to make sure you didn’t miss out! Please share the video now with your friends via email, Facebook, Twitter, etc!

We’re hoping to get closer to our 50 new sponsor-a-days for 2015 today, so please consider sponsoring a day for yourself or a loved one. It’s a great two-for-one gift: a gift for the chimpanzees and a gift for your honored special someone. What could be sweeter?

Your donation today, whether a sponsor-a-day donation, a chimpanzee pal donation, or a general donation, will receive a special thank you bonus as part of your email confirmation.

Thank you for remembering Annie, Burrito, Foxie, Jamie, Jody, Missy, and Negra in your holiday giving!

Watch and share the #GivingTuesday video below:

And feel free to share this image too!

Give Love