Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Kelsi

Navigating Socially

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Introductions of chimps takes a lot of trust, for chimps and humans! When we talk about the integration of the nine so many emotions flood through the staff’s head. We are excited, optimistic, terrified, elated, in awe, petrified, and most importantly so so proud! During the whole process everyone has exceeded whatever exceptions we had ever thought possible, especially the “wild cards”. It has been so fun to watch the navigate these social situation! Honey B in particular has made so many friends! For example, Honey B “mall walks” with Rayne, playing with Dora, and being really goofy with Terry. Through this whole process we have been so proud of Honey B, but just the past couple of weeks Honey B has spending more time with other chimps and less time alone and isn’t that what this all about!! I have so much more I want to write and I was starting to make a video of Honey and Terry playing, but unfortunately we had a staff meeting and the day got away from me! Grace promises to post it tomorrow!

Also, yesterday via our e-newsletter, Diana reminded everyone of the $50,000 matching opportunity from Jennifer Douglas that expires in just two days. We are now just $3,736 away from meeting the match! Learn more about it and how you can help us get all the way there: https://chimpsnw.salsalabs.org/daysleft.

Here are some photos to get you by until tomorrow!

Dora is the perfect pocket sized friend:

And a classic Jamie pose:

As a update Burrito is also doing great! He has lots of energy and a good appetite!

All Good Things

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This morning when we walked into the chimp house, every chimp was super playful! Gordo was bunny hopping around, Annie was playing chase with Burrito and her caregivers, Missy was chasing Jody, Jamie was playfully foot stomping to her caregivers, Dora and Mave were playing, and chimps on both sides were grooming in the greenhouses. Every day at the sanctuary is a great day because the chimps are safe, secure, and cared for, but that does not mean that every day is sunshine and rainbows. Obviously,the chimpanzees have their own feelings and moods, just like us. Some days we walk in and one group is displaying, while the other group is calm. Other days it’s loud everywhere you go. However, most days you get a balance of some calm with a little bit of displaying from time to time. And then you get a day like today, where both sides of the building are just silly and playful!

While most people wanted to play, Negra wanted to sleep all day:

We are running pretty low on magazines. If you have any laying around, I am sure Cy would love to take them off your hands!

Playing with Missy

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As many of you know Missy is what we call a chimps’ chimp. She will have these amazing long play sessions with her chimp friends. But as for us human friends she will bless us with a play session from time to time. So when you get to play it doesn’t matter how long it lasts, it’s just special that it happened!

Bonus photos!

Jody enjoying some yellow goats beard flowers:

Negra foraging for grass:

Gordo was hanging out in the sunny warm Riverview greenhouse. Look how handsome he is!!

Gordo grooming himself:

 

 

She’s Back… Again?

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This morning Negra was reunited with her group! Everyone was so excited to welcome her back. Jody, Missy, and Foxie gave her warm greetings and immediately went to check out how she was healing! Negra was able to spend the morning sitting out on Young’s Hill and napping in her favorite spot in the green house. Unfortunately, in the early afternoon between the chimp nurses and Burrito displaying and scaring Negra, some of her external sutures were not holding up too well. We decided to isolate her again until Dr. Erin could come take a look. So Negra spent the afternoon watching Lord of the Dance, nesting, and having her caregivers dance for her as well ;).

Negra finally back on the Hill this morning:

Negra enjoying Lord of the Dance:

Guess these Lips!

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Today was very busy in the chimp house, but I thought we could play a game! Can you guess these lips?

Only one rule: don’t scroll down too quickly or the answer will reveal itself!

One hint: he is a handsome devil!

⬇️ Scroll down for the answer! ⬇️

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s Willy B!

 

Just a Little Stitious

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Are you superstitions? New World Encyclopedia says: “The earliest superstitions were created as a way to deal with the ignorance and fear of the unknown. Chance misfortunes could be ascribed a cause, and the potential to avoid or control them was created. Superstitions are thus a way of attempting to regain control over events, particularly when one feels helpless.”

I wouldn’t say we are superstitious at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, but we are careful about saying how successful the integration is going. I guess you could say we don’t want to jinx anything. Anna pointed out a quote from Michael Scott on The Office that describes us best in our current situation: “I’m not super stitious, but I am a little stitious.” Recently, I find myself knocking on wood if I say the 9 are doing well, just in case something goes wrong. Which is why a recurring phrase you have/will hear from us for a long time is: We are cautiously optimistic! We don’t know what the future holds for these 9 chimpanzees, but for now things are looking up and we are just a little stitious.

I wanted to capture some photos of the 9 grooming and playing, but they were all doing those things in hard to reach places. However, I was able to capture a few individual photos today!

Dora peacefully napping:

Lucky:

And Willy B admiring his own reflecting:

Today is also Wish List Wednesday!! We recently just updated the wish list!

Where in the World is Annie?

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I wanted to share a fun little story from this morning! As I gave Annie’s group Young’s Hill, everyone including Negra rushed out. Once Anna brought breakfast out to the greenhouse all the chimps were heading back in to eat, except Annie. We couldn’t find Annie anywhere. It had been more than 10 minutes of breakfast being served and she was nowhere in sight. Annie does not miss a meal! Sofia came over to help do checks when I said I think Annie is on the Hill, but we can’t see her anywhere. Sofia told us she did this yesterday, but eventually came back for breakfast. We finally got a glimpse of her 15 minutes into breakfast, she was far up on the top of the Hill foraging for what I assume was grass or some kind of foliage. Apparently, that grass was so good she didn’t even come back for breakfast! Breakfast was not a concern for Annie, because when she finally returned and Anna tried to call her over for food, she very contently laid back on the platform in the greenhouse and took a little nap.

Today was a beautiful spring day so we took advantage of the weather and did a Hill forage for lunch!

Don’t worry Annie got plenty of food!

But Missy seemed to score the most!

Negra was quite pleased with her haul! She even worked pretty hard for her food too, look at Neggie on the Esher structure!

Jody with a mouth full of corn and hands full of forage!

Jamie collected her forage and then took all of it to a secluded hammock to eat alone.

Burrito cradling an arm full of onions:

Little Foxie was having a great day roaming around the Hill and hanging out with friends!

Bonus Photos!

Rayne was asleep in a cozy nest up on one of the leaves in the Marmot Room.

And sweet Dora was hangout in the window ledge watching her caregivers cleaned her playroom.