Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Burrito

Happy Birthday, Brooke!

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Today’s day of sanctuary was sponsored by Shani Sillence in honor of her goddaughter, Brooke Fiddian, on her 13th birthday! Shani shared this lovely message about today:

“Today is Brooke‘s 13th birthday and I wanted to get her something special. She has a great love for animals and loves everything to do with helping them. I know she will especially love the Chimpanzees at the sanctuary.”

Shani, thank you so much for sponsoring today in honor of Brooke! We are so touched that you thought of the chimpanzees when wanting to celebrate Brooke and her special day!

Brooke, you sound like such an amazing person and we are thrilled to celebrate your birthday with you! Thank you so much for seeing how special animals are and for sharing your day with the chimps – you’ve helped to make their lives better.

We also understand that you and your family recently moved to the United States from Australia! All of us here at the sanctuary send you the warmest of welcomes, both to your new home and to our sanctuary family! Big changes and new places can be exciting and scary all at the same time. These chimpanzees are some of the bravest people I know and they inspire us every day with their courage. Maybe as you get to know them they might offer some inspiration on enjoying all the new things life can bring while holding on to family, friends, and all that brings you love, comfort and happiness.

From all of us here at CSNW, Happy Birthday, Brooke! We hope you have a beautiful day!

Annie, Foxie and Troll:

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Foxie and Dora exploring new territory:

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And since Burrito just celebrated his 33rd birthday, he would probably want to remind you to party by eating your favorite foods. All day. 🙂

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Mr. B’s birthday buffet

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Today we are celebrating our guy, Burrito’s, 33rd birthday! And if you are celebrating Burrito that means you are also celebrating food. We serve the chimpanzees three meals a day by hand and/or forage in addition to a smaller forage, occasional snacks and food puzzles which consist of things like fresh vegetables, seeds and nuts. But today we decided to spread the meal service out and serve something every hour, all day long! Needless to say, Burrito has been enjoying his birthday.

Burrito has been so happy and playful today and has been anxiously watching for what comes next. We started the day off with gift boxes full of nuts and primate chow in the greenhouse as a breakfast appetizer. Anna got this photo of the birthday fella looking particularly sweet, watching through the playroom room window as we set them out:

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After breakfast was served, Burrito took over Jamie’s usual spot atop the barrel in the front rooms and watched us clean the playroom as he awaited the third course of the day. Let me tell you, this adorable guy made it pretty hard to get any work done.

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After the playroom was cleaned, we put out a forage of more nuts in gift boxes and smoothie in tiny cups. Burrito was so excited I had to wait for him to calm down and stop shaking the door leading into the playroom so I could open it. You can see in the photo below how excited he is by his pilo-erect hair (standing on end).

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And though this one is blurry, I love that it captures Burrito’s excitement during the forage – pilo-erect hair and flying across the playroom in mid-air. (It also may give you an idea of why we didn’t have much luck getting party photos – this guy was on the move!):

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Next up was roasted sweet potatoes warm from the oven. Here is caregiver-in-training, Ally, serving the birthday guy:

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After lunch we passed out whole apples which everyone was super excited about and as I type, Burrito is excitedly watching Anna as she prepares one of his very favorites, spaghetti with tomato and pepper sauce, for part of his birthday dinner forage. We still have a couple servings to go and all of the chimps’ seem to have caught on to the theme for the day and have been posted near the kitchen window to see what’s next.

In all the excitement Burrito has been a bit of a wild man, sowing his 33 years of wild oats much of the day and frequently riling up all the girls. But I think it’s safe to say they are all enjoying the day’s celebration of Burrito and food!

Happy Birthday, Burrito!! We love you so much, Bub!!

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What happened today?

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This morning while we were cleaning the Playroom I noticed that the chimps were pretty quiet in the Front Rooms so I went to check on what they were up to. Annie and Missy were on the ledge in room 2 grooming one another, while Burrito sat quietly nearby. Unfortunately, none of the photos I took of Annie and Missy turned out, but the one of Burrito I think is pretty cute.

Burrito
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Negra was on the ledge in room 3 in one of her blanket nests.
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Foxie and Jody were on the ledge in room 4. Jody was just out of camera view, so I couldn’t get any clear photos, but Foxie wasn’t camera shy as she showed me her dora doll.
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I kept walking back and forth looking for Jamie, figuring she must have been in the Greenhouse or on Young’s Hill gathering snow. I kept looking, but couldn’t find her until Katelyn said she was in room 2. I looked again and realized why I missed her. I initially thought it was a pile of blankets, but upon closer inspection, I could see her eyes and top of her head peaking out from her nest.

This photo was actually taken from the Playroom looking back into room 2.
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After we finished cleaning the Playroom, we set out blankets, various sized boxes filled with enrichment items (boots, dolls, paper, brushes, socks, wooden blocks and tools) and filled their new blue bucket with snow. We also put out lettuce as a forage food.

Missy trying to open one of the boxes.
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Sometimes you just have to put your whole body into it when two hands just doesn’t cut it.
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Foxie took some time to inspect (and lick) the box that one of our new office computers came in (thanks again to Diana Petri for purchasing the computers from our Amazon Wishlist).
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Jamie’s first mission was to gather lettuce before checking out any of the boxes or eating any snow.
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Annie sat and ate snow that she took out of the blue bucket.
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And Jody did her best at staying out of camera view by gathering the lettuce we had put out as a forage and heading up to the loft to make a blanket nest in front of one of the windows that overlooks the neighbors farm.

Happy New Year!

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The chimpanzees have spent the last two meals welcoming 2016 in the only way we know how, with back to back forage parties! Last night they had a black and white themed forage complete with a sparkling pear cider “champagne” toast and today we broke out another bottle of cider and the chimpanzees had a New Year’s Day brunch forage.

The party meal..
Pear cider with black eyed peas, persimmons, kale, and a box of mixed nuts:
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The party attendees..
Annie:
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Burrito:
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Jamie licking out smoothie from a tiny glass:
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Jody:
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Missy stacked her plates to keep everything together:
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Negra lost a bit of her brunch on the floor:
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But she still managed to get some of it back to her upstairs nest:
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Foxie was on hand to vacuum up Negra’s lost black eyed peas:
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Foxie again:
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If you haven’t seen it yet, please enjoy this video as we look back on some of the best moments of 2015. Wishing you and yours, a very Happy New Year from all of us at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest!

Take-out or Dine in?

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Lunch time is usually a pretty peaceful affair for the chimpanzees. The morning cleaning has just finished and the chimps get to enjoy their meal in any part of their enclosure that they wish. Usually, most of the chimpanzees will linger in the area that we serve the meal so they don’t miss any of the lunch action. Some chimpanzees (especially Missy), will take their vegetables and eat them in a different area for privacy or comfort.

Today Missy took her vegetables to her nest upstairs in the playroom. She came back to the lunch service to grab the food she was interested in and chose to take it all “to-go.”
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The last course of lunch is small paper bags filled with primate chow (2 per chimpanzee). The bags signal that lunch is over and are convenient for each chimp to take their portions off to their own space. This way, the last part of lunch can be spent leisurely snacking.

Burrito took his portion up the stairs in the playroom.
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Negra saved a pepper to go with her chow bags today.
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Annie made a wadge in her lips with all of her chow.
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And Foxie savored each piece.
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Happy Birthday, Tracy!

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Today, incredibly, we have three supporters sponsoring this day of sanctuary for the chimpanzees! We begin the day with a sponsorship by Tracy Headley, a dear friend (to chimps and humans alike) and member of our sanctuary family. Tracy probably wouldn’t tell you this, but she lives her life every day bringing light, support, comfort and love to so many beings – both human and non. She is celebrating her birthday today and shared this touching message:

“Again this year I celebrate my friends at CSNW on my birthday. Every day of the year they are a gift in my life.”

Happy Birthday, Tracy! Thank you so much for all that you do for the chimpanzees. You hold them in your heart and make a difference in their lives at every opportunity. We are thrilled to celebrate your special day with you and can’t say how happy we are that you are part of our chimpanzee family. You are a special soul and you make the world a better place by being here. We hope you have a fabulous day full of all good things! With lots of hooting!

Here are your pals to help start your celebration off right:

Ms. Foxie:

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Burrito:

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Jody:

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