Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Grace

Portraits & Pop Quizzes

by

Today is the epitome of PNW moody, cloudy, drizzly, & brisk weather. I know there are quite a few of us that are bummed about being at the tail end of summer, but I cannot express how excited I am for cooler weather, hot apple cider, snow, and all the other fun things that come with fall and winter. And after a day like today, I don’t think I’m the only one!

One of the first things that we do in the morning after we arrive is safety checks for both Young’s Hill and The Bray, so that we can give both groups access to their respective outdoor enclosures. When I gave Jamie’s group access, everyone immediately left the greenhouse to explore the hill. Even Negra went out to her cabin right away and they all enjoyed the bit of sunshine that was coming through the clouds. And as soon as Chad gave Cy’s group access to the Bray, I heard him call out that Cy and a few others were going on a patrol! It seemed that everyone was enjoying the brisk morning.

A little bit later I went out to serve Jamie’s group breakfast and found Negra and Annie out by Negra’s cabin, foraging for what looked like prickly lettuce. They chose to stay out on the hill during most of breakfast, but eventually made their way inside. As soon as they came in, Missy and Foxie went out. Then Missy came in, only for Burrito to go out. Then Foxie came in, only for Jamie to venture back out. It was a test for my memory as I tried to remember who had their carrot, who got their pears, and if someone had already turned down peanuts or not.

After we wrapped up breakfast, which took a good deal longer than normal, Katelyn and I started to do safety checks to enter and clean the playroom for Jamie’s group. Most everyone was easy to find, but we couldn’t find Missy. After searching and searching, we finally located her in Carlene’s Tower at the *very* top of Young’s Hill. By herself. With her chow bags. Happily munching away.

The theme for today seemed to be perfect weather + tricky ID tests, since everyone was exploring so far from the chimp house. So, keeping with theme, I have two ‘pop-quiz’ photos for you! 🙂 A bit of background: before staff members unlock and enter any enclosure, we have two trained caregivers complete safety checks. This includes identifying each of the chimps in that group, without relying on the process of elimination. Sometimes this is easy and sometimes (like today) it’s tricky.

Let’s start with The Bray, which Cy’s group has access to. I walked outside the greenhouse to see this which I caught on one of our cameras (with some zoom). Can you identify who is in this photo, from left to right?

Next, let’s go over to Jamie’s side! This was taken as everyone was hurrying to enjoy the lunch forage on Young’s Hill. From left to right, who do you see?

How’d it go? 🙂 If you want to see how you did, scroll down to the very bottom for the answers (but no cheating!).

It also seemed to be a good day to get some portrait photos. I hope you enjoy these snip-bits from throughout the day!

Annie, nested in the Greenhouse:

Cy, watching his caregivers down the hall:

Foxie, being her beautiful self:

Gordo, enjoying an apple (or two) from today’s lunch forage:

Jamie, on a mission during the lunch forage:

Missy, with a coveted cherry tomato during today’s lunch forage:

Terry, also enjoying an apple (or two, maybe three, or perhaps four?) during the lunch forage:

 

Photo A, Cy’s Group on the Bray, from left to right:

            Rayne, Lucky, Terry (on the log), Gordo.

2. Photo B, Jamie’s Group on the Hill, from left to right:

Burrito (running away), Missy, Foxie (back center), Jamie, Annie (closest to the camera on the right).

 

Negra and Her Corn

by

It has been a beautiful day here in Cle Elum and we took full advantage of it with lunch forages for both groups! Forages are a great time to get creative and use up any last bits of produce that we have leftover in the fridge from previous meals. Today, for example, Negra’s group had a lunch forage that consisted of leftover mini sweet peppers, oranges, two leftover grapefruits, baby iceberg lettuce, leftover corn, and primate chow.

Despite the variety in today’s lunch forage, Negra focused on one of her favorites: corn. When she came back into the greenhouse I thought she had found one full and one half ear of corn, but when I looked closer I noticed that she had two half ears and one full ear of corn! Sneaky! (Side note: does no one else find it odd that we refer to corn as ears?)

I realized that I have quite a bit of footage on my phone of Negra enjoying corn- and thus the idea for today’s blog! I hope you enjoy the three minute compilation of Negra enjoying one of her favorite foods. 🙂

Bonus Photos:

Negra, coming into the Greenhouse from the lunch forage:

Annie, enjoying a piece of grapefruit:

Foxie, before the lunch forage, curled up in the Greenhouse with one of her babies:

 

A Day for Annie!

by

There can never be enough parties!!!

That must be one of our mantras here at CSNW. After celebrating HOOT! 2023 yesterday evening, we rolled into the chimp house this morning ready to celebrate again. Today, though, we are celebrating Annie’s 49th birthday! Like Jenna wrote in her blog yesterday, it truly takes a village to support the chimpanzees and cattle in our care. Thank you to everyone who participated in HOOT! yesterday, whether in person or remotely. It’s really wonderful to be surrounded by a community such as this one.

Today, we celebrated Annie’s 49th. It’s always shocking to me when I remember Annie’s age, because (for me) she is timeless.

Annie is a special lady. She is what we refer to as a ‘chimps chimp’, in that she prefers spending time with her group mates rather than with humans. She lets others in her group take charge and can be anxious at times, but loves spending time with Missy and is known to play rough with Burrito every now and then. She has had a tough journey- we celebrate her birthday on September 10th and we believe it’s possible that she was born in the wild. Before coming to CSNW, she spent her life in biomedical research where she was used in hepatitis vaccine studies. She also had quite a few babies while in the lab, potentially even up to 7, but they were all taken from her. In the lab, she wasn’t given the opportunity to decide how she would be known.

Here at CSNW, she is known for making her unique ‘bird-noises’ when she’s laying down, for washing her face with water that she cups in her hands and rubs vigorously across her forehead which leaves the hair on the top of her forehead all spiky. She is known for walking (or even running) bipedally while out on the hill, and for her love of human toes and comfy nests. Us humans often know when spring is coming after a long winter when we find Annie wearing one of her beloved head bands around her waist. She is sweet, kind, and often quiet, but will adventure to the top of Young’s Hill with her best pal, Missy. If you’re serving her, she will let you know if you are taking too long (or if she’s not ready to take something yet). Her food grunts when she’s eating something she loves (like pears at breakfast this morning) are deep and soothing.

We love her for exactly who she is.

 

A big thank you to Paulette Wrisley for sponsoring Annie’s birthday today- from everyone here, thank you for helping us celebrate this special lady!!!

BONUS PHOTOS:

Annie:

Foxie:

Jamie:

Negra:

CSNW’s Funniest Home Videos: Part Two

by

It has been quite a busy day here in the chimp house, so I’ve decided to keep my written blog brief and hope the video speaks for itself! 🙂

Back in January I wrote a blog titled ‘Cheers to The Goofy Moments‘- the first instillation of our own version of America’s Funniest Home Videos. We’ve been continuing to collect blooper moments throughout our work days here in the chimp house when we can. I hope you get a chuckle out of watching them just like we do!

Enjoy!

Bonus Photos:

Annie, gazing lovingly at the Frisbee Puzzle Enrichment they received today:

Terry enjoying the cool, cloudy afternoon by taking some time for himself out on The Bray:

 

Then and Now

by

Hi, everyone!

I’m sure you’ve seen us talking a lot lately about our upcoming HOOT! Fundraising Soiree and Mission Gala. I think I can confidently say that it’s our biggest event each year and I’m proud to be on the team working to put it together for you. It’s a pretty wonderful group of passionate humans to work with that includes current and previous staff members, as well as volunteers.

One of the things I’ve been working on lately is some of the videos that will be playing at both the in-person and virtual event. This task has had me searching through photos, videos, and blogs from the very beginning of CSNW. From day one, we have made it a priority to be transparent and honest with you in our daily blog posts as we share our residents stories. This has led to a rather impressive blog archive- with the first post being from October 15, 2007 by our founder Keith LaChappelle. One of the most amazing things about this archive is that it shows, in real-time, what has been made possible by our supporters.

I have been involved with CSNW since I was a graduate student at Central Washington University in 2017. CSNW was founded in 2003 and the Cle Elum Seven arrived in 2008, so I know that my time here so far has been a short blip in the grand scheme of things. I still wasn’t prepared for how much looking back through those initial posts would hit me right in the feels. I wanted to take the opportunity to share a few of them with you- as a thank you, as a reminder of why we do what we do, and as an ask for the future.

On December 7, 2007 Keith posted a photo of the original kitchen addition: 

Flash forward to 2023, the CSNW Chimp House currently looks like this (from the front):

And, with the two additions for Honey B, Willy B, and Mave and the Lucky Six, from the back it looks like this:

To see the growth of the sanctuary itself is special, because it symbolizes the home and care we can provide to our original and newest residents. These photos don’t even touch the other massive construction projects that have been completed- the renovation of Young’s Hill, for example, into the Young’s Hill / Bray side-by-side outdoor enclosure. Or, the addition of our little herd of cattle that joined the family in 2018.

What really hit me, though, were these photos.

Jamie, Negra, and Jody just after arriving at CSNW: 

From then, to now- Jamie, Negra, and Jody (from March this year, before her passing):

These before / after photos don’t include Missy, Annie, Burrito and Foxie- not on purpose, but merely because I don’t wan’t to overwhelm with photos. If you have the time, though, I would highly recommend looking back through those initial posts.

Sometimes, I think it’s important to look back at how far we have come- especially when it comes to our residents. We have the absolute privilege of caring for and loving these souls, whether we are near or far, and with that privilege comes a lot of responsibility. This responsibility is day-to-day, with direct care, but it is also long-term. It would be a disservice to them to not look to the future and wonder how we can continually do better for them, as well as for others who still need sanctuary.

This is why events like HOOT! are so important- so that all of us who love and care for these individuals and causes can come together to support them.

So that we can look at how far we have come, as we also look to the future.

Thanks for going on this trip down memory lane with me. 🙂

A Day for Foxie!

by

Today was a busy, fun, crazy, happy day here at CSNW! We celebrated sweet and sassy Foxie’s 47th birthday- can you believe it?

She makes 47 look pretty darn great. 🙂

And we’d like to give our heartfelt thanks to Paulette Wrisley for sponsoring Foxie’s special day of celebration! It means so much to us to be able to honor Foxie, and each of the chimpanzees, for the amazingly special individuals they are.

We kicked off the celebrations with a delicious smoothie for the birthday girl, who loves smoothies and holds her own cup every morning. She got new dolls throughout the day, enjoyed a pre-party party, and then had a forage on Young’s Hill complete with Pineapple Bowls (!) full of yummy fruit, bok choy, cucumber, and cabbage. Despite the weather being quite warm, everyone went out on the Hill and was able to grab at least one pineapple bowl. Cy’s group also enjoyed pineapple bowls with lots of fresh goodies! Be sure to check out the video for more.

If you are new to following us, Foxie was born on August 8th, 1976 at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research. According to our records her mother, Winny, passed away at the Alamogordo Primate Facility in 2013. Foxie was used in hepatitis vaccine research and as a breeder while living in the lab. She had four babies- all of whom were taken from her when they were very, very young. In the wild, chimpanzees rely heavily on their mothers for many years and live with them through their adolescence. The practice of taking infants from their mothers in laboratories has long-term harmful impacts on both the mother and the offspring- I, personally, cannot imagine this sort of trauma.

When she came to sanctuary, she adopted a doll within the first month here. This single doll has turned into quite a collection and she has one, if not two, babies with her all the time. She enjoys games of troll toss and will often give one of her caregivers a doll to ‘babysit’ for her. She lets us know when she’s ready to have them back by blowing raspberries in the loft of the playroom by the human kitchen. 🙂 When she really gets going and is playing chase with a caregiver, she is known to do these amazing spins across the floor from one end of the room to the other. Or she will climb up the caging and flip so she hangs upside down. After all she has been through, her resiliency and silly nature is truly awe-inspiring.

Foxie is a sweet, spunky, forgiving, and absolutely precious soul who I feel lucky to know. Happy birthday, Fox. <3

Photos from the day:

Foxie allowed a mini photo-shoot in the front rooms this morning:

Negra scored a pineapple bowl during the forage:

Jamie, looking as regal as ever:

Jamie, winning the ‘How-Many-Pineapples-Can-I-Carry-At-Once’ Award:

Annie looking very sweet during the pre-party party in their greenhouse:

And on the hill:

Burrito decided to enjoy his pineapple bowl on Young’s Hill:

Burrito also enjoyed the Gatorade pools:

Birthday girl enjoying her pineapple bowl on Young’s Hill:

And a fresh green onion:

   

Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop (Playin’)

by

We are really appreciating the break from the intense summer heat here in Cle Elum and the chimps seem to be enjoying it too. Both groups enjoyed a lunch forage today that included strawberries, blackberries, fingerling potatoes, bell peppers, and whole heads of baby Iceberg lettuce! All day today the chimps have been grooming and playing (mostly playing) with each other- so it’s been a pretty good day. Check out the video for more. 🙂

Two days ago, J.B. wrote about Willy B’s procedure. We’re happy to report that he went back with his group first thing yesterday morning and is doing great! We are so grateful to Dr. Erin and the team of professionals she brought together to help us ensure that we are giving Willy B the best possible care he can receive.

Photos from Today

Annie, looking out to Young’s Hill before breakfast this morning:

Burrito during the lunch forage on Young’s Hill:

The cattle are also enjoying this weather in their extended summer pasture!

Gordo, before a game of chase:

Jamie really putting in work during the lunch forage:

Rayne looking out through the Riverview Greenhouse: