Burrito

Happy Birthday, Ren!

July 21, 2014 by Katelyn

Today’s day of sanctuary was sponsored by Patrick and Carrie Hardie in honor of Ren’s 19th birthday! Patrick and Carrie sent the following lovely message:

“We are long time supporters of CSNW and couldn’t think of a better way to honor our nephew’s 19th birthday than supporting our favorite seven primates.”

Patrick and Carrie, we are all touched that you would include the chimpanzees in your wish to celebrate Ren’s special day. Thank you so much for thinking of them! Ren, from all of the primates here at CSNW, Happy Birthday!! We hope you’re having a great day!

Burrito:

Alone time is good for the soul

July 21, 2014 by Lisa

**Last week I experienced some technical difficulties trying to post my blog. If you are on Facebook you will already have had the opportunity to watch the video but for those of you who aren’t, here is last week’s blog post, finally!! Please enjoy and check back later for today’s real blog post.**

Chimpanzees are highly social creatures. They rely on a social hierarchy and daily networking as part of the glue that keeps their society functioning. But, just like humans, the chimpanzees benefit from some quality time alone as well. With the temperature in the playroom providing a slight relief from a recent humid heat wave, the chimpanzees took advantage of the opportunity for time to cool off and recharge their social batteries.

Paper bag day

July 19, 2014 by Debbie

First off—today is the Doggie and Troll Olympics! The games are currently underway and although I wish I could be there to enjoy all the fun, Katelyn, myself, and volunteers Connie and Annie are here with the chimps having fun of our own. (If you weren’t able to join the games today, consider making a donation in Foxie’s honor—the troll games, after all, are about Foxie’s love of troll dolls and an early celebration of her August 8th birthday!)

We’re always trying to come up with interesting enrichment themes for the chimps. The other day I noticed how many paper shopping bags we had collected and thought it would be fun to fill them with enrichment and seal them closed so the chimps would have to open them like presents.

Jamie, of course, loved that project—but to my surprise, Burrito found paper bag day to be a big hit! He used them to display with, which is very helpful if you’re a male chimpanzee. And then he methodically went through one bag, but by the time I grabbed the camera, he had emptied it and was using it as a pillow. Who knew paper shopping bags could have so many uses!

Guy time

July 17, 2014 by Debbie

For whatever reason, the chimpanzee caregiver field is largely dominated by women. All of the staff here at CSNW at one point or another were students, interns, and/or staff at the former Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute, where we all learned the ropes of chimpanzee husbandry. In my tenure there, I would estimate it was about a 5:1 ratio of women to men!

At CSNW, we’ve had a handful of men volunteer in the chimp house, and several more that have helped in other ways—groundskeeping and outdoor projects, fundraising, event help, etc. But up until recently, the only men that have been direct caregivers are co-director J.B. and our founder, Keith.

Well, Joel broke a new record in our sixth year of sanctuary and became the very first male volunteer caregiver. Though all the chimpanzees enjoy new friendships, Burrito is especially excited. As you can imagine, living with a group of girls and being taken care of by a group of girls makes guy time all the more valuable!

Don’t worry—J.B. and Keith are still Burrito’s pals, as well as all his female caregivers, too! One of the things we emphasize during our caregiver training is the importance of building a strong relationship based on trust, and we divide our time between all the chimpanzees to avoid fostering any “favorites.” But, just like humans, some personalities click differently and that is totally fine. Burrito seems to really click with his new buddy, which makes all the primates here pretty happy.

An icy smorgasbord

July 16, 2014 by Katelyn

We are at the peak of a long heatwave here at the sanctuary with temperatures hovering in the triple digits for the past week. I found Negra enjoying a moment of peaceful solitude in the still cooler greenhouse early this morning:

But it doesn’t take long for the greenhouse to get too warm on days like this. Much like the humans, the chimpanzees find it too hot to do much of anything and have been spending a lot of their time in the cooler playroom. (Though Jamie still manages to power through her daily walks in the midday heat!). So we thought today should be an ice-filled enrichment day to help keep everyone hydrated and cool.

The chimpanzees love ice so we filled their wading pool, gardening table, wheelbarrow, and buckets with several bags full and then volunteer caregiver-in-training, Sandra, tossed in a few cherries, frozen raspberries from the chimps’ garden, and sunflower seeds to jazz up the forage. There were pant-hoots and food grunts galore.

Burrito was pretty overwhelmed at first and didn’t seem to know where to begin:

But he made good use of those fabulous prehensile lips of his:

Missy and Jody joined Burrito (though Jody was avoiding the paparazzi today):

Missy LOVES ice and she didn’t leave this spot for some time:

Foxie made the rounds of the ice smorgasbord, taking mouthfuls from several locations:

Then for the second frozen course, volunteer caregiver, Steph, showed up with frozen water bottles filled with strawberries and cucumbers! These were a huge hit and Foxie got right to work on these as well:

Annie enjoying hers in the greenhouse:

Surprisingly, I wasn’t able to get any photos of Jamie, but she was beside herself with so much to do and at one point was seen drinking from one of many bottles she had collected and scrubbing the front rooms with a brush and bucket of water (at the same time, of course).

And while this is not a great photo I couldn’t resist sharing Negra, with perhaps the biggest mouthful of all!

Happy Birthday, Brian!

July 12, 2014 by Katelyn

Today’s day of sanctuary was sponsored by Audrey and Jim Spencer in honor of Brian Osborne’s birthday! Brian has volunteered a lot of his time and hard work helping us out with projects around the sanctuary grounds, from the construction of Young’s Hill to when we really needed help cleaning up after the Taylor Bridge wildfire during the summer of 2012. We are so grateful for all he has done to help us improve the chimpanzees’ home.

Audrey and Jim, we are touched that you would choose to include the chimpanzees in Brian’s special day and really appreciate all that you do for them! Brian, all of us here at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest hope you have a great day! Thank you so much for all you do for us and may your kindness return to you tenfold! Happy Birthday!!

Burrito always knows how to celebrate: