Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
The CSNW human family continues to grow! Lisa Schuster is our newest part-time staff caregiver. Lisa has been in the chimpanzees’ lives for a few years now as a volunteer caregiver, and she is universally adored. Jody is overjoyed about Lisa’s new job (Lisa might by Jody’s favorite human ever), and Jamie always appreciates Lisa’s choice of footwear.
You can get in touch with Lisa at [email protected] for questions, comments, or words of welcome.
Mother’s Day at CSNW is always bittersweet (see J.B.’s fantastic blog post on this topic here). In addition to honoring motherhood, we celebrate Jody’s birthday on this holiday in tribute to the nine babies she had during her time in laboratories. Unfortunately, Jody (like most lab chimp moms) wasn’t allowed to raise her babies; they were taken from her immediately after birth and put into research themselves. Had Jody been a wild chimpanzee, she would have been inseparable from her children for their first five years of life. While we can’t make up for what Jody has endured in her past, we can and do celebrate her today.
Since Jody is all about comfort, her birthday parties usually include mountains of fluffy blankets and fresh straw to nest with.
Jody also loves to eat flowers, so Debbie and volunteer caregiver Stephanie brought lilacs from their gardens.
Jody spent about twenty minutes lying on her back in this nest and holding these lilacs over her head, plucking flowers with her lips like they were grapes.
The rest of the CSNW mamas enjoyed the day, too. Annie loved the lilacs.
Missy’s day was all about adventure, as most of her days are.
Foxie spent the day with her Dora the Explorer and troll dolls.
And Negra enjoyed some quiet solitude.
Happy Mother’s Day to all moms, and happy 38th birthday to the best Jody we know.
We planted some bamboo in the greenhouse this morning. Since chimpanzees are naturally curious and destructive, the plants might not last long, but for now everyone’s leaving them alone for the most part. Jody, however, thinks they make prime nesting material.
Thanks so much to ProVitro Biosciences for the bamboo!
Volunteer caregiver Stephanie throws the best parties for the chimpanzees, and today was no different. She showed up for her volunteer shift this morning with her arms full of pinatas (nine of them!), plastic margarita glasses, and lots of fresh produce for a Cinco de Mayo party. We filled the margarita glasses with fruit smoothie and set them around the greenhouse. We decorated Young’s Hill with the pinatas (each filled with a few nuts and berries) and scattered a fruit salad forage.
We brought our cameras to the Out of the Box auction last night, and they didn’t make it back to the chimp house in time for the party, so we snapped a few photos with Debbie’s phone.
Jody, Burrito, and Jamie (L-R):
Foxie:
Missy:
Jody helped herself to a “margarita”:
and then another
We weren’t able to get many good photos of the chimps on Young’s Hill since we didn’t have our telephoto lens, but I love that these two photos, taken just after we opened the door to the hill, show all seven chimpanzees.
Thanks again to Steph for bringing the party to CSNW today!
William Wright sponsored today for Talia Silveri’s birthday. William says:
“Talia loves all the chimps at CSNW and wants to share her birthday love with her favorite animal friends!”
Happy birthday, Talia! We hope your day is full of surprises.
Mornings in the chimp house are a flurry of activity. Staff and volunteers clean the chimpanzee enclosures from about 9:00 when we arrive until lunchtime at 1:00. It’s usually not until after the chimpanzees are served lunch that we have a moment to sit down. Except for the coldest part of winter, the chimps typically spend the afternoon between lunch and dinner engaged in some quiet activity in the warm greenhouse (grooming and napping are favorites). This time in the greenhouse is usually so warm and slow and lazy that I often find my eyes getting heavy if I stay too long in there.
I popped my head in after lunch yesterday and Burrito was sitting in a windowsill with a couple of plastic fish toys. I could tell he was feeling low-key because he didn’t jump up into his usual game of chase when he saw me – he merely nodded his head a little and bit on the fishes. (He often bites on something when he’s feeling playful.)
I did get a playface out of him.
After a few minutes he moved over to the deck to get a little more comfortable.
He summoned up just enough energy for a brief game of peekaboo…
…before passing out.
Supporter Monica Best has taken sponsoring a day of sanctuary to a whole new level. Four years ago she declared April 23 Love a Chimpanzee Day and has sponsored the day every year since then. (Today also happens to be Monica’s birthday!) Love a Chimpanzee Day 2013 began with a breakfast of pears, strawberries, lemons, fruit smoothie, and peanuts (Negra’s favorite) in the greenhouse, followed by some adventures on Young’s Hill. After we cleaned the playroom we decked out the place in streamers and lots of fluffy blankets and watched Jody settle down into a nest.
I love to watch Jody nest. She first does a sweep of the area to collect any unclaimed blankets, then drags them all to her chosen spot. (Sometimes she grabs more than she can carry and drops some on the way.) Then she sits down and arranges the blankets into a fluffy throne around her. When she’s satisfied with her work, she gets to her feet and then dives headfirst into the nest, usually making what we affectionately call her “dinosaur noise,” a low moan of contentment. Jody doesn’t typically go out of her way to play with enrichment, but if there happens to be some near her nest she’ll inspect it lazily.
Once she’s settled, she stretches and wriggles from side to side until she’s totally content.
Thanks, Monica!
