Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

animal protection

Burrito’s Superpower

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You may be asking yourself, does Burrito ever stop playing? The answer lately is, yes, when he’s asleep. I do wonder if even in his dreams he’s tickling and chasing and wrestling, though.

A very special thank to you blog readers who have posed questions on my blog post last week. You have inspired a lot of contemplation and conversation among the staff, and already a blog post or two, with many more to come in the future.

I had considered picking a topic among those questions for today’s blog post, but Burrito dictated that I put together this compilation video.

I trust this is a welcomed decision!

Inviting your questions

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This is apparently blog post #5316. This blog is pretty unique. In the beginning, we didn’t know how it would go. To be frank, we didn’t know how anything would go. We just knew we needed people to get involved and donate so that we could care for the chimpanzees, and we had a desire to share the chimpanzees and their stories so people would know what was happening to chimpanzees in the world, particularly those in captivity.

A lot has transpired at the sanctuary and in the world since starting the blog in 2007. A LOT! If we were starting today, I am not sure we would choose to have such a frequent and deep form of communication. It’s really quite a lot of work, and for that reason not the most efficient of marketing tools. But it has become much more than a marketing tool. It’s the diary of Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, and we hear from you readers/followers how much it brings to your lives, particularly when other things in the world are contentious and uncertain.

One thing that I love about the blog is that all of the staff caregivers, past and present, have contributed regularly. Each person has a different perspective with different thoughts rolling around in the back of their brains, and sees different things that the chimpanzees do on any given day; having a variety of writers makes the blog all the more interesting.

Posting daily and including the troubling events like fights and injuries as well as private reflections about the individual chimpanzees and chimpanzees in captivity in general, in addition to the hours of play, foraging, nesting, grooming, and eating that make up the chimpanzees’ day, has naturally lead to a more intimate and transparent look at life in a sanctuary.

I imagine, given unlimited time and resources, each of the caregivers could post multiple times a day. There’s just always something to say about chimpanzees (and bovines too!). I know I’m biased, but I think they are endlessly fascinating and endearing.

I know there are a handful (maybe more than a handful?) of people out there who have gone back and read every single blog post since the very beginning in 2007. That is mind blowing to me. You all are in a exclusive club!

Most people jump in at a specific time and try to catch up, learning about the chimpanzees’ quirks and our plans for the future as each new post is published.

Whether you are new to the blog or are in that exclusive club, I know you have questions.

So, today I invite you to post those questions in the comments – the ones that you’ve been wondering about for a while or the ones you just thought of a second ago.

I will not answer them in the comments, but rather the staff will use the questions to build future blog posts upon. I am not making any promises; we likely won’t get to every question posed to us, but I imagine we will see some trends and your questions will spark future blog posts.

This whole blog experiment has been a rewarding interactive process. I know I’ve met, both virtually and in person, some of the most thoughtful and kind people I will ever meet because they happened upon this blog and fell in love with the chimpanzees.

No doubt many posts have been written based on comments. This is just a more formal process. So, feel free to come back to this post later and pose more questions. I think it will be really interesting to see what you want to know!

In another take on intimacy, you may know that there’s a spot in one of the front rooms that we call the “Portrait Studio” because of the natural light that comes through the window, creating opportunities for photos that bring out the gorgeousness of the chimps. Below are a few I have taken recently.

Jody:

 

Jamie:

And for a slice of today, here are some photos of J.B. giving Anna and I the tour of the expansion in progress, with Honey B and Willy B looking on:

Tuesday is the Big Day + Feeling Good

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First, a reminder to all that Tuesday (just a few days away!) is Giving Day for Apes.

In addition to our main fundraising page, if any one person or group out there wants to create their own fundraising page to raise funds for the sanctuary, you can do that! It’s pretty easy. Just go to our Giving Day for Apes page and click on the big “Fundraise” button and it will walk you though the steps. To see pages that others have created, scroll down on our page and look under “Campaigns supporting this organization.” All donations made on any of those campaigns will go directly to the sanctuary and will be eligible for the cash prizes offered!

Did you go look? Okay, good, now here’s the blog for the day:

Yesterday during the video event with Senator Tom Udall hosted by Animal Protection of New Mexico, animal welfare scientist Dr. Katie Cronin said something that really struck me. She said that having an enrichment program is not about what you provide but rather about how the animals feel about it. This is obviously true and yet somehow profound because it is not historically the way enrichment programs have been talked about or evaluated.

Enrichment is all about engagement and finding things that interest the individuals in your care, so if you give some type of enrichment to an animal and they don’t engage with it all, well, it’s not enriching for them and that means new things should be tried and evaluated.

So, fast forward to today. Kelsi and I were cleaning the greenhouse and I looked up at an eye bolt that Anthony had put under the top platform of the structure last year sometime. I said outloud that we should hang something there, so Kelsi and I talked about it for a bit and she mentioned wanting to get another hay feeder like the one filled with lettuce that Mave and Honey B enjoyed so much recently.

That made a dim light bulb go off in my (above my?) head, and I got to work filling the hay feeder with layers of blankets and lettuce to hang from the aforementioned eye bolt. I admit that I thought I was being quite clever. I had to stand on a step stool to hang the feeder and thought to myself that this was going to be a great challenge for the group of seven.

After letting the group into the greenhouse, I anxiously turned the corner to spy on the chimpanzees to see if they were engaged with the hay feeder. I was presented with a very rewarding scene: Annie was on top of the platform lying down to reach the lettuce and Missy was down below standing as tall as she could to reach the enrichment.

I left, once again feeling very clever.

I returned just a few minutes later, and Missy had solved the puzzle her own way, beating me at any contest for cleverness.

Soon, Negra came out to the greenhouse from the playroom and discovered all she had to do was sit below and wait for the lettuce to fall down as Missy picked through the blankets.

Meanwhile on the other side of the building, Mave and Willy B enjoyed some enriching social time in the outdoor chute in between rain showers:

While Honey B performed magic tricks with some new scarves:

All in all, I would say today was enriching for both the chimpanzees and me, and now I hope for you too.

If you enjoy the blog, please do consider making a donation to our Giving Day for Apes page. To get the most bang for your buck, donate between 10-11am PT on Tuesday, October 13th, but any donation at any time helps! Thank you for helping enrich the lives of the chimpanzees!

Moments with Jamie

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I had approximately 25 ideas for a blog post today, from the flighty and frivolous to the deeply profound (at least in my head).

This video is neither. Or perhaps it is both.

As one of her caregivers for more than twelve years, I can tell you that some of the best days in the chimp house are when Jamie is in a good mood, which seems to be the case more and more lately.

Not all of the clips in the video were from today. The one from today is the opening clip with Jamie wearing a troll scarf;  the others were moments with Jamie that I had recorded on my phone that I have been hanging onto.

Right now, while the other chimpanzees are eating the last scraps of dinner, working on their food puzzles (nuts in kongs tonight), and gathering up their blankets for their nests, Jamie is sitting in the doorway that goes out to Young’s Hill, the outdoor habitat.

She might be waiting for the rain to subside so that we can go on another walk, or maybe she’s just making sure I remember that she’s the one who runs this place.

I just love Jamie.

The Bounties of Sanctuary

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First, the news you’ve been waiting for: Burrito is back with his group! It’s been two weeks to the day since his encounter with the rattlesnake.

I’m going to be completely honest here. I thought we were going to lose him the day that he was bitten. I also thought we were going to lose him those many months ago when the big conflict that ended our attempts at integrating the groups occurred.

I’m not the most optimistic of people, so take that into consideration (I can picture J.B. giving me a look that says, “you don’t say?!”).

Burrito, however, seems to be an optimist with an incredible will to live. That, combined with an amazing staff and quick-acting veterinarian in Dr. Erin, who has a whole network of medical professionals on speed dial (a particularly grateful shout-out to anesthetist Dalila Fairchild), gave me hope.

What was truly heartwarming, however, was the immediate outpouring of support you all showed, which carried over into last week’s HOOT! virtual event. I really just can’t get over it. THANK YOU!!! You all remind me that there are good, no, not just good, but great people in this world who truly care and take action when needed. It was the bounty of love, even more than the financial contributions, that was so moving.

Anyway, enough of my yammering, here are some awesome photos of the day, most of them taken by Anna and J.B

First order of business for Burrito on the hill: approach Jody for some reassurance:

which she deftly provided, even while managing a bounty of cabbage leaves (thanks, Krissy!)

Burrito decided to stick close to Jody for a bit:

Then he ventured towards Negra, who gave him a reassuring extended arm gesture:

Negra’s bounty was kale:

Appropriately reassured, Burrito settled into foraging on his own:

 

 

Later in the day, it was time for the other group to have access to the Courtyard. To carry the theme of this blog post, I noticed that there was a bounty of grapes hidden under the grape vines on that side of the building.

Here’s a photo of the vines with Honey B at the top of the chute in the background:

Here’s what I picked in just 20 minutes:

Willy B was watching my activity from the Courtyard, so of course grapes were on the menu as part of dinner:

I hope you experienced a bounty of something good this past week too.

See you soon at HOOT!

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It’s a very smoky day at the sanctuary. We are thinking of all of those impacted by the fires all over the northwest right now.

We are thankful for so much, including Burrito’s continued recovery. Today he got to spend some time with Jody!

We are also extremely thankful for you, the generous and caring supporters of the sanctuary.

We hope you will ALL join us, even if you are not in a position right now to donate or bid on items, for the Virtual HOOT! gala tonight, starting in just a few hours at 6:00pm PT.

Anyone can watch, either on Facebook or on the auction home page.

If you signed up for the Happy Hour, you’ll be seeing the chimpanzees in real time very soon as they have their non-alcoholic version of the pant-hootch specialty drink.

Cheers to you and cheers to hope for the future!

hoot logo

Never too old to play

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If Burrito and Negra in today’s video do not put a smile on your face and a desire in your heart to help support them and the sanctuary, well I just don’t know what will.

HOOT! is coming up fast! I’ll be spending the next few days madly uploading more auction items – there are some really fun and beautiful things to bid on, and there are a lot of reasons to give. Hope for the future!

P.S. I’m still waiting on your pant-hoot submissions – don’t forget!