Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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Happy Birthday, Shelly!

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Today’s day of sanctuary was sponsored by Michael Horton in honor of his sister, Shelly Horton, on her birthday! Michael shared this wonderful message about today:

“My sister is the biggest chimpanzee fan in the world. In lieu of pursuing a career in Primatology, which is something she always wanted and still wants, she chose to become a teacher so 10-year-olds across our community will always be aware of the plight of the chimpanzee.”

In having the good fortune of getting to know Shelly as one of our incredible supporters, it’s been so wonderful to learn of her long-time love and respect for chimpanzees. Through her dedication and passion to help bring awareness to the issues chimpanzees face, she helps inspire her daughter and students so that they might feel empowered to make a difference in the world around them. What an incredible gift to give, not only for the chimpanzees, but for a young generation that the future of chimpanzees will depend upon.

Michael, thank you so much for celebrating Shelly by making the chimps’ lives better! We appreciate all that you and your family do for them and are thrilled to honor Shelly here today!

Shelly, thank you for all the support you, Lainey, and your students have shown the chimpanzees, we so appreciate all that you do! Never underestimate the ripple effect your compassion will have in the world. All of the primates here at CSNW wish you the best birthday yet surrounded by all that makes your heart happy!! And to start your day off, we’re sharing photos of people in your life who I know do just that:

Shelly’s adorable daughter, Lainey, with her impressive stuffed primate collection, begun by her mom:

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We recently shared copies of “A Chimpanzee Tale” by Karen Young with Shelly’s amazing 5th grade students in Texas. They made the chimpanzees a beautifully detailed Christmas tree and birthday cards for Burrito in celebration of his recent 33rd birthday! We so appreciate the care and interest these children show for the chimpanzees and are thrilled to see them making a difference in the chimps’ lives as they learn about the amazing beings we share the earth with.

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And of course, Shelly’s handsome pal, Burrito:

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The many faces of Annie

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Annie is like that naturally beautiful girl who takes everyone’s breath away, but has no idea how pretty she is. You know the ones, they are all the more special because they are so dear and down to earth and the first ones to pull a face or make others smile. Annie isn’t always keen on having her photo taken, though she has become much more comfortable with it over the years (much like she is with things in general) and she will often engage by making playful gestures during her photo shoots. Half way down this series of photos of the lovely Annie you will notice a seemingly mischievous look in her eye and then…bam, she does a “lip flip”!

Chimpanzees are extremely expressive in vocalization, body posture and facial expressions, all of which they use to communicate with each other. A lip flip is a facial expression chimpanzees sometimes exhibit and will often appear in times of stress or anxiety, but will just as often appear for reasons more associated with individual stereotypical behavior (a repetitive behavior brought on by captivity) and for seemingly no apparent reason. Foxie does this frequently and while it’s sometimes during times of stress, it’s more often when she’s just sitting quietly and hanging out. Annie used to flip her lip often when she felt anxious, such as when there was an argument going on in the group. We don’t see her do it very much anymore, and while we can’t know what she was thinking today, given how relaxed and playful she was being she seemed to just be practicing her repertoire of faces. And every one of them a beaut!

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Jamie the Merciful

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We take a lot of photos and video around here, but Jamie isn’t always a fan of the camera. Sometimes she’ll be clear across the room, and as soon as she spots a caregiver with the camera she charges over and pounds on the caging to let us know to cut it out. If you’ve ever had an adult chimpanzee charge toward you, hair standing on end (even if there’s caging between you), you’ll know why we respect her wishes. She gets her message across loud and clear.

But sometimes Jamie’s in a tolerant mood. At times she even enjoys the camera; she likes for us to turn the camera around and show her what we’ve captured. Today she allowed me to record her building a nest in the playroom. She even gave me her patented head nod of approval (watch to the end).

Mr. B’s birthday buffet

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Today we are celebrating our guy, Burrito’s, 33rd birthday! And if you are celebrating Burrito that means you are also celebrating food. We serve the chimpanzees three meals a day by hand and/or forage in addition to a smaller forage, occasional snacks and food puzzles which consist of things like fresh vegetables, seeds and nuts. But today we decided to spread the meal service out and serve something every hour, all day long! Needless to say, Burrito has been enjoying his birthday.

Burrito has been so happy and playful today and has been anxiously watching for what comes next. We started the day off with gift boxes full of nuts and primate chow in the greenhouse as a breakfast appetizer. Anna got this photo of the birthday fella looking particularly sweet, watching through the playroom room window as we set them out:

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After breakfast was served, Burrito took over Jamie’s usual spot atop the barrel in the front rooms and watched us clean the playroom as he awaited the third course of the day. Let me tell you, this adorable guy made it pretty hard to get any work done.

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After the playroom was cleaned, we put out a forage of more nuts in gift boxes and smoothie in tiny cups. Burrito was so excited I had to wait for him to calm down and stop shaking the door leading into the playroom so I could open it. You can see in the photo below how excited he is by his pilo-erect hair (standing on end).

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And though this one is blurry, I love that it captures Burrito’s excitement during the forage – pilo-erect hair and flying across the playroom in mid-air. (It also may give you an idea of why we didn’t have much luck getting party photos – this guy was on the move!):

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Next up was roasted sweet potatoes warm from the oven. Here is caregiver-in-training, Ally, serving the birthday guy:

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After lunch we passed out whole apples which everyone was super excited about and as I type, Burrito is excitedly watching Anna as she prepares one of his very favorites, spaghetti with tomato and pepper sauce, for part of his birthday dinner forage. We still have a couple servings to go and all of the chimps’ seem to have caught on to the theme for the day and have been posted near the kitchen window to see what’s next.

In all the excitement Burrito has been a bit of a wild man, sowing his 33 years of wild oats much of the day and frequently riling up all the girls. But I think it’s safe to say they are all enjoying the day’s celebration of Burrito and food!

Happy Birthday, Burrito!! We love you so much, Bub!!

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Top Videos of 2015!?

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The other day, I was looking back on the year and watched a few of our videos from 2015. I had this idea to compile some of my favorites and/or some of the most popular videos from the year in a blog post.

This turned out to be harder than I thought it would be. I really love all of the videos for different reasons, so the narrowing down process was not easy.

But, here goes…

Epic tug o’ war session between Foxie and Jamie:

 

Burrito and his stuffed gorilla friend:

 

The new structure completed in the spring:

 

Burrito playing with staff caregiver Keri:

 

This one of Negra simply because she is was so happy on her birthday:

 

Foxie being oh so very Foxie:

 

This one due to the pumpkin thieving incident:

 

I really think that this one is near the top of the list, even though J.B. put it together just a week ago for Christmas:

 

OMG – this one, especially beginning at the 2:01 mark:

 

Okay – I really could just to on and on. The positive reinforcement training videos are also great, and the video of the process we go through when Jamie wants to take a walk around the hill. And so many videos of the chimpanzees enjoying food. And several videos of Missy and Annie playing. And…

 

Did I miss your favorite? Let me know – I’m curious to hear from the chimps’ fans. You can go to our You Tube channel and take a look at 7+ years of video!

 

Snow removal crews

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After days, weeks really, of endless snow and treacherous commutes for staff and volunteers alike, this morning dawned a new day. Achingly gorgeous clear, blue skies, a pink sunrise with bald eagles flying overhead, glittering snow, and much to the caregivers’ delight, clear (and dare I say almost dry!) roads to drive to work on. The quintessential beautiful winter day:

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The chimpanzees, especially Jamie, have been real troopers waiting out the snow. So first thing this morning, Diana, Anna and I decided to shovel some walkways and around Young’s Hill and line them with straw for the chimpanzees to venture out. All the chimps had been watching us intently from the playroom windows and when we stepped back into the greenhouse, Jamie was more than ready to get a look at what we had done.

When I gave the chimps access to Young’s Hill, Jamie was ready and waiting and literally squeezed through the doorway as it was opening. She immediately headed onto the hill, grabbing the toy shovel we had left on her way and headed out to help finish clearing the pathways.

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And it wasn’t long before she had a back-up snow removal crew member with Annie! Annie! Can you believe it?! (The other chimps were watching from the raceway while sitting in the sun):

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Jamie initially started shoveling with the shovel side down and then tried out the handle. The second I reminded her to turn it back around she did and carried on with her snow removal project.

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That’s their breath clouding around Annie:

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When Jamie was satisfied (and probably a little cold!) she headed back inside, but Annie decided to enjoy the morning sun for a view minutes on her own.

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Once she’d had enough of the cold morning she headed back to the warmth of the greenhouse. I don’t know what we humans would do without some help from these amazing chimpanzee people:

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The chimpanzees and humans have been so incredibly fortunate this holiday season, our hearts and sanctuary home filled with the kindness and generosity of all of you. I would like to share another very special gift the chimpanzees received! The amazing children of Ms. Horton’s 5th grade class made this Christmas tree and each beautiful, heartfelt ornament on it. We are so touched that they all would take the time and care to make the chimpanzees such an awesome gift for Christmas and send it all the way from Texas! We hung it up right outside the chimpanzees’ front rooms where they can all enjoy looking at it. Thank you so much!!

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Happy Birthday, Tracy!

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Today, incredibly, we have three supporters sponsoring this day of sanctuary for the chimpanzees! We begin the day with a sponsorship by Tracy Headley, a dear friend (to chimps and humans alike) and member of our sanctuary family. Tracy probably wouldn’t tell you this, but she lives her life every day bringing light, support, comfort and love to so many beings – both human and non. She is celebrating her birthday today and shared this touching message:

“Again this year I celebrate my friends at CSNW on my birthday. Every day of the year they are a gift in my life.”

Happy Birthday, Tracy! Thank you so much for all that you do for the chimpanzees. You hold them in your heart and make a difference in their lives at every opportunity. We are thrilled to celebrate your special day with you and can’t say how happy we are that you are part of our chimpanzee family. You are a special soul and you make the world a better place by being here. We hope you have a fabulous day full of all good things! With lots of hooting!

Here are your pals to help start your celebration off right:

Ms. Foxie:

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Burrito:

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Jody:

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