Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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chimp

Give Them Smoulder

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I think we can all agree that Willy B is one handsome chimp, Jody might even use the word hunk! This morning we changed up the routine and let Willy B’s group out onto the Courtyard first. Willy B seemed pretty excited because he went straight to door W which leads right out to the Courtyard and waited for me to give him access. Willy B spent the whole morning out there! The sun was so warm, he decided to lay down on the boardwalk and bask in it. While relaxing on the boardwalk I snapped a few photos of Willy B, I mean look at him! He has this almost smouldering or brooding look.

 

Everybody Loves Dora

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Humans and chimps all really do love Dora, who wouldn’t! As I walked by the front rooms I found Rayne and Dora playing. Eventually, Lucky wanted to join the fun. Dora may be teeny tiny, but she can hold her own if she needs to! Dora may be small, but she sure is mighty!

After the play session Lucky needed to rest.

Cy guy <3. I think Cy has stolen everyone’s heart in this chimp house. I truly have never met a chimp sweeter than Cy.

Missy spying on the neighbors, while wearing a stylish grape sock.

Burrito being his perfect self!

And Jamie! She built this incredibly cozy, comfy, HUGE nest and then tucked herself in.

 

 

Chimp ID: Lucky

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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!

Clack of the Titans

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As we continue to develop our plan to move forward with the introductions between Cy’s Group and Willy B’s Group with two-on-twos, we are continuing with the one-on-one introductions between group members in the meantime on a varied schedule. Today, both titans met for the second time today. When the doors opened between them, Cy tried to initiate a game of chase with Willy B, though he was a little hesitant at first. But once Willy B’s courage built up, they engaged in chase. Afterward, they had a very long grooming session with each other.

As you may hear in the video, both were breathy panting and teeth clacking. Teeth clacking is one of the noises chimpanzees produce when they are engaged in grooming. There are a few theories as to why chimpanzees make these noises when they groom. One of those theories is that it is a way for one chimpanzee to indicate to the other that their intention is to groom them. These noises become more prevalent when the chimpanzees find something particularly interesting to groom on their partner. Grooming also plays a big role in chimpanzee social life. Besides the hygienic aspect of removing any dead skin, scabs, or parasites, the act of grooming itself is a way to initiate, maintain, and enhance the social bond between individuals. There’s a certain level of trust that goes into letting somebody groom you, and in the case of chimpanzees, the area in which they groom.

These are all positive signs between the two big gentlemen.

Cy
Willy B

Other Bonus Photos From Today:

Jamie patrolling Young’s Hill this morning with Foxie and Missy behind her.
Lucky relaxing in the nice breeze rolling through her Greenhouse.
Mave doing the same in her Greenhouse.

All Season Burrito

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My phone has been angry at me the past week or so. The memory is near capacity and it sometimes refuses to run some apps. The culprit of the memory consumption? Photos and video. Though I upload them to a cloud drive, I still have them on my phone because you never know when you’re going to need one to send to some one. It’s (personally) tough to purge the photos and video from my phone. As I delete 100, I take 100 more the next day I arrive at work. But, as I try to better myself at deleting things off my phone and trust the cloud drive, I found several videos of Burrito and I running around Young’s Hill over the past year. Watching these over again, I realized something. Every season is running season for Burrito! Please enjoy this montage of him running around Young’s Hill in the various seasons of Washington State.

Here are some bonus photos I took today and yesterday:

Foxie watching the produce delivery this morning from Young’s Hill.

Negra in the Greenhouse while the others venture out on their first patrol of the morning.

Jody foraging for some pine branches and wild roses on Young’s Hill this afternoon.

Jamie with her sweet pepper haul yesterday during Missy’s birthday.

Annie with her sweet potato haul yesterday.

 

Soup of the (Birth)Day

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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!

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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.

Two Years with the Amazing Three!

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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!