Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
The Riverview and Oakwood greenhouses provide an incredible amount of warmth, even on snowy days. The chimps also seem to really love the vertical space! We often find them up high in the greenhouses grooming or taking a nap in the cozy snug greenhouse.
The progression of Dora falling asleep:
Terry and Cy having their heads together before grooming.
Terry with his dream-eyes.
Rayne holding her feet and laying in a nest.
Bonus photo! A silhouette of Annie laying next to Foxie.
Sometimes the world feels chaotic, but then you look over at Negra and a sense of calm washes over you. Negra is the perfect example of never losing your cool, unless necessary. With the exception of demanding chow and peanuts, because well she is hungry and we are slow!
Speaking of chimps that give you a sense of calm!
Jamie always has the right idea. She is a perfect planner and executor. Whether her plan is using tools to work on food puzzles, modifying enrichment for her own construction project, maneuvering a human do what she wants, implementing optimum forage strategies, selecting boots/books of her liking, or creative fort building, Jamie has the organization skills to do it all!
Yesterday, as I was serving dinner, Jamie stepped off her chair with a handful of food and began using it as a table. We often see Jamie convert her chair into a table! It’s perfect because she can keep her food in sight, spread it all out, and it’s at the perfect eating height. I love the way she can be so tactical. Jamie just has a beautiful mind.
Bonus photos!
Today I accidentally simulated a hot summers day because I forgot to turn the our greenhouse heater off mid-morning. However, no one seemed to be complaining!
No words today, just beautiful chimps.
It is important to be flexible during the introduction process. For example, it has been a while since Cy and Willy B had some one on one time with each other. They have been dying to get some alone time together, but it isn’t always up to the shifting person. Some days you get a Gordo who just waltz into a room, not quite realizing what he might have signed himself up for, but I mean it’s Gordo so you have take the opportunity! Or like today you get a Lucky who simply won’t leave the front rooms. My goal as lead today was to get a “bro date” set up for them. I had it almost all set up, Willy B was alone in the Mezzanine, but I need to get Cy alone in the front rooms. Atlas, with all my best efforts I did not win the shifting battle! There is nothing wrong with Lucky not leaving, it just means a change in plans. So we went up to the Mezzanine to see if anyone would join Willy B for a quad! Honey B politely obliged! We have done this quad before, but it is important to build strong relationships, so repeats of the same intros are just fine! Make sure your volume is on for the video. There is a lot of grooming noises or what we like to call “teeth clacking”!
It’s that time of year when it’s cold outside and the chimps are hard to find. It was a relatively quiet day, of course as I write this blog I can hear the three groups starting to shout back and forth to one another, but that is to be expected with sixteen chimpanzees. The chimps spent most of their day grooming and nesting in high places, so capturing photos were few and far between. However, we can always find Honey B in the front rooms! Honey B and Mave spent the morning napping close to each other or grooming quietly with one another. Please enjoy these images of Mave and Honey B, I really tried to get more photos!
Cy thought you might want to know we just added some magazine subscriptions to the Amazon wish list!
This is Mave.
And this is Gordo.
Today we continued introductions by doing a one on one with Mave and Gordo. It has been a while since either chimp has done an intro, especially Gordo. He just never seems to be around when we shift for intros, but today he just waltzed into the Mezzanine and I closed the door. Gordo and Mave have met before through other intros, but today was the first time they both were really interactive with each other! When they saw each other they immediately met at the mesh to start grooming. I was waiting for a natural break between them to open the door, but I think they could have sat and groomed each other for hours. Eventually, we opened the door and they greeted each other warmly, but separated for some time. Gordo is a shy guy, so we decided maybe they need alone time. We stepped into the foyer to watch on the camera and within a few minutes they started grooming and playing. Gordo has always seemed to admire Mave from afar so we just assumed in intros that they would interact a lot, but the first few times they would greet and groom each other and then they wouldn’t interact very much after. This intro is such an improvement to their other meet ups and they spent the whole afternoon together.
Bonus photos of chimps in a comfy warm greenhouses!
