Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

chimp sanctuary

Chimp ID: Lucky

by

Since Lucky’s group is still new to all of us I thought it would be fun to do another chimp ID. Who better than Lucky to do it with! Lucky is really special. As we get to know her, she is super fun and really silly. There is something in Lucky’s eyes too, they are warm and inviting. She really is just awesome!

Lucky seems to like these scarves we put out as enrichment.

Lucky has no white marks or freckles on her face, but she does have a distinguished white beard.

Lucky isn’t a small chimp, she has a little belly that moves around when she breathy pants, it’s the best!

Lucky has very kind eyes and loves to make deep eye contact with you.

From certain angles Lucky reminds us of Washoe, sometimes Lucky looks just like her!

But Lucky really looks like her full sibling Cy! Lucky has a large browridge, which is why she looks like her brother.

But looks aside there is no one in the world like Lucky, as I said before she is a really special individual!

Soup of the (Birth)Day

by

Today, we celebrated Missy’s 46th birthday with a tomato-themed bash.

Paulette Wrisley made us smile by generously sponsoring this day of sanctuary in Missy’s honor. To make today even more special, our good friend Monica Best also sponsored this day of sanctuary for the same reason! Thank you for thinking of Missy, Paulette and Monica!

As many of you already know, tomatoes are Missy’s favorite food and she gets unashamedly excited about them. In fact, Missy’s love of tomatoes has single-handedly convinced the aforementioned Monica to give these odd fruits another chance (with some success).

Keeping this in mind, Enrichment Coordinator Chad created a chimp-friendly menu of fresh produce centered around whole beefsteak tomatoes. The meal even had an appetizer: a zesty gazpacho-like soup consisting of red bell peppers, celery, coconut milk, garlic, sweet onions, and tomatoes.

All three groups of chimpanzees enjoyed their own parties with the same menu, and the soup was an unexpected hit with some individuals while others ran around gathering sweet peppers and tomatoes. Of course, Missy seemed to have the best day of all. She zoomed around the Greenhouse and Young’s Hill, scarfing down dozens of treats and devouring several large beefsteak tomatoes on her own.

Chad took the following photos and I asked him if I could include them in today’s post! Even if Chad had said “no,” I would have stolen the images from him and taken credit anyway.

Negra
Missy
Burrito
Foxie
Burrito (doing his best impersonation of Missy)

We’re so lucky to have such amazing supporters who make days like today possible, and we can’t possibly express our full appreciation for Paulette, Monica, and everyone else. Thanks you all for loving Missy and her companions as much as we do!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

P.S. I wanted to title this blog post Soups!… I Did It Again but I did some research and that pun is already in use. Apparently, there’s a Wisconsin company using that name for their brand. They actually make soups. I’ve been bested at my own game. Soups.

Play is good for the soul

by

Make sure your volume is up for this video! There’s lots of chimp laughter and breathy pants to go around. Nothing like watching chimps in a good play session! Today there was lots of play happening among The Lucky Six. Any time I would walk by their group this morning there would be different chimps playing. This video highlights Cy and Dora playing, but I also saw Dora playing with Lucky then Rayne, and Gordo playing with Rayne! This warms my heart because recently we have been finding The Lucky Six playing with each other a lot more. Happy chimps = happy caregivers.

 

Enjoy some bonus photos from today!

Annie waiting for Missy so they can explore Young’s Hill.

Sweet Lucky.

The handsome Cy.

Dora and Rayne playing.

Rayne’s play face!

 

 

Burrito is the light in all of our lives

by

You’ve probably seen a video just like this in the past if you’ve been following the blog for a bit, but playing with Burrito never gets old. Head nod along as you watch the video above!

 

Bonus photo of Mave:

 

Two Years with the Amazing Three!

by

Today is Honey B, Willy B, and Mave’s two year anniversary at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest! It has been an honor to get to know each one of them. I can’t imagine life without Honey B’s spunk, Willy B’s dashing good looks, or life without a laid back Mave would just be disappointing. The day was full of their favorite foods and enrichment. There were mangoes, avocados, eggplant to name a few! We put out a LOT of paper, raffle tickets, and buckets of soapy water!

While it’s their anniversary we were still doing one on one introductions. Today was actually the last day of one on one’s before we take a little break. As Sofia stated yesterday, Honey B with no surprise is a wild card and so is Gordo. Honey B still had to meet Gordo and Cy. We also knew these might be some of our hardest introductions. I just need to state how proud we are of Honey B! She did really well overall! It shows us that Honey B can form relationships with new chimps and gives us hope for the future. But she still makes us hold our breath when we open up that door.

First up was Cy. They did great! Cy was playing with her so rough, we were all really for Honey B to freak out, but she didn’t. She loved playing with Cy! As you will see in the video they are laughing and wrestling. That was them playing gently too, we didn’t capture the true wrestling because we thought it might escalate, but to our pleasant surprise it didn’t! Next up was Gordo. Honey B and Gordo met at the mesh yesterday and seemed pretty playful. However, today they both seemed to have taken a slower approach. Eventually we opened the door and they seemed a bit indifferent. Indifference was totally fine, we just wanted them to get comfortable. They warmed up to each other and started to play. It was really fun to watch, but it was short lived. We think there was a little miscommunication on both ends and we quickly ended up having to separate them. Gordo is fine and has a small wound on his foot. We brought Honey B back so her and Gordo had a chance to make up at the mesh, but Gordo wasn’t too interested in coming down. Honey B did give him some good positive behaviors at the mesh. We are hopeful that they can move past this and with a few more meetings understand each other a little bit better. Miscommunications with chimps happens a lot. Foxie and Annie had a lot in the beginning too and even some times to this day!

As an update we are taking a small break because everyone has met everyone for our one on one introductions. We will be doing one on ones occasionally and we will be working on two on two soon as well. For now, us humans and chimps are going to get a few good nights of sleep! Overall, the intros so far have gone as well as we could have asked. I just want to say this again because I think Honey B deserves this. She exceeded our expectations and to watch Honey B play with Cy, Dora, Rayne, and Lucky is exactly why we are doing this. Honey B was so expressive, so happy, and she is a chimp that deserves to have more socialization with other chimps! This proved that, but that doesn’t mean this road is easy or even guarantees this will work out.

Let us all cheers to one on one introductions being over and two incredible years with Honey B, Willy B, and Mave!

Gordo and Honey B. This was right before Honey B came over to Gordo and tried to give him a reassuring kiss!

Cy and Honey B wrestling!

Mave enjoying her whole mango! Mave was so excited, her food squeaks were unreal!

The Rayne Attraction

by

Last week, I introduced you all to… uh… well… introductions.

You can read that blog post here if you need to catch up. Since then, we’ve posted the following updates related to social integrations: Chad’s Today’s Forecast: Rayne, Kelsi’s Exhilarating Day, J.B.’s Ups and Downs, Diana’s Play During Intros, and Sam’s The Introductions Continue!

Well, today was another exciting day…

Rayne met Willy B in a controlled introduction session!

Willy B
Rayne

They took a few minutes to warm up to each other, but they both behaved in a friendly and respectful manner. Eventually, they “broke the ice” and began to playfully stomp around and wrestle. It’s remarkable how two chimps who have never been together before can suddenly decide to inundate each other with goofy gestures of affection. Their exuberant facial expressions and thunderous chuckles lit up the indoor area where their meeting was staged.

We’ve learned that Willy B has a tendency to start introduction sessions with enthusiasm but quickly grows bored. In today’s meeting, the opposite happened; Willy wanted to keep playing but Rayne eventually grew tired and began to watch the humans expectantly.

Rayne and Willy B amicably separated shortly before dinner and voluntarily returned to their respective social groups in the new playrooms and greenhouse enclosures.

Tomorrow, we hope to continue the integration process by facilitating more introductions!

Today’s Forecast: Rayne

by

So there wasn’t any rain in today’s forecast, though I think everyone would appreciate some in the state, but there is Rayne!

There are so many aspects about Rayne that remind us of Honey B. The stare she gives you. Her confidence in knowing what she wants and likes. And catch her at the right angle and you would be fooled on who is who. Let’s not forget they are biological sisters.

Though Rayne and her group have been here over a month and they have shown us a great deal of their personalities, we really are still finding new things out about them. One thing we are learning about Rayne, she seems to love food puzzles. Just like Honey B.

Rayne with three Boomer Balls

As Anthony has mentioned before, Rayne and Friends are a little bit more destructive than we had anticipated when it comes to their enrichment. So we have been slowly been introducing them to new things, one-by-one. Boomer Balls have been the latest.

Speaking of new things, we recently found one Burrito seems to absolutely love now: KONG Zoo! A gigantic Kong!

With Burrito still recovering from his recent incident, we decided to give him two of his favorite new thing he was introduced to before the incident. When he has these, he can be found dragging them along with him, throwing them up in the air, rolling them along, and bouncing on them like a hopper ball.

Here are some of the photos I took when he first got a hold of the gigantoids before the incident:

Jamie also seemed to really like them when they were first introduced.

As posted yesterday, the introduction process between Rayne and her group, and Mave and hers has begun. And please bear with us through this process as they can make for a long day. As mentioned in yesterday’s post, we will most likely just be sharing some highlights of the process. We try to get photos and video if we can, but it’s important to give them the space they need to try to form a relationship without our interference or distraction.

The highlight for today was Mave met Rayne today.

They spent a lot of time grooming one another and reassuring each other when the neighbors were rowdy. Similar to yesterday’s meeting with Terry, Rayne didn’t seem to want to leave Mave, and Mave didn’t seem to want to leave Rayne when we thought they were ready to move on, so we gave them some more time until we knew they were ready. Overall it was a very positive meeting between the two.

Mave also met Cy today as well. Cy spent a lot of time grooming Mave and trying to get her to play with him. Just as with Terry, Mave was a tad hesitant to play with the big guy at first, though she did. But her preference was grooming, which Cy obliged. Overall a positive meeting between them as well.

After their meeting, Cy went back to perusing through his magazines.

It was an eventful day for all, so I hope you all have a great night!

Some bonus photos:

Missy trying to spy on the new neighbors
Foxie during her morning patrol of Young’s hill
Lucky sitting on the firehose in one of the front rooms