We’ve said it before, but here’s some more evidence of the “aging in reverse” process that has happened for the chimpanzees at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest:
Jamie in 2008:
Jamie in 2011:
Jamie this morning:
biomedical research
someone has a secret for Foxie
I wonder what it is..
#GivingTuesday – this is what it’s all about
Hopefully you are subscribed to our e-news (if not, subscribe here), which means that you received the Giving Tuesday message today with the Foxie Inspires Us video in your inbox early this morning.
The video is below, along with some more great photos of Foxie. We would really appreciate your help in spreading Foxie’s story by sharing the video via Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest pages on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and Linked In, and by emailing it to your friends. Foxie appreciates your love!
More Foxie photos:
Video of Burrito thanks to Diana P.
Diana P. just became a Holiday Pal to all seven chimpanzees by taking advantage of our Candy Cane Weekend deal and donating $1500 towards our Holiday Pal fundraising! Thanks to her donation and the donations from the awesome supporters yesterday, we are freeing the blog and the Burrito video is posted below.
Don’t forget that you have until tomorrow (Monday) night at midnight to take advantage of becoming an Alpha Pal to all seven chimpanzees at the discounted $1500 donation (normally $1680), or getting a bonus 2014 calendar for choosing the Best Friends Pal level of sponsorship. Donate now!
Without further ado, here is the always charming, Burrito Chimpanzee.
You may know from past blog posts that Burrito really enjoys popper toys, like these:
The other day we put out a new donated toy that has “bed bugs” that pop up when you push down on others. Burrito carried it around with him all morning, occasionally stopping to push and pull on the bed bugs.
See video below, and thanks again to all who participated in the Holiday Pal fundraising ransom donations!
the walking club
Unless this is your first time visiting the blog (if so, welcome!!), you probably know about Jamie’s obsession with walking around the perimeter of Young’s Hill while one or more of her human caregivers walks around the outside of the perimeter while wearing a cowboy boot.
She has been doing this multiple times a day with all of her caregivers since the spring. While Jamie is quite demanding about taking these walks 4-7 times a days, it’s admittedly not a dreaded task for us humans. It’s hard to describe how great it feels to not only be making Jamie happy, which is pretty much a CSNW caregiver’s definition of a successful day, but it’s also just a very peaceful way to spend 15 or so minutes. It’s particularly great right now because the weather has been amazing this October, and the hill and the surrounding property is beautiful, even awe-inspiring at certain times of the day.
We actually dreamed of doing these perimeter walks before Young’s Hill was a reality. When it was in the design phase, we wondered if the chimps might patrol the perimeter of the hill, similar to the way chimpanzees in the wild go on patrol to check the boundaries of their territory. So when Jamie started doing this, it felt right.
While spending time with the chimpanzees one-on-one, like walking with Jamie while the other chimps do their own thing, is personally fulfilling, what’s 100 times more rewarding is observing the chimpanzees with each other and seeing their bonds strengthen and their friendships expand.
Which is why we’ve been thrilled that other chimpanzees have been joining Jamie on her walks lately. J.B. captured some clips on his phone and put together the video below.
Maybe, just maybe, one day the chimpanzees will go off on their own with each other to walk the perimeter of the hill, leaving us humans behind.
Big Step
A big step forward for chimpanzees today. The NIH has decided to accept most of the Institute of Medicine’s recommendations proposed in January that include the retirement of the vast majority of chimpanzees supported by the federal government. Read the NIH press release here and the full report here.
It is unfortunate that the NIH plans to hold fifty chimpanzees for possible continued research, as recommended by the IOM. We don’t see fifty as a generic number – we know that each of those fifty chimpanzees is an individual who should live out the rest of their life in sanctuary, but, overall, today represents a leap forward for chimpanzees. There will be no immediate breeding within that group of fifty and the NIH will revisit whether they believe it’s necessary to maintain that group in five years. The NIH also did not accept the recommendation to provide 1,000 square of space per chimp for those chimpanzees who do remain in research – the NIH will be gathering more information on that recommendation.
Competition on the hill and Give Five update
First, thank you for continuing to send the 5-year anniversary video to friends and colleagues. If you haven’t shared the video yet on Facebook, Twitter, by email, or whatever your preferred online network is, please do this weekend! The Give Five donations are still coming in, and we’re now up to $15,525! Every donation helps us to continue to provide quality care for the Cle Elum Seven chimpanzees and to advocate for other great apes in need.
The wildlife on the property are also learning about the sanctuary. In addition to the deer who are quite familiar with our compost, the local crows have learned all about forages. They start swooping in when they see the humans walking around the hill. At first, the chimpanzees chased them off, but that must have grown tiresome. The chimps no longer seem bothered by their corvid neighbors, even as they fly away with a piece of chow or fruit.
The chimps just go about their business of foraging. Negra was quite adventurous this morning during the breakfast forage, even climbing up onto the shaky bridge again!
Look at this contented face:
Burrito is a first-class forager:
and probably most content when he is eating:
I posted a few more photos on some of the chimps’ Facebook pages earlier. I’m sure you’ve liked the sanctuary FB page, but have you liked all of the chimps on Facebook? On FB just type in their name followed by Chimpanzee and you’ll find their pages, or click on their images at the top of this page and you’ll see the link to their FB page on the right side. Thanks for being their friends!
