Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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chimp enrichment

Party Central

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We’ve been living it up here at the sanctuary today! In honor of our 4th Anniversary, today we’ve thrown 4 parties! (If you haven’t already, please check out the amazing retrospective video J.B. put together and posted earlier today– and grab some tissues!)

Party one: Pancakes made by volunteer Denice followed by a lettuce, peanut, and chow forage on Young’s Hill. Unfortunately, it’s been crazy windy all day so no one was too excited to go out to Young’s Hill though a few folks went out to get peanuts (and everyone went out later in the day). And the squeaks over the pancakes were out of this world!

Foxie:

Party two: New enrichment party in the greenhouse. As always, Dick and Robbi collected some great gifts for the chimps. Jamie made sure to check out each and every gift bag today.

Annie tangled herself up in a ball of yarn

Jamie checked out what everything looked like in a new set of binoculars

Party three: Margaritas in the playroom! Well, not really margaritas… it was just yellow Gatorade with lime wedges. But it looked festive!

and the chimps were happy with it!

Annie:

It’s hard to see but Jody is actually licking the bottom of the glass in this photo

Foxie

Jamie

Foxie

Jody

I love the next series of photos. Burrito went through this bag, found a toy with a mirror on it, and proceeded to “admire” how handsome he is. Can ya blame him?

Party Four: Lunch forage in the greenhouse. Mini bell peppers and grapefruit- some of Negra’s favorites!

Jody:

Jamie collected as much as possible, as usual!

And Negra’s birthday would not be complete without nightbags. We did mini nightbags after every meal today. She has been in heaven! The wind has made her want to spend most of the day relaxing in her bed in the playroom (in the one spot where we can’t get photos) but I got a sweet photo of Mr. B enjoying his.

Thanks so much to everyone for making this such a great day!

***Up until about 20 minutes ago, this was going to be the end of my blog post, but as I walked outside to close off Young’s Hill and invite the chimps in for dinner, I found Negra and Foxie out there enjoying some grass. J.B. happened to be out there and reported that when Negra came outside, Foxie greeted her with a big hug and they walked up to the lower platform together. What a wonderful ending to the day! Happy Birthday, Neg!

Team Dora or Team Troll?

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Foxie’s new love of Dora the Explorer continues, but that doesn’t mean she’s dropped troll dolls out of her life.

 

She spent some time with a Dora and a troll doll and a mirror today:

Foxie hold mirror and troll doll

Foxie hold troll and dora

Foxie's hand and foot with Dora

Foxie's hand holding troll doll

 

A sure sign of Foxie’s contentment is when she rubs her toes together, like in the photo below and in this video from a couple of years ago. If you’re wondering what the powdery stuff on Foxie’s feet is – it’s pollen. The pollen has been blowing off the trees like snow all week!

Foxie toe-rubbing

Foxie is a-Dora-ble

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Foxie has received so many new Dora the Explorer dolls in the last week- mostly from her great friend, Leslie Sodaro, who has been collecting for the last several weeks. We tied several together with a string, which resulted in some a-DORA-bleness.

Foxie has such great friends! On behalf of the lady herself, thanks so much to all for keeping Foxie so happy and enriched!

Foxie’s tongue is famous

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If you’ve liked us on Facebook, you’ve probably seen some posts recently about Foxie’s reaction to the new GoPro camera in news articles around the world. Today, the article was posted on Huffington Post. (Click the link to go to the article).

Just to correct a misunderstanding—Foxie does still love trolls and other dolls (like Dora!) but she is not still carrying around Trixie, her original troll. She will sometimes find a troll or doll that she likes enough to carry around for a few days, but not much longer than that. (Also, as many of you know, the chimps were rescued close to four years ago—not just last year like that article says. However, it was just last year that they were given access to a 2-acre habitat of relative freedom).

In this picture, Foxie’s got her tongue out, and both a troll and Dora doll in her hand.

A colorful, crunchy lunch

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The chimps had what only could be described as a gorgeous lunch in the greenhouse today– mini bell peppers, carrots, rhubarb and red grapefruit. Not only was it delicious, but it was colorful too.

Annie and her mini bell peppers:

The rhubarb came from volunteer Renee’s garden. She brought it out yesterday when she came out to help me in the chimps’ garden (Thanks, Renee!). I’ve never thought the chimps liked rhubarb all that much, but they seemed to enjoy it today. Here’s Missy munching on hers:

Annie:

Foxie was especially content with lunch. She kicked back with a couple of carrots

and you know you’ve done good when you catch her rubbing her troll’s belly.