Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

adventure

Good Morning Negra and Willy B!

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Negra has been adventuring for a couple of days. The clips in the video above were from today.

Yesterday, she was lured to Young’s Hill with a lettuce forage, and J.B. snapped a few photos:

She even climbed up on one of the structures, which is unusual for her!

I felt very lucky to be a witness to Willy B’s solo adventure this morning. There was some construction noise from a distance that Willy B may have decided to investigate.

He displayed when he got to very top structure. Maybe he was responding to the construction noise or maybe he was celebrating going all the way to the top!

Man about Town

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Willy B used to be very avoidant of the grass and dirt outside. Remember? Watch this video from May 8, 2020.

And look at these photos of him today!

Mave is also getting more and more adventurous outside. Today, she followed Gordo out and convinced him to give her two of the three whole red peppers he had found in the forage.

I didn’t get good photos of it, but Willy B was actually the last one on the Bray. He was out there for so  long that Mave eventually came outside and waited for him to come back inside – it reminded me of Jody doing the same for her friends when she thought it was time for them to return.

Thank you so much to everyone who has sent in gifts from out wish lists for Christmas in July. There are still items to purchase for the sanctuary, mostly on our Jerrols wish list, which you can find here. Buying from the Jerrol’s list also supports a family business that is local to the sanctuary!

We are very excited about all of the items we have received and you’re sure to see them popping up on the blog in the next few weeks. Thank you again!!

 

Presenting the Winner of the Easter Egg Hunt

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It was an exhilarating day (if you are really impatient, scroll down to find out exactly why).

To tell the truth, it didn’t really dawn on me until yesterday that today is Easter, so I was felt lucky to be able to help with the festivities of the day.

I did know there were some party plans in store for the chimps for Easter, including non-commercial eggs from happy chickens that Dr. Erin knows that were dyed using natural dyes (like blueberries and yellow beets) by volunteer Nancy yesterday.

and SO MANY paper eggs filled will all sorts of fruits and veggies that were hidden i both outdoor habitats by volunteer Patti and staff member Ellen for an Easter egg hunt.

It was a gorgeous day, and all the chimps appreciated the forages and the dyed eggs. We actually got quite a bit of footage, but I wasn’t able to get it all put together for a proper video, so look for that tomorrow. In the meantime, here are some photo highlights:

Jamie watching the set-up in the greenhouse from the playroom:

Annie on one of the new structures on Young’s Hill:

Burrito chomping down on a “baby” iceberg lettuce:

Foxie with a tomato she found in one of the paper eggs:

Negra even climbed a structure in search of more lettuce:

 

The true winner of today’s Easter egg hunt was, hands down, our very own Cy. He marched right outside and went to the new structures on The Bray. Structures that he had never climbed before this afternoon!!!

He deserved today.

Cy’s sister Lucky also was feeling adventurous and climbed the crow’s nest structures that are connected to Ryan’s Lookout:

Thank you to everyone who supports the sanctuary and who donated at year-end to make these structures possible. Look for the Easter video tomorrow!

more tree-climbing adventures!

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What a day! The video above says it all, but below are a few still photos.

Chad, on his day off, happened to see Missy’s climb as he was accompanying a former chimp house volunteer on a walk around the hill. He and J.B. took some videos with their phones as I walked up with the camera and telephoto lens, which was not working right away, but I did get one good photo of Missy amidst the branches, foraging on pine needles:

and some photos on her way down:

Startling Adventures

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If you’ve been following along for a while, you know that Jamie loves her walks around Young’s Hill. She’s definitely not the only one, though.

The other night I was walking around the hill with Jamie (me on the outside of the electric fence, of course) for what was probably the fifth or sixth time after dinner, and I heard something rapidly approaching us from behind. I will admit to being a bit startled. The evenings are usually very quiet and serene around here, and I was sure all of the other chimpanzees had gone to bed.

My temporary flight or fight reaction quickly turned to pure happiness when I whipped around to see who or what was rushing at us from behind. Apparently, from her nest in the loft of the playroom, Missy noticed that Jamie was on another walk, and she must have jumped out of bed and ran at full speed to catch up to us.

 

Missy is behind Jamie in the following two photos:

Missy and Jamie on the hill

Missy behind Jamie on the hill

How fun to be able to jump out of bed to go on an adventure! I could genuinely feel Missy’s joy in surprising us.

Sometimes I forget the stark contrast between the lives the chimpanzees have now compared to where they came from. How many times would Missy have longed to get out of bed to run around when she was living in the few square feet of a laboratory cage?

Freedom is relative, and the chimps’ freedom at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest is definitely not absolute, but their existence is worlds apart from what it was the first few decades of their lives. You can read about Missy’s past here.

And we have you – those who support the sanctuary – to thank for that. So, on behalf of Missy and her sense of adventure –  Thank You!