Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

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The 2022 Trifecta Jubilee

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As many of you are aware, June 13th has been a special day for the sanctuary for a long time.

On this date in 2008, the first group of rescued chimpanzees (the iconic “Cle Elum Seven”) arrived at the sanctuary from a private facility in Pennsylvania.

Among them was the beloved Negra, an older female chimpanzee whose actual birth date is unknown. The team decided that her birthday should be celebrated annually on June 13 and it’s been honored as sanctuary tradition ever since. What better day to recognize the passing of years than the day that she reached her permanent home?

Negra

The Seven were the only official residents of the sanctuary until 2018 when we welcomed four rescued Jersey cattle to the property. Chimpanzees Honey B, Mave and Willy B followed close behind; they were transferred from the closed Wildlife Waystation in the summer of 2019. When it was formally arranged that we would receive another group from the Waystation in 2021, we were surprised to see that one of the individuals, adult male Terry, coincidentally had June 13th listed as his date of birth. It’s almost as if we needed another reason to pop champagne on a random day in early summer…

Terry

With so much going on, it is no longer fitting to just call today’s event “The Queen’s Brunch” (as we did last year and the year before). Instead, this year’s bash was dubbed the Trifecta Jubilee (thanks to Kathleen Corby for that winning name and the graphic to go along with it!) to reflect today’s joyous confluence of three major anniversaries. The party menu featured many of Negra’s favorite foods, including oat waffles, peanut butter smoothie, whole leeks, fingerling potatoes, Brussels sprouts, and sparkling cider. (As for Terry, let’s just say that he’s not a picky eater and seems happy to be there regardless.)

Notably, the Trifecta is also precursor to the much-anticipated HOOT! 2022, our first in-person gala since 2019! You can visit the event’s official web page to learn more and buy tickets: https://chimpsnw.org/events/hoot-2022/

So, on this blustery thirteenth day of June of the year 2022, we’re not just celebrating Negra’s 49th, Terry’s 32nd, or the sanctuary’s 14th…

We’re toasting to the entire past, present, and future of the sanctuary and the twenty magnificent individuals who call it their home!

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Days like today are only possible because of the generous donors who follow, support, and love the organization. Officially, three donors chose to independently sponsor today: Debbie Reintzell (in memory of Terry Lee and Theresa Hood), Tami Roy (in honor of The Queen herself), and Paulette Wrisley on behalf of the birthday chimps! We are eternally grateful to all of them- and all of you- for helping us to throw a birthday bash worthy of these amazing individuals.

Spring-Time Sundays… Snake Edition

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When I pulled into work this morning, my plan for the blog was to talk about how it officially feels like spring-time on Jamie’s side of the building. Some panels were taken off the Greenhouse last week and this opens up the opportunity for caregivers to serve meals outside, to better see the chimps and their interactions, and participate in enthusiastic games of chase with a certain someone (ahem, Burrito). It was going to be beau-ti-ful. This all changed, though, when caregiver Katelyn and myself were cleaning the playroom and heard the tell tale sign of something slithery and sinister.

We heard Annie alarm calling and went out to see what was wrong. The chimps (except for Negra, who was in the greenhouse) were all out near a platform on Young’s Hill. We could tell they had discovered a snake and we even saw Jamie grab and throw it. Thankfully, our team has worked on recall with Jamie’s group for this exact reason and we were able to get all 7 chimps off of Young’s Hill. This was my first ever snake-on-the-hill scenario and I have to be honest- searching through tall grass for an unidentified slithery someone is not on the top of my list of preferred activities, but we grabbed the snake catcher and were on our way. Anthony and I took part in the snake search and it involved many renditions of “Who ya gonna call? Snake-busters!”.

Anthony snagged this photo of myself on the hill with our snake catcher, our tool that allows us to humanely grab the snake while we get the tote in place.

After a little while searching, we spotted the two (!) slithery fiends. Can you find them? Extra points if you can, the photo is from my phone and is very pixelated.

When we got off the hill, Jamie and Annie were waiting to see whether we had been successful.

And we had been! I was able to catch one of the snakes, while the other one went sprinting up the hill. We continued the search, but it had sped up, off, and away. Anthony took our little friend and released it away from the chimp house after I snagged this photo of it from the top of the snake capture tote. Thankfully, it was a non-venomous racer (Coluber constrictor)… and I am officially adding snake catcher to my list of skills. 

While this isn’t the first snake we’ve seen this year, and it won’t be the last, it is reassuring that it was non-venomous and that we were able to get it off the hill. Since it was such a beautiful day and we were already on the hill, we decided to make the most of it and have a hill forage!

Burrito enjoying some avocado on Young’s Hill.

Jody brought her loot back into the Greenhouse, where she could watch the rest of the group participate in the forage.

Jamie with a mouth and hand full of peppers, climbing to the top of a Young’s Hill structure.

Annie having a quiet moment after foraging.

Happy Sunday, everyone!

Playing with Missy

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As many of you know Missy is what we call a chimps’ chimp. She will have these amazing long play sessions with her chimp friends. But as for us human friends she will bless us with a play session from time to time. So when you get to play it doesn’t matter how long it lasts, it’s just special that it happened!

Bonus photos!

Jody enjoying some yellow goats beard flowers:

Negra foraging for grass:

Gordo was hanging out in the sunny warm Riverview greenhouse. Look how handsome he is!!

Gordo grooming himself:

 

 

She’s Back… Again?

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This morning Negra was reunited with her group! Everyone was so excited to welcome her back. Jody, Missy, and Foxie gave her warm greetings and immediately went to check out how she was healing! Negra was able to spend the morning sitting out on Young’s Hill and napping in her favorite spot in the green house. Unfortunately, in the early afternoon between the chimp nurses and Burrito displaying and scaring Negra, some of her external sutures were not holding up too well. We decided to isolate her again until Dr. Erin could come take a look. So Negra spent the afternoon watching Lord of the Dance, nesting, and having her caregivers dance for her as well ;).

Negra finally back on the Hill this morning:

Negra enjoying Lord of the Dance:

Gratitude with Attitude

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In today’s blog, we caregivers wish to express some heartfelt appreciation on behalf of the sanctuary residents. Our good friend Jenara Miller sponsored today, May 31, in honor of Carrie Miller’s birthday. Carrie is a dedicated and generous supporter of the sanctuary and we’re excited to celebrate their birthday here on the blog!

To accompany our best wishes, we’ve included some new photos of their beloved chimpanzee pals (below).

Missy
Honey B
Dora hooting in the Oakwood Greenhouse
Lucky
Honey B
Cy watching one of the caregivers drive away from his vantage in the Riverview Greenhouse

Sanctuary’s Sprouting Seeds

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In their natural habitat, chimpanzees help maintain their ecosystem by helping with the dispersal of seeds. They disperse seeds by either ingesting the fruit or nut and later depositing the seeds elsewhere in their feces, or wadging the seed or nut and leaving it somewhere else in their habitat. Once the chimpanzee leaves the seeds via droppings or wadge, it germinates and a new generation of fruit tree can begin to grow. It is one of the many upon many of reasons protecting wild chimpanzee populations is important. It helps maintain the natural ecosystem.

Seed dispersal can also occur in captivity. Last summer, we had noticed a couple of pumpkin plants growing in the Oakwood Greenhouse. This year is no different. In fact, this years seems like there is more of a variety of plants growing throughout the sanctuary. Some of them can be attributed to the night bags the chimpanzees receive at dinner, while others are a bit more curious. They are sometimes part of the ingredients we use for the chimpanzees’ morning smoothie, and the only way they could have started to grow is by the chimpanzees passing them.

Here are some of the plants growing in the greenhouses (currently):

Pumpkin Plants

In the Riverview Greenhouse.
The biggest one so far is hidden behind bamboo in the Riverview Greenhouse.

Elderberry

Elderberry is sometimes added to the morning smoothies. This seedling is starting to grow in the Riverview Greenhouse.

Blackberry

Blackberries are also sometimes added to the morning smoothies. And this seedling started to grow in an area Jamie’s group is know to defecate.

Sunflower

Notice the pumpkin plant starting to sprout at the root of this sunflower in Burrito’s greenhouse.
In the Oakwood Greenhouse.

It also appears that growing is not exclusive to the greenhouses:

A sunflower sprout growing on one of the artificial leaves in the Marmot Playroom.
And another growing under the door in the Mezzanine.

Though these plants probably won’t grow to their full potential since the chimpanzees will probably root them out at some point, we can only hope they are left untouched and can start growing some fruits/veggies.

Here are some of the seed dispersers today!

Jamie:

Honey B:

Gordo:

Foxie:

Mave and Rayne:

And some photos of our recovering Queen Negra:

Negra has been receiving frequent visits from her group mates all throughout the day. This was during Foxie’s visit.

Negra seems to not mind this set up. She has been staying out of the family politics, been covered in blankets, receiving a lot of attention from the human caregivers…

And yes, Hawaiian rolls!

Heart of Grass

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As J.B. summarized in yesterday’s blog post, we’ve been hard at work caring for Negra as she recuperates from a trip to the sanctuary’s clinic.

Neggie continues to enjoy her cozy solitude and appears to be making a speedy recovery. We caregivers have been supplementing her cocktail of meds with enrichment puzzles, movies, and even the occasional sips of Sprite and nibbles of a sweet Hawaiian roll. It’s safe to say that, despite the laceration on her backside, Negra is thriving in this temporary clinical setting. (Think of Forrest Gump happily eating ice cream despite the bullet wound in his buttocks.)

Despite the unpredictable events of the Chimp House, J.B. and special projects volunteer Adam found time this weekend to complete a facelift of the upper pasture. The area was previously grazed by our neighbor’s horses but will now be the main enclosure for the rescued bovines during the summer. This afternoon, Betsy, Honey, Meredith and Nutmeg made the trek up from their winter paddock to the new frontier. The area is currently dotted with wildflowers and partially shaded by pine trees, and we think they’re going to love it up there once they get used to the terrain.

(Note: the wildflowers include quite a bit of lupine, which is problematic for pregnant cows when grazed in large amounts. Since none of the cows in our small herd are breeding and they generally avoid the lupine anyway, we’re allowing it to remain on the pasture for now.)

Here are some photos of Betsy taking an initial romp around the new area:

And here is a wider shot of the four bovines hanging out at the far end of the new pasture:

There aren’t many things that get the Jersey cattle to show their excitement, but giant fields of green grass seem to do the trick.