Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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birthday

Trifecta Jubilee 2026

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Today is one of the biggest holidays on the CSNW calendar, the Trifecta Jubilee! Today we celebrate Negra and Terry’s birthdays, as well as the arrival anniversary of the Cle Elum 7. Today’s video follows Negra as she celebrates her 53rd birthday.

With Negra’s mobility challenges over the past few months, we weren’t sure if we would get to celebrate another birthday with her. We have enjoyed every minute we got to spend celebrating with her today, and tried to fill her day with all of her favorite things. Today’s menu included coconuts, lychee, figs, romaine lettuce, sugar snap peas, Hawaiian rolls, cornbread, pancake hearts with whipped peanut butter, mini banana cream pies, sparkling cider, banana leaves, and homegrown grape vines from Caregivers Diana and JB’s house, as well as roses from Caregiver Sabrina’s garden. Dinner is coming up, and will include baked sweet potatoes and coconut whipped cream.

The most rewarding part of the day was seeing Negra get to spend another few hours with her whole group, something she hasn’t been able to do since her mobility first declined in March. She gets daily visits from several friends at a time, but has not lived in the whole group due to the risk of fighting and Negra either not being able to get away, or accidentally getting hurt while trying to get away. We decided early on in navigating her mobility challenges that the risks of a fall in the playroom were too great to give her access, and the playroom is an important space for the group as a whole. To reduce the risk of having her with the whole group today, we closed the group out of the playroom and then let Negra out into the greenhouse with them, and everyone was able to enjoy the party together. Afterwards, they relaxed and groomed until it was time to go back inside.

I think it’s safe to say that Negra enjoyed her day. Turn the volume up to hear many happy food squeaks!

Little Dora’s Big Day

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Today we celebrated Dora’s 37th birthday!

Dora was born at the Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP) on June 6, 1989. Her records say that her mother was Stella and her father was Les. She has many half siblings, including Gordo in her own group, who had the same father, and several chimpanzees at other sanctuaries including Pumpkin at Save the Chimps in Florida.

When LEMSIP closed in 1996, Dora went to Wildlife Waystation along with over 30 other chimpanzees.

When Wildlife Waystation closed in 2019, Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest continued our planned expansion to make a home for another group of chimpanzees in need. Dora arrived with the rest of the “Lucky Six” on June 26, 2021.

In celebration of Dora’s birthday today, her group (which includes Dora, Cy, Terry, Rayne, Gordo, Lucky and George) got to enjoy whole mangos for breakfast, as well as Honey B, Willy B and Mave.  What a special treat!

Unfortunately, due to Annie’s allergy, Jamie’s group did not get mangos, but they were pretty happy with their whole strawberries!

There are so many things to love about Dora (just ask Mave!). She is quick to engage her chimp friends in play (and the humans sometimes too!). She is beloved by those who know her (George took a little bit to learn this lesson during intros), which has allowed her the flexibility to move between groups and maintain her friendships as we navigated the separation of Honey B, Willy B, and Mave from Cy’s group. She brings the fun (sometimes with a side of pokey fingers and her signature head bobble) and quirkiness too!

Happy birthday, Dora!

Burrito’s Bouncy Birthday Bash

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43. That number has been circling around my head today as I came into the Chimp House this morning. How could my friend be turning 43? I remember growing thinking of the time adults would tell me to “act my age.” That saying has been upmost rejected by Burrito. At what age did he protest acting his age? I have no idea, but I would guess it was sometime in his adolescence.

Burrito was born in a laboratory on this day in 1983 to his mom, Karen, and father, Mack. Off the top of my head I’m not sure what happened to his mother, but I do know his father was able to live out his remaining years at Save the Chimps in sunny Florida. When he was born, he was given the name “Raj” by his human caregivers. Unfortunately, at the age of 1 he was put into the hepatitis B testing. At one point he was he was transferred to the Buckshire Corporation where he was kept as a pet before being leased to a small attraction. A year later he was returned to Buckshire and his life as a test subject was renewed. It wasn’t until 2008 when he was rescued and came to Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. His days being used in hepatitis trials was finally over.

Since then his days have been full of play, laughter, and yes, chaos. He still creates a ruckus within his group and has the girls  screaming at him, though I personally don’t see how he gets the blame since it usually starts with someone *ahemAnnieahem* starts screaming at him as he’s minding his business. But behind all the chaos and ruckus is a sweet lovable guy, and more recently, protector of Foxie who has been unjustly targeted from time-to-time by Jamie and her battle buddy, Missy. Though he gets into these squabbles, he’s always fairly quick to make up with a nice bout of play and some grooming.

This past year, I was lucky enough to attend a conference with other caregivers from around the North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance umbrella. This includes caregivers from Chimp Haven, Save the Chimps, Center for Great Apes, Project Chimps, Fauna Foundation, and others. It was always funny to introduce myself by saying I am a caregiver at CSNW and getting the reaction of who? Where? No fault to any of them. We are a pretty small sanctuary in comparison to the others. But when I would describe where we were located and our chimpanzee residents, it was almost without fail I would just utter the words “Burrito” and all of a sudden getting the reaction “Ooooh Burrito! You are the ones to take care of Burrito!”

Burrito is known and loved not just around this country, but around the world. Especially by his caregivers here. I love arriving at the sanctuary in the morning and trying to get my rounds of saying good morning to the chimps but not being able to get very far in the process. It’s almost immediately when I unlock the door leading to the chimpanzee areas that signature sound of Bronx cheers can start to be heard. I swear at this point I hear his Bronx cheers to the tune of the Jaws theme music now. First it’s subtle and in the distance. But then it grows louder, grows closer, and the frequency picks up as he hones in on his caregiver prey… err I mean play partner. And what luck for him, one of his good friends, caregiver Krissy, was the one who got the privilege to plan his birthday party. Boy did she knock this one out of the park. They day was filled with coconuts, pasta, and everything bouncy! He seemed to really love today, so major kudos to Krissy.

I’ll wrap this up and let you enjoy the video of him enjoying himself today with this message: Burrito is my friend. He is all of our friend! For me personally though I truly don’t know where I’d be without this guy in my life. I’m proud to call him my friend. Besides all the play and laughter, he inspires me in more ways than one. One of the most important lessons he has taught me is that tough times will come. But no matter how long or how tough those times may be, enjoy living in the now. Soak in the moment. Learn your lesson (if there is one). Move on. Get through it with play and laughter with your loved ones. It softens the hard times.

I love you my friend! We all do!

Bovine Birthdays, Pasture Pedicures, and a Trip to the Vet

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Today is Honey‘s 18th Birthday! To celebrate, Diana brought over a basket of special treats from the chimp house, plus some pears from our very own orchard.

The cattle recently underwent their biannual foot trimmings. To trim our cows’ hooves, we utilize the services of a professional trimmer who brings specialized equipment that lifts the cows onto their sides and briefly restrains their legs. If their feet are in good shape, the trimming takes less than a minute per foot and the cows are quickly back to their normal routine.

Here, Meredith gets medications and vaccinations before being released from the chute:

Facilities and Grounds Technician, Teresa, adjusts Honey’s halter while the trimmer works on Honey’s feet:

Most trimmings are uneventful, but during Betsy’s trim, we discovered an anomaly in the medial claw of her back foot. It turned out to be an abscess—a fairly common injury, but one that would normally result in lameness. Betsy had showed absolutely no signs of discomfort whatsoever. She is one tough cow!

The abscess was opened up and drained and Besty was given medication and a bandage tough enough for a cow (is there anything duct tape can’t do?):

Dr. Erin conducted further exams, complete with x-rays, in the days following. Here, she utilizes standing sedation in one of our barn stanchions to safely treat Betsy’s foot:

After getting Betsy’s hoof cleaned up and examined, we attached a block for her comfort. Blocks are wood or polyurethane prosthetics thay are applied with a high-strength adhesive to a cow’s good claw when they have an injury which may be painful—this allows their weight to bear on the good side of their foot and relieves pressure on the painful side.

Radiographs of Betsy’s foot showed the possibility of bone changes near the abscess, so Dr. Erin felt a trip to the Washington State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital was warranted, just to be safe. Besty was loaded into our trailer for a trip to Eastern Washington for the afternoon:

The team at WSU, led by Dr. Olivarez, is highly skilled at bovine medicine and, just as importantly, they are incredibly caring and compassionate:

Once in the hospital, Betsy’s is led down an alley and into a stall:

Similar to a foot trim, she is then tilted onto her side:

Besty was given a thorough examination and treatment. Thankfully, the pathology was determined to be limited to the hoof and the vet team thought that with a little rest in the barn and proper follow-up care, she would heal just fine. She was then given a new hoof block and bandage:

The folks at WSU thought that Besty, age 18, might have been the oldest cow they had ever treated in the hospital.

When we got back to the barn late that night, Betsy was immediately greeted by her long-time herd mates who very clearly missed her:

We are hopeful that Betsy will be able to rejoin the girls in another week or so. For now, she is happy to eat her extra feed without any competition from her bossy friend, Honey:

 

 

Who’s That Chimp?

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George and Cy continue to live together as one step of many in our efforts to integrate George into Cy’s group. There is not much to report at this point, which is good news! They continue to get along well and are navigating the intricacies of living with someone else, including where to nest at night.

Meanwhile, life goes on throughout the Chimp House. Today everyone is making the most of some sunshine and spending time relaxing in their Greenhouses. A certain someone came up to greet me as I was walking around the Chimp House, looking for inspiration for this blog. So now…let’s play a game of “Who’s that chimp?!” I’ve placed the photos in order of hardest to identify to easiest (in my opinion). See how few photos it takes for you to guess who it is!

Time to get your final guesses in!! Scroll down to reveal the answer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s Lucky! She was enjoying watching the camera as I took photos, and sat patiently as I did my best to capture even a little bit of her beauty in a photo. In case you missed it – Caregiver Jenna threw a great party to celebrate Lucky’s birthday this week!

Speaking of birthdays…Willy B’s birthday is coming up on November 30th, and we’d like to get him as many durable bouncy toys as we can! He loves to bounce and throw them (and Gordo enjoys them too!). If you’d like to send some durable bouncy toys for Willy B’s birthday, check out our Chewy wish list and consider donating any of the Ruff Dawg toys from our list.