Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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chimp sanctuary

The end of an eventful weekend!

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We have had so much to celebrate this weekend!

Yesterday, Annie turned 48 years old AND our awesome caregiver, Kelsi, got married!

The chimp house has been full of play sessions, laughter, special treats, and relaxation. Check out today’s video to catch moments from our eventful weekend!

*Bonus* photos I have been saving from my phone:

Dora (L) and Honey B (R) meet the skeleton for the first time:

Gordo meeting the skeleton with a mouthful of water:

Foxie:

Gordo holding his carrot with his foot:

Gordo smelling said carrot:

Negra’s nest:

Disclaimer: others may have contributed to the building of this nest. However, Negra claimed it!

Have a great week! 

Bringing the outside in

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As Chad mentioned on Tuesday, Jamie’s Group is off Young’s Hill for the moment so we can complete the new outdoor expansion. Since the original 7 are so used to foraging for their own browse this time of year, it seems particularly important to make sure they still get to sample the edible plants growing naturally on the property. This afternoon Chad visited the pond to harvest some fresh cattails for their enjoyment. I love watching the subtle cattail fluff slowly drift around the greenhouse.

Guess Who?!

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Today has been… a day here in the chimp house. Most of the time, you come to the chimp house with a plan- you hype yourself up on the car ride in, telling yourself all will be golden and the chimps will be happy and shift for you no problem. You pull up the driveway listening to what would be your baseball walk-out song if you had one and by the time you get the day going, you’re feelin’ pretty darn good about things.

Sometimes, the chimps let you have the win for that day. And, sometimes, it’s like they all had a before-hours conference call where they decided to take your plan for the day and stomp, not so gently, all over it. Today was the latter. Thankfully, though, cleaning got done (or, most of it) and we are working through the daily check list as I write this blog. Phew!

One of the big factors in our day is the morning cleaning. And whenever we shift the chimps for cleaning, we have two trained staff members complete safety checks before we unlock and enter a space. This includes two independent chimp counts, where each staff member positively identifies each chimp so we can be sure they are not in the area we are wanting to open up. This can be quick, like when the chimps are all lined up for breakfast service… and this can also take a while, say, if the chimps are somewhere out of sight or if they are only granting you visual access to a toe. So, for today’s blog, I wanted to do another installment of “Whos that chimp?!” in honor of today’s shifting woes. 🙂

The scenario: you are doing a chimp ID for Cy’s group, as you are hoping to enter the Oakview Greenhouse for a party set up. This chimp is a little out of range for a quick ID, but you can see some of them. 🙂 I’ll be posting the correct answer in the comments tomorrow morning! And if you need a quick review on how we tell the chimps apart, check out Jenna’s awesome blog post from last week!

Hmm… who could it be?

That’s a pretty good lookin’ hand. Need some more identification, though…

Oh no, they’ve moved and now they are laying in front of another chimp! Shoot. Let’s see what we can see.

Well, that’s a nice ear.

Ok, have you figured it out yet? 🙂 Check back in the comments tomorrow to see if you got it right!

 

 

The Other Tomato Party

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Missy had such an amazing birthday party yesterday! Because we had so much to cover for her party we weren’t able to share what happen over on Dora’s side of the building! They also had a lunch forage to celebrate Missy. Please enjoy the video and photos from yesterday!

Willy B with an arm full and a mouth full of chow:

Rayne in all her pepper glory:

A very distinguished Mave:

Mave swooping in to grab tomatoes:

Gordo with a mouth full of what we think is chow:

Sweet Dora:

Burrito’s Busy Play Day

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Burrito had a pretty busy day! It seemed like everyone wanted to play with him, which for Burrito is the perfect kind of day! It was fun to see that even Annie wanted to join in! Burrito and Annie do play and interact with one another. However, they tend to have some miscommunications with each other as well, so to catch a small moment of them having a good time is always a treasure.

It’s hard to decide whether or not to film these fun moments the chimps are having with one another. Pulling out our phones or camera can often distract or stop them from engaging in the interaction with each other, and there are times when it feels like they should just have the time to play and interact without us disrupting them. There are other times when we decide that maybe they are in the moment enough to not notice and we go for it. We never want to interrupt, but we also want to be able to share it! Today was a day I was able to capture these moments without bothering the chimps!

Bonus! Today was a warm one, so what better way to cool down than with a Popsicle!

Foxie approved!

A Little Negra for Your Day

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Today has been a blur of a day. We humans were very busy cleaning and doing other tasks around the Chimp House. Today really flew by. Luckily enough, Negra is my saving star for today’s blog!

This morning, when her group was given access to Young’s Hill, I was taken aback when I saw her out there so early in the morning.

There didn’t seem to be a motive to go out other than to just go out. As you know, when Negra does go out first thing in the morning, there’s usually a purpose (i.e. foraging for prickly lettuce). But every once in a while, we are gifted with seeing her just enjoying the outside.

As the the rest of her group went on their morning patrol, Negra stayed put. As they returned, she greeted everyone as they returned.

Negra seemed to be in such a great mood today. At lunch, she was offering kisses and wouldn’t allow me to leave her as caregiver Grace served her. Every time I got up, she would put her lips through the caging to offer a kiss, knowing I would stay.

As we speak, Negra is doing her tour of the Frisbee Puzzles that are hanging up in her playroom.

In fact, right now Negra is telling us that dinner time is rapidly approaching. She let’s us know by finding the best position that looks into the kitchen, bangs on the caging, and claps her hands, which is my cue to hurry things along.

Always for you, Negra!

Here are some bonus photos I was also able to get today.

Rayne in the Riverview Greenhouse:

Honey B plotting her next mischievous move:

Mave hanging out in the Riverview Greenhouse:

Burrito watching me through a mirror:

Mask Madness

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What I love about my job the most is that every day is never the same. You really never know what will be sitting in the foyer for the chimps when you come back from your weekend or what new interest they have. Through sanctuary the chimps get the opportunity to evolve and change, while also being able to have consistent steady things in their lives. For example, Foxie loves troll dolls! Because of our kind donors, she will always have troll dolls in her life, but she has also gotten the opportunity to expand that interest into other types of dolls. While her enrichment and opportunities have grown and evolved into new things, her dolls will always be there to comfort her and that will never change!
Recently, someone donated a troll doll mask! Foxie liked having her caregivers wear it for her, but to our surprise Gordo thought the mask was the funniest thing! The moment he saw it, he erupted into a game of chase! He would make us run all around the chimp house with it on (safely of course!). In between chasing he would playfully spit and bounce up and down while laughing! Donations like this are so wonderful, because even though it was terrifying for the humans to look at ;), it was an enriching opportunity for Gordo. Honey B really loved it too! She was playing chase and following me around while I wore it, she even gave out a sweet little kiss!