Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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chimp enrichment

Off With Your Head

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Today, we put out two new stuffed animals that I thought Burrito would really like. However, Burrito never got the chance to play with them… Interestingly enough, Foxie who never really has cared about stuffed animals gravitated to them. She played/inspected them for a short time and then moved on. Later, Sabrina and I went to clean the front rooms, when we happened upon a crime scene, a rather graphic one at that. Both victims, stuffed animals, had the same fate- both had been decapitated, that is a pattern! But who would do that?

Foxie is known to be:

Sweet:

Silly:

Kind:

Loving:

You’d never know the more sinister side:

Again, we apologize for such disturbing photos. We suspect the stuff animals only made it 30 minutes after Foxie received access to the Playroom. The evidence does show that Foxie was last seen with the victims and was heard beating her babies, which is a common game she plays, in the front rooms where our first victim was found. This game is reported to get a little loud and often involves a hammer, spatula, or object to “hit” the babies. Foxie was also seen fleeing the crime scene. So we are pretty sure it was Foxie, the one you’d never suspect…

Victim #1, found in Front Room 1:

Victim #2, found in Playroom :

No Hill, No Problem

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Today JB has been working with a crew of people to make improvement’s to Young’s Hill, including finishing the new structures, planting more trees and adding irrigation. You would think this would make for a very stir crazy group of chimpanzee’s but they all managed to take it in stride and have a relatively quiet day together. It helps that they had a lot of activities and enrichment to keep them busy including juice pools, TV time and, of course, supervising Jake when he was left alone to mow on Young’s Hill. Join Jamie & Co for a day in the Chimp House in today’s blog video!

Indoor Recess

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Brrrrr! It has been cooooold. Luckily, it will start to warm up a little after today, at least in the afternoons. Since it has been so cold and the chimps haven’t been able to go outside, we have been trying to make sure the chimps have a lot of enrichment opportunities such as forages, food puzzles, and of course snow cones. As you will see in the video, Honey B has no problem keeping her friends busy! When watching the video I can’t believe all three of those girls can fit on that leaf, they have such great balance. I hope that you all are staying warm and this video warms your heart like it did ours. Also a special thanks to Grace for lending me the amazing video footage!

We have been using Stur (water liquid enhancer) to help spice up the snow that we put out as enrichment! We are getting a little low on the Stur as well as some other items, check out our Amazon Wish List if you would like to help us stock up. 🙂

Our current situation:

Jamie loved her “snow cone” was dragging the sandbox with her everywhere! Don’t worry we put out smaller snow cone buckets for everyone else:

Jamie snuggled up with her Lucy book in a cozy nest:

Rayne during the lunch forage:

Willy B:

Honey B picking through the forage in the green house:

Gordo with a whole lot of chow:

Mave:

Terry:

Bubba’s Bouncy Ball!

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Enriching chimpanzees is hard work. We have particular guidelines to ensure that the chimps will not consume something unsafe and that the item of enrichment cannot harm them. Sometimes, we think an enrichment item will be so perfect, only for it to arrive and realize it was made of a material the chimps can’t have. Caregiver Chad did a lot of research on the Jolly Ball that we wanted to give to Burrito on his birthday, but when it arrived it was leaning towards a little to soft of plastic to give to the chimps. However, this morning we were discussing how we knew he would love it soooo much! We decided that we could keep a close eye on the Jolly ball and that if it was destroyed we could remove it. When we showed Burrito his belated birthday present his eyes lit up! Once their group was invited back into their freshly cleaned Playroom, Burrito immediately grabbed it. He was beaming with joy. I think you will all be pleased to know that the ball is still alive and well!

This is a screen grab from the video. I know the quality of the photo might not be great, but it might be the best part of the whole video!

Holy Sheet!

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We recently asked for a few new sheets on the Wish List. As some of you might know, Rayne and Honey B seem to really like sheets, whether they are used for nesting, fashion, or playing! So overall bedding sheets are a great form of enrichment! The chimps can only have the flat sheets due to the elastic on the bottom sheets, however once we received and checked that they were chimp approved we put the sheets out on Rayne’s side. It was the first thing Rayne grabbed as you will see in the video! Honey B likes to think outside of the box, so she decided to use her sheets a little differently! If anyone has new/gently used top sheets they would like to donate for the chimps, we would be happy to take them off your hands!

Rayne with new sheets:

Just pictures of Rayne:

Jamie also likes to use them for nesting:

Now for the bonus photos!

Jamie scored big today on the forage, she only wanted corn apparently:

Negra was happy with her one ear of corn:

Jamie grooming Negra while Missy grooms Jamie:

**Reminders corner** Don’t forget we have lots of stuff still on the Wish List for Gordo’s birthday! Yesterday, we started selling tickets for HOOT!, you can join us in-person on September 9th or virtually! We can’t wait to celebrate with everyone, don’t miss out on the early bird pricing happening right now!

Book Club

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It’s no secret that quite a few of our residents here at CSNW enjoy looking through magazines and books. They all have their favorites, which got me thinking – let’s chat CSNW Book Club recommendations!

First up, we have recommendations from our O.G. chimp group, the Cle Elum 7. Jamie’s first recommendation would be I’m Lucy: A Day in the Life of a Young Bonobo by Mathea Levine. This has been Jamie’s favorite for a while now, along with the sequels Bonobo Lucy Grows Up and Is Bonobo Lucy Singing? She has a knack for knowing where the current copy is at all times. Today, for example, we were cleaning the playroom on the seven’s side. We had just swept up the floor and taken the trash can out when Jamie started gesturing at the trash can. I looked behind it, beside it, and below it to try and figure out what she wanted. I couldn’t find anything, but she kept gesturing. Finally, I looked inside the trash can and there lay her current copy of I’m Lucy: A Day in the Life of a Young Bonobo. Thankfully, it had stayed clean and I was able to grab it, wipe it off, and give it to her. She happily grabbed it and went off to nest with it in her hip pocket! Crisis averted.

I think Jamie would also recommend anything a la National Geographic, especially if it featured mummies. Extra points if it’s a cowboy boot book, too!!

On the other side of the chimp house, Cy would recommend something a little in the pop-culture scene. At the top of his list: People Magazine.

Often, when we take him a new magazine we will be met with excited grunts before Cy comes down to grab it and take it away for his own private reading session.

Some of the humans at CSNW are also very into reading. If you’re looking for a book to expand your knowledge of chimpanzees, we would recommend The New Chimpanzee by Craig Stanford. A few other favorites are Next of Kin by Roger Fouts, Through a Window by Jane Goodall, and In the Shadow of Man by Jane Goodall.

A few other staff recommendations, that are not chimpanzee related, are How to Be Perfect by Michael Schur (Diana’s pick), Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer (Grace’s pick), The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lax by Rebecca Skloot (Sabrina’s pick), and The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism by Doris Kearns Goodwin (Chad’s pick). We’d love it if you would share your latest good reads with us in the comments! 🙂

And don’t forget- we are gearing up to celebrate Cy’s 33rd birthday on March 12th! We are planning a library themed birthday party for our book worm and have added the things we need to our Amazon wish list. Click here if you want to help us celebrate Cy’s birthday!

On a similar note, we are always looking for donations of magazines. If you have extras laying around, please consider sending them to us at PO Box 952 Cle Elum, WA 98922. Or, if you are local, drop them off at The Whole Pet Shop in Roslyn! Thanks in advance! 🙂

Bonus Photos:

Mave and Dora , hanging out, while Mave holds Dora’s foot

Burrito being handsome during a morning play session:

Foxie being her goofy self: