chimpanzee rescue

A Royal Brunch

June 13, 2021 by Anthony

In addition to today’s video, I am going to share the following message from CSNW Co-Director Diana (with a few current photos sprinkled in):

Wow!!! The Queen’s Brunch brought out so many generous people – thank you all so much!

Negra and her friends are definitely feeling the love right now.

The bidding is going on through tomorrow night at 8:00pm PT, so there’s still time to secure those things you can’t live without! We set the donation goal for sponsoring the journey of the Lucky Six at $110,000 – that’s $100 for each mile of their journey. And guess what?! We are less than $10,000 shy of that very ambitious goal.

Maybe we’ll reach it by tomorrow night when the auction closes?

Thank you for this incredibly warm welcome for the new six chimpanzees.

We owe a big “thank you” to Cory, Brad, Kayla, and everyone at Auction Frogs for once again hosting the virtual event. Cory did an outstanding job as host-at-a-distance (with the help of Honey B and Negra, of course).

We just want to clear up some important information about the Lucky Six. They were born at a biomedical research facility. For the last 25+ years, however, they have been cared for at the Wildlife Waystation (WWS).

WWS rescued them from life as biomedical research subjects and was a pioneer in that respect. It closed in 2019 with 42 chimpanzees and hundreds of other animals needing to be re-homed. That’s when the California Department of Fish and Wildlife stepped in to manage the daily operations, still keeping on the caregivers who have been with the chimpanzees for decades.

The Chimpanzees in Need campaign then arose and is working to re-home the remaining chimpanzees, including the Lucky Six.

We are beyond thrilled to have been in a position to help the chimpanzees at Wildlife Waystation, including Honey B, Mave, and Willy B, and soon the Lucky Six. We look forward to continuing to help the campaign and see other groups of chimpanzees find their way to more accredited sanctuaries.

Brunch Tomorrow!

June 12, 2021 by Diana

Are you ready??!! Tomorrow is the big celebration – The Queen’s Brunch virtual event for the humans, and the celebration of Negra’s honorary 48th birthday plus the anniversary of the start of a new life for Negra, Burrito, Jamie, Jody, Annie, Missy, and Foxie.

It’s really difficult to believe that it has been 13 years since the trailer pulled up in the driveway and we welcomed the Cle Elum Seven to their sanctuary home.

And it’s even more difficult to believe that we will be doing the same thing in just a couple of weeks for six more chimpanzees!

I hope you can join us and watch the rest of this video:

And help us welcome the Lucky Six to their new home by sponsoring their journey and bidding on auction items!

You will be able to watch the virtual event on both Facebook and YouTube at 11am Pacific Time, and you can join us live from the chimp house for the After Brunch Party by getting your “ticket” in advance on the online auction site.

I owe Anthony. He came for a visit today on his day off and graciously allowed me to use the photos below that he took while the seven were enjoying their favorite space – the original greenhouse.

It won’t be long before we’ll be sharing photos of new chimpanzees in new greenhouses!!

Jody in her summer spot in the greenhouse.

The Queen herself. Happy day before your birthday, Negra!

Burrito in a Tub

June 5, 2021 by Diana

The other day I was questioning J.B. as to whether he thought we deserved to have playful Burrito in our lives, and his reply was, “I don’t even think the world deserves Burrito.”

Deserving or not, here he is to spread joy to all of us, doing whatever it is he was doing or trying to do with an empty tub and a big tub full of water.

Speaking of spreading joy, have you registered for The Queen’s Brunch yet?

The virtual event is on June 13th, just eight days away!

I was going to share that there were some Burrito pillow cases available to buy now that had been carefully stashed away from past events, but the two we had were snatched up already!

There are, however, still a few pillow cases featuring Negra, Foxie, and Willy B on the online auction site. You might need to act fast to get one!

Honey B and the Sandbox

May 29, 2021 by Diana

As you can see, I “caught” Honey B in the sandbaox when I turned the corner. I love how many different things she tries with the sand.

For you blog readers, who are invested in the sanctuary on a deeper level than those who might just see a video we post on social media once in a while, I’m curious to hear your reaction to the statement I included within the video.

We are always discussing how to put sanctuary life into context and attempting to avoid inadvertently sending the wrong message about “cute” chimpanzees that might elicit the desire to own primates as pets. I refer you to this post by Anthony from over a year ago.

We’re really glad this issue is coming up more and more in our field, and I’m sure we will be reconsidering things we’ve posted in the past and doing more of these explanations within our posts, like we do on Instagram now too. Let us know your thoughts!

I hope you all were able to take the time to dig into something new today too, like Honey B.

If you haven’t already, check out the beginning of our online auction and don’t forget to tune in to the virtual Queen’s Brunch event in just a couple of weeks on June 13th!

Daily Smile

May 22, 2021 by Diana

If you saw our Instagram post yesterday, you saw some of this video. Here’s the longer version. This should definitely put a smile on your face!

Spring’s Bounty

May 18, 2021 by Chad de Bree

These past couple of days have been a whirlwind of seasons. On Sunday, the weather hit nearly 85º. Then yesterday the temperatures dropped into the 60s and we had a brief stint of rain. Today, the weather is in the low 50s with strong winds. By the end of the week it’s supposed to climb back into the 80s. As I watched the Group of Seven explore Young’s Hill this morning, it finally hit me. With these sporadic days of high temperatures, could this be Summer trying break through Spring’s hold? There is only a month left of Spring before Summer begins. Then I found some supporting evidence that Spring is in it’s final month.

As I was cleaning the Greenhouse, there was a grave yard of goat’s beard dandelions. As some of you know, goat’s beard dandelions are one of Missy’s favorite Spring time treats. Goat’s beard bloom from May to June, so the window to forage for them is relatively small. Though I did see Missy go out on Young’s Hill several times today, I hadn’t put two and two together yet. It wasn’t until I saw Jody race around the Hill grabbing whatever dandelion and prickly lettuce was within arms reach, that I realized we are in peak Spring. Neither wind nor rain nor heat will seem to stop them from enjoying the plentiful Spring bounty Young’s Hill is currently offering.

Here are some photos of Jody gathering some dandelions and prickly lettuce on Young’s Hill then enjoying them in the Greenhouse: