Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Sofia Castro-Loza

First Snow of 2022!

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We officially got the first significant snow fall last night! All the caregivers arrived to work surprised to see this so early in the year when only two or three weeks ago temperatures were in the 80s. Young’s Hill is beautifully covered by snow, but the chimps in Jamie’s group did not find it amusing, probably because it has been raining nonstop. Regardless of the rain, I thought that this morning they would have run outside to get the first taste of snow, but not a single one has stepped outside today. Instead, they have spent most of the day happily nesting on the second floor of the playroom. On the other side of the chimp house, the chimps on Cy’s group spent their second day with access to the new chute, inside and cozy. Many nests were made, and many naps were taken today.

The Bray, future outdoor enclosure for Cy’s group

The corridor between Young’s Hill and The Bray, with the new chute in the far back

Cy and his friends spent most of the day doing as little as possible in the front rooms.

Willy B looking at his teeth on my phone’s screen while on selfie mode

Walk With Us

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Burrito has been taking advantage of every opportunity to have caregivers or volunteers go on walks/runs around Young’s Hill with him. Some things just never change, and we love it. With the new expansion, the hill includes a bigger perimeter and steeper incline, so forgive us caregivers if you hear us heavy breathing on videos as we try to keep up with our very fast friends. While on this walk with Burrito, we reached the far left corner, where the woods are, and he immediately stood up bipedally and was looking past me. When I turned around, I noticed he had spotted his best friend! Chad was nearby doing cattle care and spotted his friend spying on him and came over. After a while Burrito was ready to continue our walk.

Catch a glimpse of the outdoor enclosure, The Bray, that the group of nine chimpanzees will have access to in no time!

 

One Queendom Two Queens

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Here in Chimpanzee Sanctuary, we have a member of true chimpanzee royalty. Negra, first of her name, Queen of the Chimp House. The first 30 years of Negra’s life, after being captured in the wild, were filled with laboratory procedures, an unjustified prolonged period of isolation time, and general despair. Since 2008 Negra has been ruling the Chimp House with an iron fist, determination and self assurance. That said, in this Queendom, there is room for two queens. In the past, Jody was crowned Queen of Nest Building and Relaxation for her love of building amazingly intricate nests to rest in, and then carrying them around the Chimp House. But today, I want to officially add another tittle.

Humans, I here present unto you Queen Jody, your undoubted Queen of Nest Building, Relaxation, and BUBBLES.

There is enough space for these two queens. Negra in the back, Jody in the front.

Queen Negra herself.

Two Silly Chimps + Box

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Caught Willy B and Rayne having a play session that included a box. The level of silliness was amazing to witness, specially since Willy B was separated from the group from quite some time due to an injury. He is very happy to be back with his group, and his friends are happy to have him back as well.

Did you miss me?

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Last September 14th, Willy B sustained an injury to his face that required medical intervention. During all this time he has been in isolation to allow the site to heal properly but also to prevent over grooming on behalf of his friends. Due to the fact that this group is still considered to be newly integrated, putting him back with the group required planning. We had to make sure he would be accepted in the group after spending time away from them. A week and half or so our reintroduction efforts commenced. We started by arranging one on one play dates with Willy B in his isolation rooms, the front rooms. He had play dates with multiple individuals, and even if they were very eager to groom his face wound, Willy B was very good about setting boundaries to protect it. We were ready to move to the next stage.

With help from Jen Feuerstein, staff decided that the course of action was going to be reuniting Cy, Mave, Honey B, Rayne, and Terry with Willy B and see how that went. We did that yesterday and everyone was very happy to be back together. With no negative moments, we decided to move forward with having all nine individuals together today. That meant adding Gordo, Dora, and Lucky to the mix. The nine are back together and to our delight, it has been an overall mellow day and they have spent most of the day grooming in the sun filled green houses. We really love days like today.

Willy B

Gordo
Honey B – She could not be happier to have the front rooms again!
Lucky
Mave
Did you know that Giving Day for Apes is only a few days away? Early giving is open now, but on Tuesday, October 11th we will be competing with other accredited sanctuaries in North America for a variety of prizes. So much has happened at the sanctuary over the last few years and it’s all due to our generous supporters- keep helping us make our residents dreams come true by donating to CSNW! All donations will go directly to the care of our residents.
Donate to CSNW for Giving Day for Apes here: https://www.mightycause.com/organization/Chimpsnw
Learn more about Giving Day for Apes here:

Grapes n’ Roses

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Today’s blog video is all about browse. Browse is a form of enrichment we provide the chimps to encourage natural behaviors like foraging for green items and food wadging. Portrayed on the video are two items that grow without any issue around the sanctuary’s property: grapes and rose hips. For the seven’s group, made up by Jamie, Missy, Annie, Burrito, Negra, Foxie, and Jody, we set up the rose hip forage in the front rooms. Before giving them back access to the front rooms, I could see that Missy had already spotted me with them. Before I was done opening all the doors to the front rooms, Missy had sneaked in and grabbed as much as she could before going up to the play room’s loft to feast. Luckily for her, no one noticed. By no one, I mean Jamie. Good for Missy, she executed the heist perfectly. The nine, Cy, Terry, Gordo, Willy B, Rayne, Mave, Honey B, Dora, and Lucky also got rose hips. Gordo and Rayne were big fans. Last week they got grapes straight from the vines and all of them loved it as well.

 

Nail Polish Enrichment

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Enjoy a video of a type of voluntary enrichment some of the chimpanzees like!

Today is the big day! 🎉 Our signature fundraiser, HOOT!, is this evening and we are so excited to be celebrating the chimps and all things sanctuary with you! If you are not able to attend in-person, keep an eye out for the live stream of the auction portion of the event that will be happening on Facebook around 7:00pm PST. And help us reach our fundraising goal by clicking: https://hoot2022.afrogs.org/#/index