Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

chimpanzee rescue

Honoring Apollo

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Debbie Redwine sponsored today in memory of Apollo Chimpanzee. Debbie shared that she was very moved by Sarah Baeckler’s story of the undercover work she did at a Hollywood training facility. Apollo was a young chimpanzee that Sarah worked with at the facility and Debbie wanted to do something to honor his life. As many of you know, Sarah is our former Executive Director. Today Sarah begins her next venture as Director of The North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance (NAPSA) where we know she will continue to improve the lives of captive primates while advocating for all those still in need of a safe haven. Debbie, thank you so much for your compassion and generosity in honoring Apollo and Sarah today!

Apollo Chimp

Take Action Tuesday: Petition to Merck

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EOA take action tuesday

Have you heard about Brandon Wood? He is one of the most active chimpanzee advocates, always working tirelessly to help chimps through petitions, fundraisers, and tabling events. Did I mention he’s just 12 years old? He’s an inspiration! His latest project is a petition to a drug company Merck, a private biomedical testing lab, to stop biomedical testing on chimpanzees. Though the National Institutes of Health is moving toward retiring government-funded chimps in research, there are still many chimps in privately-funded labs. Lend Brandon a hand and help the chimps today by signing his petition! And don’t forget to share it with your friends, too.

brandon letter writing

Spring grass

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Everyone is so happy about the spring grass (the chimps and the caregivers alike!) Just look at how content Jody looks:

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And Negra is ecstatic to have an entire 2-acre salad bowl to munch on all day.

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4th Annual Love a Chimpanzee Day

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Supporter Monica Best has taken sponsoring a day of sanctuary to a whole new level. Four years ago she declared April 23 Love a Chimpanzee Day and has sponsored the day every year since then. (Today also happens to be Monica’s birthday!) Love a Chimpanzee Day 2013 began with a breakfast of pears, strawberries, lemons, fruit smoothie, and peanuts (Negra’s favorite) in the greenhouse, followed by some adventures on Young’s Hill. After we cleaned the playroom we decked out the place in streamers and lots of fluffy blankets and watched Jody settle down into a nest.

I love to watch Jody nest. She first does a sweep of the area to collect any unclaimed blankets, then drags them all to her chosen spot. (Sometimes she grabs more than she can carry and drops some on the way.) Then she sits down and arranges the blankets into a fluffy throne around her. When she’s satisfied with her work, she gets to her feet and then dives headfirst into the nest, usually making what we affectionately call her “dinosaur noise,” a low moan of contentment. Jody doesn’t typically go out of her way to play with enrichment, but if there happens to be some near her nest she’ll inspect it lazily.

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Once she’s settled, she stretches and wriggles from side to side until she’s totally content.

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Thanks, Monica!

Negra gone wild

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It was perfect weather for chimpanzees here at the sanctuary this morning  (in Cle Elum, this means warm sun with no wind!) so we decided to put out a breakfast forage on Young’s Hill.  All of the chimps seemed more at ease and peaceful on the Hill today than I have ever seen them!  No one appeared to feel the need to keep an eye on where everyone else was and just went about peacefully foraging in their own direction.  Much to our surprise and delight Negra went further than I have seen her go yet!  She immediately headed for the far side of the Hill and promptly sat down to check out the neighbor’s horses.  I even saw her glance upward occasionally listening to the birds overhead.  And as if that weren’t enough, Negra continued to roam and explore even further, enjoying handfuls of grass along the way.  We were astounded and couldn’t stop taking photos!  I think even the other chimps were excited to see Negra venturing so far.  In the end it seemed to me that Negra had enough of all the paparazzi and promptly turned her back on everyone just to enjoy her adventure on her own.

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I think Annie, Jody and Missy were as much in awe of Negra as we were!

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Missy

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I don’t think a day has gone by since I started working at CSNW in 2008 that I haven’t found myself completely charmed by Missy. She is full of contradictions – small but mighty, serious and goofy, independent and socially adept. Physically, she is petite and a little stocky with not much in the way of a neck. She has moments of extreme stillness and moments of explosive movement, and not much in between. When she’s still, she’s very still.

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But when she’s ready to move, she goes from 0 to 60 in no time. Missy does not believe in warm-ups.

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Missy has a stellar sense of humor and a twinkle in her eye. She often looks just a second away from bursting into laughter or a raucous game of chase. I don’t know how all of that energy and spirit and humor survived thirty years in tiny laboratory cages. When I watch her sprint up and down Young’s Hill at lightning speed, I’m so happy that she finally has the space to be herself.

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