Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Burrito

Phantom Nesting

by

Although we have never witnessed Burrito build his own nest with blankets, as we have mentioned in other blog posts, he will often sleep in someone elses’ nest. Today, I caught Burrito engaging a behavior we, at CSNW, call Phantom Nesting. This is a behavior both he and Foxie occasionally do, which involves clapping and running their clasped hands along the fence, the wall, and/or the floor. Interestingly, this is not a behavior that is seen in the wild, and is rarely seen at all. As far as we know, the behavior has only been observed in a few captive individuals, but definitely seems to be related to nesting.

*Editor’s Note (from Diana): we don’t know much about this behavior. We’d love to hear from others who work with chimpanzees both in captivity and in the wild to find out if you’ve observed nesting behavior in the absence of “normal” nesting material and/or if you’ve seen the same clapping and arm movements described above and shown in the video below.

B-day

by

I think it’s safe to say that Burrito has had a pretty terrific birthday. Since the guy is all about food, we decided to make his day all about food, too. At 8:30 I invited the chimps into the front rooms for breakfast. Everyone came in (though Jamie almost decided against it — she was enjoying watching the greenhouse construction outside from a window in the playroom loft), so volunteer Denice served a tasty breakfast while I started the playroom clean-up. After breakfast, Denice joined me in the playroom to finish up cleaning. By about 10:45, the playroom was clean and blankets, birthday presents from Cle Elum Seven friend Robbi, and a forage of fruit, nuts, and Cheerio necklaces were set out.

While the chimps enjoyed the treats in the playroom, we cleaned the front rooms, and then the real fun began. Today we did away with our usual three-meal-a-day schedule in favor of frequent snacks, so that Burrito could enjoy his favorite time of day (mealtime!) all day long. He was pretty pleased with the idea, as you’ll see in this all-Burrito video (thanks so much to supporter and friend Tamela for the awesome new camera!).

Everyone’s excited about Burrito’s birthday

by

MailChimp changed their login page to wish Burrito a Happy Birthday! Check it out here.

We have cool new benefits for Chimpanzee Pal sponsors, so if you’d like to sponsor Burrito, like MailChimp does, learn more: https://chimpsnw.org/you_can_help/donate/#ChimpPal

We’ll post all about Burrito’s festivities soon. We decided to make his day all about food (of course!), and his friend Robbi brought some presents too.

Sponsor a Day of sanctuary and here’s to 2010!

by

Sarah came up with a great idea to allow people to sponsor a day of sanctuary. It’s just $100 and you can pick any day! More info and a calendar here. I’ve already signed up in remembrance of my mom’s birthday on Sept. 12th and Tom Chimpanzee‘s celebrated birthday on May 1st.

The Sponsor a Day program was announced in the e-newsletter sent out this morning, but I thought I’d share my excitement about the program and way of honoring others here on the blog too.

In other news, J.B. is working on the greenhouse in this strange sun-and-snow weather right now, and we’re planning for Burrito’s birthday on January 6th. Once everyone is back from their respective short vacations, we’ll sit down and prioritize some fundraising ideas for all of you eager blog supporters. Thanks so much again for raising the funds for the chimp proof window! J.B. has been talking with the steel contractors and trying to figure out a time line for installation, which will probably be weather-dependent. Oh, and I’ve begun to work with Kristi of Vintage Vine and Margie and Nicole to plan the late winter/early spring wine tasting in the upper county – Sippin for the Seven was so much fun last year that we’d love to make it an annual event.

Never a dull moment!

Thank you all for making 2009 full of fun and new experiences for both the chimpanzee and the human people at CSNW.  I can’t wait to see what 2010 brings!

Party in the evening

by

A few photos of the dinner fun. The Tofurky dinner was a big hit, and of course, everyone loves cranberry sauce. Oh! And shots of punch (see Negra in the third photo below). A day full of food grunting!

Party!

by

Here are a few photos from the party thus far. We really can’t thank you all enough for the gifts and donations you sent to make this day so special for the chimpanzees in Cle Elum. They certainly do love a party. Little does Burrito knows his birthday is just around the corner! Hope you’re having a great day too!