In one of our recent blog comments, the topic of whether or not Foxie likes any other types of dolls (other than troll dolls) came up. Diana explained that for the most part, it seems like Foxie doesn’t like stuffed animals and that she and Jody will sometimes team up and violently shred them. Though I’ve seen Jody do this many times, Diana saying that reminded me of this clip I caught on Thanksgiving Day. Maybe it’s a love/hate kind of thing…?
chimp
Holiday Wishes
I was adding some items to our Amazon.com wishlist and it dawned on me that most blog readers probably don’t know too much about the working space for the human primates (staff and volunteers) at the sanctuary, so I snapped a couple of photos to show you so I can talk about some things that we’d really love to have.
We pride ourselves in taking good care of the chimps and giving them as much as we can on a modest budget, while always making improvements to the building and their lives. We are able to do this because we don’t give ourselves big salaries or buy fancy stuff, we rely on a terrific group of over thirty regular volunteers, and we get so much donated – from blankets to toys to produce to toilet paper (that last one is for the humans, in case you were wondering).
Most nonprofits earn a significant amount of their annual income in December, so we’ll soon be asking you to help us reach our year-end goals and we’ll have a special Chimp Cheer page on our website for those who give. If you would rather give gifts though, there are a few things we could use. Take a look at the photos below and visit our Amazon.com wishlist to see how you can put a smile on our faces.
Here’s a view of the kitchen area where we do all of the food prep for the chimps. Notice the worn floor mat and the lack of a coffee maker. We have a new kitchen mat on our wishlist. The carafe of our coffee maker broke a couple of months ago and I tried to do the most environmentally friendly thing by just replacing the carafe, but two ill-fitting carafes later and we still don’t have a working coffee maker. We don’t need anything fancy – I put a simple one on the wishlist. Or maybe you have a used one you’d like to donate? We don’t give caffeine to the chimps, but we’re okay with our own caffeine habits.
Here’s a view inside the fridge (and me waving to you in the reflection), which is on the other side of that ratty-looking mat. We wash all of the produce we get and then put it in bowls. I put a few more sets of bowls on the wishlist, trying to avoid the cheap plastic ones that break pretty quickly.
And here’s a view of the transition from the kitchen to the enrichment area (the shelves with all of the bins) and “office” (where the chairs are). Eventually it would be nice to have a larger freezer and another fridge, but we don’t have the room right now, so we make use of every possible storage space available.
Notice the precarious-looking pile of stuff next to the enrichment bins in the photo below. We could use a small shelving unit that fits so we can better take advantage of that space. I put a unit on the wishlist. We’d want the one that is 18″ deep x 24″ wide x 72″ tall.
Thanks to Jim Spencer, we have a lovely shed right outside the door. The shed stores enrichment too, and we switch out the bins once a week so the chimps’ toys don’t get too boring. We also keep some food, like nuts and dried fruit in the shed. We always welcome new bins! The specific ones we use are on the wishlist.
And here is the chimp house “office.” J.B. and I live in the house on the property and we’ve converted the master bedroom into additional office space (perhaps I’ll share those photos later), but this is where we make all of the videos and upload photos to the blog, among other things. The laptop we’re using is my old computer. The screen went out about a year ago, so we hooked it up to a monitor. We’ve been having some trouble with it and I’m afraid it doesn’t have much longer to live. We use iMovie to put our blog videos together, so we’d LOVE a new MacBook Pro with a screen that works. Not surprisingly, this is something you can get through Amazon.com too.
It’s difficult to see in this photo, but the small bin to the right above holds our cameras. I keep my Canon digital SLR camera here so we can get good shots of the chimps that we use for brochures, calendars, the website, etc. We have a basic canon PowerShot for video-taking (purchased for us last holiday season), which we all really like. Thinking about Young’s Hill, though, we’ll need something with a better zoom that takes higher-quality video. So, I’ve put an all-in-one Canon SLR camera with HD video capabilities on the wishlist. We can use our existing zoom lenses and get some amazing footage of the chimps on the hill.
There’s even more stuff on the wishlist and if you have any other ideas for gifts for the sanctuary and want to talk it over with someone, feel free to contact me or another staff member: [email protected] or 509-699-0728. Thanks!
Thanksgiving Video
Now you can hear all of the food squeaks, see the anticipation, and relive Thanksgiving at the sanctuary. Hope everyone is having a great holiday weekend, or regular weekend, depending on where you live.
Thanksgiving Party!
It was an exciting morning here at CSNW! We did a lunch forage with pomegranates, sweet potatoes, cauliflower, avocados, cabbage, and bananas, and volunteer Jeani found some Brussels sprout stalks- what a treat! Right now, volunteer CJ is preparing cranberry sauce, green onions, and eggplant for the chimps dinner. I can’t wait to hear the squeaks over the cranberry sauce!
Here’s Annie with her Brussels sprout stalk:
Pomegranates are ALWAYS a hit, so we put out whole ones. Guaranteed food squeaks!
Since hiding the food in boots was such a hit on Jamie’s Birthday, we filled boots (and socks, and hats, and troll dolls, and various other containers) with food. Yum! It seemed to get everyone in the spirit.
Burrito with a bottle filled with cauliflower:
We all have so many things to be thankful for, and we are all so grateful for all of you supporters! We truly could not do this without you!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Greetings
Chimpanzee culture is very political. In order to rise to the top of the hierarchy, or to stay on the good side of those at the top, a chimpanzee must know who to rub elbows with (so to speak) and when, and to what degree.
One of the ways a subordinate chimpanzee can show respect to a more dominant chimpanzee is by offering an elaborate greeting. These greetings occur when the two individuals meet after being apart from each other for some time. Most greetings involve some sort of vocalization (a breathy pant or a pant grunt, as you’ll see in the video) on the part of the subordinate chimpanzee. Generally, the louder the vocalization, the more tense the subordinate chimp feels.
Many of the chimp-to-chimp greetings here at CSNW are directed toward Burrito. Although he is not the most dominant chimpanzee here — he doesn’t quite have the skills, probably because he lacked a proper male chimpanzee role model growing up — his displays are pretty effective at intimidating the girls, so they try their best to appease him whenever they can. You might notice in the video that Burrito often turns his back or squeezes his eyes shut when he’s bring greeted. As much as he tries to show the girls who’s boss, the truth is he’s pretty nervous in social situations. Failing to graciously receive the other chimps’ greetings is probably one of the things holding him back from the dominant status he seems to desire.
Celebrating Jody
As part of their Chimps Deserve Better campaign, the Humane Society of the United States named Jody Chimpanzee of the Month for November. We at CSNW might be biased, but we think Jody couldn’t be more deserving. Today we celebrated Jody with all of her favorite things.
Posts for climbing structures
Keith came out for the day and he and J.B. spent a snowy afternoon preparing fir logs donated by Dan Sherman (thanks, Dan!) to be used as the posts for climbing structures on Young’s Hill.
Here are the logs and a view of a couple of the old buildings on the property.
And here are some of them “planted” in the ground on Young’s Hill. They’re about 10-feet tall. We probably won’t be able to work on the climbing structures until spring, but it’s pretty cool to see the start of things going up on the hill. Thanks to Karen and Don Young, Euan and Bethany Menzies and all who donated toward the 2-acre habitat-to-come!