Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

chad

Send Love to the Caregivers

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Today is Animal Sanctuary Caregiver Day, a day co-founded by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS) & the North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance (NAPSA), as a way to celebrate and recognize the contributions of animal caregivers to the sanctuary field.

You know how amazing the staff and volunteer caregivers are at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. You know they are some of the most big-hearted, hard working people out there. They take their jobs seriously and put everything  into providing for the chimpanzees and bovines.

Their hard work and the results of that work are shared every day through this blog for you to get a glimpse into what sanctuary life is all about.

For this year’s Animal Sanctuary Caregiver Day, I once again invite you to share your thoughts about the staff and volunteer caregivers and the work they do in the comments. Let’s hear it for the caregivers!

staff caregiver Katelyn with Foxie
staff caregiver Anna preparing morning medication for the chimps
staff caregiver Kelsi placing a lunch forage up high on Young’s Hill
staff caregiver Chad playing with Burrito
staff caregiver Grace helping with Terry’s tooth extraction in the clinic
staff caregiver Jenna kissing Lucky through a window
staff caregivers Sabrina and Krissy serving Jamie’s group together
staff caregiver Ellen loving on Meredith
volunteer caregiver and occasional fill-in staff caregiver Dusty wrapping presents for the chimps

And a huge shout-out to all of the volunteers, who play various important caregiving roles. If you are interested in volunteering, visit our volunteer page!

P.S. The Sweet 16 Online Auction features a painting, Spring Rayne, by staff caregiver Ellen! Bid on it to celebrate all caregivers and the many talents they bring to our world!

Ill Communication

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Chimpanzees are amazing communicators. Other than their vocalizations we all know and love, chimpanzees also use a wide array of gestures to communicate. Jamie is one of the best at this. As you might be aware, Jamie is a being with some very particular tastes. When she wants something, she usually won’t let up until she gets it. Sometimes this takes several tries. Sometimes it takes more than one person to decipher Jamie’s code. In this case it was both! As you can see in the video, Jamie would point at J.B., then point at me. It took us a little while, but we ended up figuring it out! She wanted the thing J.B. was carrying and the thing I was carrying, and for us to put them together. It now seems kind of obvious in hindsight, but in the moment, it was really, really confusing.

Here are some bonus photos from today’s lunch forage!

Willy B

Gordo

with Willy B

Rayne during breakfast

Grooming Party

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Since you are reading this, you likely know that grooming is an important activity within a chimpanzee group, whether that group is in the wild or in captivity. Because us humans are a part of their social network, we take part in grooming with them, both as the groomer and the groomie (is groomie an actual word? grooming receiver is perhaps the more technical phrase).

Grooming, like many social behaviors, can be somewhat contagious, in that if you see some friends grooming, you might join in or you might find someone else to groom with you.