Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Jenna

The Eleventh Day of Christmas

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It’s Christmas Eve!

On the eleventh day of Christmas, the donors gave to us… giant wolf blankets! Although they are large and fill up an entire washing machine on its own, they are truly so loved by the chimps! As you will see in today’s video, so many of the chimps incorporate these blankets into their nests at night. They are warm, cozy, and huge! Not sure about you, but that checks off all my boxes when it comes to blanket criteria.

Special thanks to:

Lisa B. for donating wolf blankets

While labeled for Honey B in the auction, everyone will get great use out of these new blankets. Even when it warms up!

Photos of the wolf blankets being used in the chimp house:

Honey B

Dora

Negra

Lucky, Dora, and Rayne

Dora and Rayne

Dora and Rayne

 

 

The Tenth Day of Christmas

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On the tenth day of Christmas, the donors gave to us… boomer balls! Boomer balls are a popular enrichment item with the chimps. We pack each boomer ball with a few special treats, such as peanuts, and fill the rest with paper so that the chimps have to work for the treats. While the gift of boomer balls in the recent auction was intended for Terry, all sixteen chimpanzees will benefit from this donation. It is much appreciated!

Special thank you to:

Lisa S. for donating boomer balls

Past photos of boomer balls in use:

Terry

Foxie

Willy B

We also would like to give a special thanks to Renee Parisio for sponsoring this day of sanctuary in memory of Sue Parisio.

“Today would have been her 80th birthday. I got my animal loving nature from her.”

Sunday is for rest

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As Diana stated yesterday, we have been having conflicts the past couple days in the chimp house. While fights are perfectly normal in chimpanzee society, it is nonetheless quite stressful for these events to take place. So far, today has been mostly full of relaxation and currently I see many chimps napping. Let’s all knock on wood now to ensure I didn’t jinx it!

Here’s some photos of the day!

 Rayne:

Is this Rayne doing her ‘thinker pose’?

Jody:

Burrito:

Burrito looking past me to see if Chad is coming his way: 

Greenhouse 1 blocked by snow:

View from top of Young’s Hill:

As a reminder, we have loaded our Amazon Wishlist with items to prepare for our holiday celebration for the chimps! We appreciate every single purchase so much! Link to wishlist: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/2L5WRNKBKB8B2?ref_=wl_share

Bromance Isn’t Dead

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As today’s video suggests, “bromance” is very much alive in this chimp house. I caught Terry and Willy B engaging in an exciting grooming session – with tons of breathy pants. It still amazes me to think that a year ago at this time, Willy B and Terry lived in two separate groups. Now, Terry and Willy B (plus their 7 friends!) have been living together for 7 months (as of tomorrow)! I’m so happy for each of them as friendships help enrich their lives.

Speaking of the group of 9, I had a photoshoot today with Cy. He took me both indoors and outdoors in attempt to get the perfect shot. I tried, Cy!

Photoshoot with Cy:

Lucky:

Terry’s Bronx Cheers

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Terry is one of our most vocal chimps! Daily, he spends a large amount of time Bronx cheering, also known as blowing raspberries. I saw a few comments about Terry’s Bronx cheers on our recent videos, so I thought it’d be a great topic to dive into today.

Terry doing what he does best, Bronx cheering:

For those unfamiliar with Terry’s Bronx cheers, you can hear him do so here (1:31), here (0:43), and here (1:38). I have also included a link to a video that J.B. created a few years ago that covers Bronx cheers (located at the top of this page), however Terry had not arrived at CSNW then so he wasn’t featured in that specific video.

Let’s dive into how humans created the term Bronx cheer as well as blowing raspberries.

“Bronx Cheer”:

Definition

  • a sound people make by vibrating their lips in order to express disapproval or contempt
  • a sound created when ridiculing somebody

“Raspberry”:

Definition

  • a sound of contempt made by protruding the tongue between the lips and expelling air forcibly to produce a vibration

As you can see, Bronx Cheer and Raspberry are basically synonymous.

Origin of “Bronx Cheer”:

  • Originated from The Bronx, a borough in New York City
  • The phrase is believed to have originated after or during the 1920s when it first appeared in the Bridgeport Telegram, a Connecticut newspaper. The term was used in reference to a soccer match.
    • Written as “…if Chicago lose the east will grin and give western football the jolly old Bronx cheer.”
  • Originated as a slang term in the USA in the early 20th century and began appearing in newspapers around 1920 on topics such as sports.
  • ‘Bronx cheer’ was included in an English-American Dictionary column that was printed in the English newspaper The Daily Mail in 1924, which was part of the Mail’s regular attempts to keep their readers up to date with Americanisms.

Origin of “blowing a raspberry”:

  • Essentially the same action as making a Bronx cheer
  • Some believe the expression is a shortened version of the Cockney rhyming slang ‘raspberry tart’ and the sound is an imitation of flatulence
  • Other explanations are that a raspberry comes from the shape of the lips when making the sound

Now you must be wondering, how did this end up relating to chimpanzees?

As J.B. wrote on his Bronx cheer blog in 2020, captive chimpanzees have discovered that the Bronx cheer, or blowing raspberries, is a great attention-getting sound to capture the attention of humans, especially when used repetitively and loudly. It can mean “hurry up”, “gimme that”, “look at me”, etc.

While I did not cross-check across multiple sources, I did find an article that said Bronx cheering or blowing raspberries has not been reported in any wild chimpanzee group. However, it has been reported in some (not all) groups of wild orangutans. I will link this article here to read more.

Some non-vocal common ways that captive chimpanzees use as a means to capture the attention of caregivers include cage banging and hand clapping.

Back to Terry:

While many of the chimps at CSNW use a Bronx cheer sometimes, especially when food is being served, Terry takes it to a whole different level. It’s almost part of who he is, which may be weird to say. Terry will Bronx cheer during meals while waiting for his turn, he will Bronx cheer to greet a human and interact with them throughout his day, and also will often Bronx cheer while grooming (although he lip-smacks while grooming too).

Ghost Spotted (Totally not Burrito!)

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While I thought spooky season was behind us, I was in for a true shock today when I was cleaning the front rooms and saw a ghost.

Let me tell you exactly what happened.

I looked up briefly from sweeping and that’s when I saw it. I saw a fast moving figure pushing a giant barrel across the room. The barrels are quite heavy so whatever force was pushing it, was strong and determined. The figure was just a blur of yellow. Which is weird, because usually figures are dark, aren’t they?

I quickly ran out of the front rooms and approached the Playroom door, to get a better look at the “ghost” I had spotted. I began to question myself and wondered if this was all in my head. My heart was racing.

I rounded the corner and saw the “ghost” staring out the window, blankly. Again, the figure I was looking at was highlighter yellow in color – which is still so strange to me. Then, out of nowhere, the ghost looks at me. We make eye contact for what feels like eternity. Then, suddenly, the “ghost” starts drinking water. I also found this puzzling.

I am still frozen in fright at this point. I don’t know what to do, I don’t know who to call on the radio. My feet feel like they’ve been nailed to the ground.

Unexpectedly, the ghost turns and starts running straight at me. In that moment, I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me. I wanted to scream but I couldn’t. I was completely frozen.

The “ghost” clutches the caging that separates us. They bop up and down. They hit the caging. They open their mouth and reveal their teeth to me. I will never forget those teeth.

Then, what happens next will surprise you… The “ghost” starts LAUGHING. While looking straight into my eyes, they start laughing. Can they sense my fear? Do they find my fear amusing? Are they taunting me?

Okay, I’m done with this thriller novel.

If you have watched the video already, you will see that this “yellow ghost” was indeed our friend, Burrito. He had a neon yellow blanket draped over him all morning and was being extremely silly!

If you haven’t watched the video yet, go watch it and this will all make sense!

I hope you get a chuckle out of it 😉

From the other “Cyde”

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I spent most of today trying to capture footage of Burrito interacting with his new burrito Squishmallow for today’s blog. However, it just wasn’t happening! He kept running by it and wanting to play chase with his caregivers instead. He’ll play with it later, I’m sure!

Burrito Squishmallow for Burrito:

Burrito with a burrito:

Instead for today’s video, I wanted to focus on Cy and his love for reading. I was able to capture him reading while cleaning the Mezzanine recently. This angle shows how much he scans each page and picture of his magazine, something you can’t always see from the other angles. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!