Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Evening enrichment puzzles are given to all of the chimps at the close of the day, when staff are finishing tasks before leaving for the night. Watch the video to see how Jody and Burrito use tools and their own creativity to get at the peanut butter in the bottom of the containers.
Burrito
A day of sanctuary was sponsored for the chimpanzees and Sarah Sweeney today by Brynn Edwards! Brynn shared this message for Sarah:
“This is to celebrate Sarah’s birthday! She is one of the most generous people and all she wanted for her birthday is to help these chimps. Thank you Sarah!”
Sarah, thank you so much for wanting to celebrate the chimpanzees for your own birthday! We are so grateful to both you and Brynn for choosing to share your generosity with the chimps and for being part of filling their lives with love, comfort, joy and care. Have a beautiful day and we hope it’s the best birthday yet!
One of my favorite series of photos of these two friends, Burrito and Foxie:
We all know the eyes speak volumes. (Burrito sustained a minor scratch during an argument, but nothing to be concerned about).
But I am endlessly fascinated by the chimpanzees’ fingers and toes and the non-verbal communication they convey. So like ours, yet so different. And once you get to know the chimps, their individual personalities, thoughts and moods are reflected in their physical gestures just like ours. Jamie uses emphatic hand gestures when she wants to impress the urgency or importance of something, Annie claps her feet together when she’s happy, and Negra impudently claps her hands when the humans aren’t moving fast enough. They are always expressing themselves, we just have to pay attention.
Burrito bites his knuckles when he’s feeling shy and playful:
Foxie rubs her toes together when she’s particularly happy:
If you’ve been following the blog for awhile you’ve probably seen us frequently writing about various aspects of safety and security. Things like the fact that we never enter an area that the chimpanzees have access to, the importance of clearly identifying each chimpanzee and which areas they do have access to all, as part of our safety checks before we enter an area we need to clean. (Diana mentioned chimp ID in a recent blog post as part of the training our Level II and III volunteers and interns go through.)
Of course the chimps don’t give two hoots (no pun intended) if we can identify them when we need to or not. We often have to twist and turn and climb and crawl and contort into all manner of positions in an attempt to positively identify each person. Many times all we might be able to see is an ear, a finger – or maybe a bum and some toes – so it can be a challenge to gain a better view.
For example, any ideas who this is?
As a disclaimer and if you’re new to the blog you are going to see the chimps behind caging in some of the following photos and it may appear they are limited to a small cage. The chimps tend to seek out small, cozy corners to nest in (don’t most of us?) and are often up against the caging so we can’t always get close enough to get a photo or to get one safely. And the reality is, the chimpanzees are captive beings, no matter how much space and light we provide through the designs of their enclosure, it is just that, an enclosure. While none of us like to see the chimps behind caging, it’s a reality for their safety as well as ours. And keep in mind they have 1800 square feet of open enclosure with stairs, a catwalk, bridges, ledges, fire hoses, a green house with tiered platforms and their beloved 2-acre outdoor enclosure, Young’s Hill.
We never identify a chimpanzee based on what items they may or may not have with them, but they definitely give us some clues. Any ideas who the following people are?:
The chimp house was SO quiet and peaceful and the only sound in the greenhouse was the rain falling on the roof. It’s not super common to have everyone sound asleep at the same time so I tried not to disturb anyone with my photo taking. But as quiet as I tried to be, nothing, and I mean nothing, gets by chimpanzees so it wasn’t long before a couple people began waking up to see what I was doing (I would tell you who is in the next three photos, but I don’t want to give away the above photos!):
Foxie was sound asleep on the floor of the front rooms, but despite my tactic of lying on my belly and crawling to sneak up to her, well, you see how that went.
The natural lighting that shines through the window in one of the Front Rooms (one area of the chimps’ indoor living space), makes all the difference when taking photos of the chimps. We call this area “The Portrait Studio.” The lighting bathes them in a natural glow and makes most photos of them more crisp and clear than photos taken of them anywhere else in the indoor enclosures.
Burrito
Negra
The chimpanzees celebrated the day of love with a series of casual forages featuring some of their favorite foods. Here are a just a few highlights from their breakfast forage:
Thanks to everyone who helped share the chimp love this year!
Most meals for the Cle Elum Seven include fresh fruits and vegetables, along with primate chow biscuits. Nuts and seeds are also given to the chimps each day. And on occasion, we prepare special treats for the chimps and today was one of those special occasion days. We served the cake that was made for Dr. Elliott Sumers birthday. Cake ingredients included grated butternut squash, homemade applesauce, chow “dust”, and raisins, then topped with more applesauce, coconut flakes, and banana chips.
To say that the chimpanzees enjoyed the cake would be an understatement!
Jamie
They loved it so much they couldn’t stop licking the plates even after the cake was gone!
Missy
Negra
Jody even brought her plate with her when she ventured outside onto Young’s Hill.
Burrito was pretty excited about the almond milk too!
Tonight, we are also trying a new evening enrichment for the chimps, which we’re calling “grab bags”. It is inspired by a children’s birthday party I went to recently, when each child received a small bag filled with an assortment of goodies and toys; each bag different from the others. Included in tonight’s grab bags, are things like socks with nuts and seeds hidden inside, crumpled up paper with peanut butter smeared on it, kongs tied inside bandanas, etc. We hope they like them!
And here are a few pictures of Annie and Foxie looking beautiful as ever today.
Annie
Foxie
