Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

chimp rescue

Play Day Tuesday

by

As caregiver Grace and I were cleaning Burrito’s playroom, I saw him and Missy engage in a fun play session. They were having such a fun time, the play session lasted a very long time. Every time I tried to pull away from recording to help Grace clean, they would engage in a different game that I had to record.

Here are some bonus photos as well!

Annie eating her breakfast chow biscuits while watching the construction crew work on Young’s Hill.

Gordo also watching the construction while sitting inside a Prima-Rocker in the Oakwood Greenhouse.

Then sitting in one of his favorite spots, the window ledge.

Mave waiting for lunch service to begin.

Negra still cozy in her nest as I said good morning to her when I got in.

Lucky being beautiful as always!

And this guy! I can only imagine what is going through his head.

Oh right! Playing! That’s what’s on his mind!

And don’t forget, Giving Day for Apes is right around the corner! Tuesday, October 11th to be exact! You can help us by donating on our page or by creating a fundraiser page of your own! Be sure to check out when the Power Hours are and other prizes on the 11th to try to make your contribution more impactful!

Family Ties

by

A few weeks ago, we asked you to submit your questions for us to answer. One question that was asked a few times by different people was if the siblings spend more time with each other than those not related to them.

In case there is anybody new, there are several siblings, full and half, in the group from the Wildlife Waystation. Cy and Lucky are full siblings. Rayne and Honey B are half siblings to each other as well as to Cy and Lucky. They all share the same father: Herbie.

Honey B:

Rayne:

Lucky:

Cy:

Dora and Gordo are also half siblings through their father: Les. Since Dora and Gordo were in the same group for several years and arrived here together, I assume the questions were based on the Herbie Clan. I will say that Dora and Gordo are great friends and spend a lot of time together.

Cy, Lucky, and Rayne arrived here last year with their group, while Honey B arrived here almost three years ago with Willy B and Mave. Though they are all related at least through their father, there is little to no indication they are aware of it. They all interact with each other at least once throughout the day in some way shape or form.

Lucky, for the most part, keeps to herself. Cy spends a lot of time keeping the group in order. Rayne is a social butterfly. Honey B interacts when and with whom she wants to interact at any given point.

Though Honey B shows the respect Cy deserves as the group’s alpha, they aren’t seen together that much. Honey B and Lucky do play with each other from time to time, but it’s not really a daily occurrence. Honey B and Rayne, on the other hand, do spend quite some time together almost every day with playing, grooming, or “mall walking.” I imagine they would be walking around their “mall” with coffees in hand if they had the chance.

Their is some physical resemblance between Honey B and Rayne, but it’s mostly if you catch them at certain angles. And if there is one thing all four of them have in common, they all can be very stubborn. (Examples: 1 & 2 ) It hasn’t been written about as much, but Rayne used to hold out when we tried to shift them out of an area early on when she first arrived. (Fingers crossed that was just a phase and I didn’t just jinx it!) Other than that, all four are very unique from one another. And ultimately, there is no difference between the time they spend with each other and the other unrelated chimpanzees.

If you still have some lingering questions, it’s never too late to submit them! You can still do so on the original post!

Rayne and Honey B:

Cy:

Lucky:

Some bonus photos of Burrito during today’s lunch forage:

The Unsuspecting Friendship

by

Today, my phone sent me a notification of a memory from last year. One year ago, the quarantine period for the Lucky Six ended and got to be closer to their neighbors (at the time): Willy B, Honey B, and Mave. It doesn’t feel like it has been a year, but at the same time it feels like it’s been over a year. A lot has happened since, like the Lucky Six’s “neighbors” aren’t their neighbors anymore. They are one big group. Since they have been living together for almost three months, it’s hard at times to think they were ever two separate groups.

One of the budding relationships we didn’t anticipate in this new group was that of Mave and Dora. During the introduction process, Mave and Dora didn’t necessarily have bad interactions. Their interactions just were never the best. Lackluster is a word that could describe it. They were mostly low key and in short spurts. After the full integration, their friendship really started to come to fruition. At first, it seemed like Mave would just follow Dora constantly with Dora trying to get away. As the weeks went by, and Mave showed Dora what support she could offer as a friend, Dora stopped trying to escape Mave. Or at least as much. There are still times when Dora does want her alone time, but Mave now seems to get the hint when that is. Mave will leave her alone for a little while (but not too long), interact with the others, before returning to Dora.

It is now not an uncommon sight to find these two together in the afternoon, side-by-side.

One day, I even found them like this. Laying down, holding hands, and just staring at each other.

Later on, something startled Dora. I couldn’t see what caused Dora to become upset, but she started alarm calling, followed by screaming, before racing off into the Riverview Greenhouse. Mave was in the other room, but she heard Dora and followed the screams to the greenhouse. As Mave emerged from the Marmot Playroom, Dora leaped towards Mave and they embraced in the most endearing hug I have seen.

That hug seemed to calm Dora down.

I, for one, personally cannot wait to see how this friendship blossoms even further!

Here are some bonus photos from today!

Gordo eating some fingerling potatoes at lunch:

Jamie enjoying a raspberry branch as browse:

Terry in the Riverview Greenhouse with a mouthful of water and wadge in hand:

Jody watching some construction around Young’s Hill:

And resting in the afternoon:

Annie foraging for some pre-breakfast prickly lettuce:

Burrito racing toward me as I was taking the above photo, telling me it’s time to race:

Rayne relaxing inside where it’s cooler:

Dora in her patent Happy Dora Pose:

Cy grooming Mave grooming Willy B:

Cy catching up on all the latest celebrity news a couple of days ago:

We also want to thank our friends at Tru Earth! About a year ago, as an ongoing effort to reduce our environmental footprint, we switched the detergent we use to wash the chimpanzee’s blankets. Tru Earth were kind enough to start a fundraiser store just for us. Twenty percent of every purchase made from this unique URL will go toward the chimpanzees! If you are in need of cleaning supplies or other eco-friendly products, please consider shopping at this site!

Welcome to Lucky’s Playhouse

by

I am somewhat sorry for the redundancy of play videos, but I’m sure no one will mind. This play session happened a few days ago. It started out with Lucky playing a game of chase with caregiver Katelyn. Then Honey B couldn’t resist the urge to join in on the fun. Then slowly more and more chimpanzees joined in! And don’t worry! Though Cy and Willy B were not a part of this play session, they were elsewhere grooming with each other. They were off having their own quality time.

Here are some photos taken in between filming the play session:

Lucky, Dora, Gordo, and Terry play:

Dora and Rayne:

And here are some photos from today!

Rayne excitedly watching from a bird’s eye view as breakfast is being brought out:

Dora taking an afternoon nap in the Riverview Greenhouse:

Willy B excited about a pool full of Gatorade:

The Boss Has Returned

by

First thing is first. I want to apologize to you all! With all the excitement of planning, setting up, and watching Dora’s birthday celebration yesterday, I forgot to provide all of you, our wonderful supporters and followers, an update on Jamie’s recovery. Dr. Erin said she was recovering so well that she could be reunited with her family, and just in time for the Tiny Forage Celebration yesterday. I will take the blame on that one.

Yes! The boss has returned and it was as if nothing had happened during her absence. She seamlessly reestablished herself in her group with no fuss from the others. We are still monitoring her recovery sites to make sure everything continues to heal properly and no one messes with it too much. *ahem*Dr. Missy*ahem*

With Jamie’s couple day absence, she has been eager to get back to her morning patrols around Young’s Hill.

While we were on our first patrol of the day, I watched as both Missy and Annie foraged for morning prickly lettuce.

With it being such a nice day, Missy and Annie’s morning foraging made it seem like it was a great day to hold a lunch forage. Since we had some leftovers from yesterday’s celebration, and they seemed excited for that menu, we included that into their lunch! (With the addition of bok choy.)

As they went onto Young’s Hill, Jamie was carrying a bag of primate chow that was given to her earlier. As she made her way up the hill, she decided she couldn’t be bothered carrying around her bag of chow. Once she left her bag behind, there was a very exciting food grunting of the one who snatched it up. It was none other than Negra!

Jamie seemed to think carrying around her chow occupied her hands, which she needed to grab as much food as she could:

Missy made her rounds collecting as many tomatoes as should could:

Jody made off with a nice haul:

After finishing the extra bag of chow she “found,” Negra’s eyes were set on bok choy:

And then there’s this guy:

He was enjoying his forage and got a good amount…

Until this…

After having his fill, he noticed this caregiver taking photos.

And the Bronx cheers began:

It was off to the races for us and that ended my photography duties on that side of the Chimp House for the day.

It was a pleasant day all around!

*Bonus Photos*

Willy B, Dora, and Mave in a grooming line:

Rayne eating her dinner corn:

Once again, I want to thank everyone involved in making yesterday possible. Without your support and donations, we wouldn’t be able to throw such a successful party! There are other way to help as were continue our day-to-day tasks and prepare for our next celebration (Honey B’s birthday June 11th!). Be sure to check out our wishlist to see what we need to continue providing the best care that we can for these 20 (bovine included) unique personalities.

Days like Today

by

After taking in several days of great weather, we are back to winter conditions. What started off as rain, quickly turned into snow, with it supposed to last throughout the afternoon and into the night. With a day like today, the chimpanzees are spending most of the day in their nests on the upper story, where it is nearly impossible to get any photos. But who can blame them. It’s the perfect day to just cozy up and nap.

I was able to get some sporadic photos here and there though.

Terry greeting me in the morning.
Jody resting in the front rooms in her nest.
Mave came down for a few minutes before going back up to her nest.
Cy enjoying the latest gossip magazine.
Honey B with her turnips during lunch.
Honey B! (That’s a tomato seed on her lip.)

Dinner Nook

by

We’ve been exploring some pretty big topics lately. Earlier this week I emailed the link to those who registered for the recorded discussion with Jen Feuerstein on introductions/merging groups of chimpanzees, and yesterday J.B. shared his thoughts on the difficult topic of chimpanzee medical procedures.

As a departure from those deep dives into some of the bigger challenges of caring for chimpanzees in captivity, today’s blog post is just a little story from today’s day of sanctuary.

Many of the chimpanzees have favorite dining spots, places where they take their food to enjoy at their leisure. In the greenhouse, Jamie makes a a dining nook out of the smallest and highest windowsill between the greenhouse and the playroom. When I was spot-cleaning the playroom tonight, I found Jamie happily eating dinner in her nook. Though it’s not the easiest place to get to from the ground level where Sofía had served the chimps, Jamie had managed to bring the haul of food to the sill.

One huge advantage that Jamie has being the boss of her group is that she can temporarily abandon her food and generally remain confident that no one will take it. Actually, a lot of conflicts start in her group when someone else attempts to take food that Jamie has either been given directly or that she has decided belongs to her. To Jamie, taking food is a very big misstep that requires an immediate and dramatic reaction, even if, in all fairness, it was not clear that the food was hers. If you live with Jamie, it’s safest to assume everything belongs to her and proceed with caution if you see food that appears to be available for the taking.

Tonight, while in her nook, Jamie spotted a piece of beet on the lower platform, so she left her dinner behind to retrieve it. No one came near her food or the beet that she had claimed.

So she was free to get the bonus beet and traverse back to her nook to finish dining.

As I was closing up for the day, Jamie was motioning urgently to get my attention. When she had effectively secured by gaze, she gestured again and then ran into the greenhouse. I had already locked the human door that gave me access to the outside, but she was very insistent, so I unlocked. I expected that she wanted me to deliver her some snow, but as soon as I entered the human portion of the greenhouse, I saw that there were two pieces of rutabaga on the human side of the mesh outside of her reach. I picked them up and gave them to her, and she rewarded my obedience with a very happy moan before climbing back up to her nook with her second helping.