Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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chimpanzee rescue

Dreaming of Cooler Times

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With another hot, summer day, there was very little activity to be had to try to escape the heat. Early in the morning, the Group of Seven were given access to Young’s Hill, with Burrito leading the charge.

Negra however, decided to stay in the shady Greenhouse to escape the morning sun with a yellow-haired Troll Doll. None of the other chimpanzees stayed out for long, with Jody being the first to retreat back to the Greenhouse.

In one of the few instances where the clouds decided to provide some much needed relief, Jamie politely asked me to join her on a walk around Young’s Hill. Ok. She may have demanded it since it was one of the few instances she felt decent to go out. Missy (not pictured because she zoomed right passed us), Foxie, and Burrito also decided to join us.

After our walk, Foxie decided to follow Negra, Jody, and Annie’s lead by resting in the cool front rooms. Notice her Orange Blossom doll also snuggled in for an afternoon nap.

The Californian Three also had similar ideas. For the most part, they also decided to stay inside. Willy B did venture out into the Courtyard, but not for too long. Mave decided to just stay inside.

Willy B also found a new use for an old enrichment item. Both groups of chimpanzees share a large, stuffed dog that makes it’s way to both sides of the building after being washed.

Willy B decided this stuffed dog was his new bed.

It was only a few short months ago, Katelyn reported on how paired swallows started to nest. Now that summer is here, their babies have hatched and they have been helping keeping the sanctuary safe by being on guard. Even keeping us caregivers on our toes at times.

4,392 Days of Summer

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I used to live my life for the summers.

Growing up in a maritime New England town, summer was always the “best” season. The warm weather and sandy coastline brought tourists from all over, and my teenage friends and I spent those months playing baseball, mowing lawns, and bringing Dunkin iced coffees to our favorite beaches. Even though I moved to a big city and academics took over, I still wanted to live my life in a permanent state of summer vacation and I developed this dream of expatriating to the tropics and staying there. As a naive young biologist, my plan was to track wild primates through jungles all morning and end each day with a bottle of rum in a hammock overlooking some turquoise lagoon. (Don’t ask me how I planned to fund that kind of lifestyle.)

In an unexpected turn of events, I now reside in an arid place far from the ocean where the summers are short, windy and dry. I’ve grown to respect the other seasons and, for some reason, I can now see the beauty in even the most frigid, gloomy, foggy, damp, and dusty landscapes. The Pacific Northwest is a natural marvel; it’s truly a wonder that the snow-capped Cascades can exist so close to the mossy forests of the Olympic coast, the dusty shrub-steppe of the Columbia plateau, and the wind-blown grasslands of the Palouse. Out here, there’s no such thing as perfect weather; there is just weather, and you better have the right gear for it.

Now, the central region of Washington state is transitioning from a cool and wet spring into a dry and hazy summer. Yesterday was the official solstice, but we have had golden sunlight well into the evenings for the whole month of June. The cattle are grazing heartily on the prairie grasses and make daily pilgrimages back to their watering hole before finding some afternoon shade below the pines. Jamie and the gang have been taking advantage of the extra daylight to go on more group patrols out in their grassy enclosure, and Willy B and his friends have been napping in the Courtyard and sunbathing in the outdoor chute.

I sometimes wonder if, in some abstract way, the summer months have a similar effect on the chimpanzees as they had on adolescent me. As I watch them chase each other around the Hill, harvest wild greens, sunbathe in the Greenhouse and slurp down chunks of avocado and watermelon, it’s easy to forget just how much the chimps also enjoy crunching on icicles, taking in the crisp fall breeze and napping on rainy days. Like true residents of the Pacific Northwest, they can make the most of any season and aren’t deterred by a little precipitation. Although they may not have the same sentimental attachment to summer that I once had, I hope that their entire sanctuary experience gives them a similar sense of freedom, with their only objective being to do whatever they feel like doing within the confines of their sheltered home. Since they’ve just celebrated the twelfth anniversary of their retirement to sanctuary, they have now had 4,392 consecutive days of vacation. That’s a whole lot o’ summer.

Of course, there are those who generally prefer the comforts of the indoors and the word “vacation” just means that they don’t need to get out of bed. To these individuals, the seasonal changes really don’t seem to matter too much and just seem to flow around them. The chief of these stoic couch-potatoes is Negra. “The Queen” will occasionally venture out to participate in an outdoor forage, but she generally has the same low-key itinerary each day, rain or shine. Today, she napped in the Greenhouse under a pile of fleece blankets while the other chimps engaged in summer fun out on the Hill. Happy four-thousand, three-hundred and ninety-second day of summer break, Neggie.

Different ways of getting around

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This post was originally about family. I was writing it in my head throughout the day. I was going to talk about how the chimpanzees at the sanctuary are really a lot like other families because they did not choose to be together, but they had to figure out their relationships and find the things they liked about each other.

More words, hopefully an interesting insight, blah, blah, blah.

Then I watched the video clips that I had taken and I was fascinated just by the way the different chimpanzees in the clips moved.

If you’ve ever been hanging out at a race to cheer on a friend or relative running, I’m sure you were surprised by the variation in the way that human beings move their bodies when they are running. There are a few people who look natural and graceful while running, but most of us are a bit on the awkward side of things when it comes to speedy locomotion. I think the same can be said for chimpanzees.

We primates will not be mistaken for cheetahs anytime soon, but we do okay getting from one place to another, and sometimes, like Missy and Burrito and Jody and Foxie in the video above, we can have fun doing it.

Bonus photo of Annie’s sporty look today:

In memory of Ashley

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Today, Cynthia McCloskey sponsored a day of sanctuary for the chimpanzees in memory of Ashley McCloskey:

“This day marks six months of missing Ashley. Ashley loved animals and we’d like to honor her memory today by sponsoring a day for the chimpanzees. She would love this, doing something for animals in her name. We love you and miss you Ashley! Hope all the chimps have a great day today. We love following their stories.”

Cynthia, we’re so sorry for your loss. Our hearts are touched by your choosing to honor Ashley in this way for the chimpanzees, thank you. We hope some of the comfort and joy you’ve helped provide the chimps surrounds you and all of Ashley’s loved ones as you hold her in your hearts today, and always.

Annie and Missy grooming one another:

Missy and Annie:

Annie:

Pre-Lunch Naps

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After cleaning the enclosures today, I set off on my journey to find the chimpanzees and ask to take photos of those who were willing. On a normal day, they would be scattered about between their different areas. However, today was a little different.

With the weather bouncing back and forth between light rain and sunshine, it has brought the perfect conditions for napping. Throughout the entire day, it wasn’t too difficult to find any of the chimpanzees. A majority of them were found on the top platform in the Greenhouse, the perfect napping spot.

Annie gave me a quick glance over when I walked up, before rolling over to continue her nap.
Jody grabbed some blankets to ensure maximum comfort for her lounging around.
Even Jamie took most of the day off to lounge around. Even the Boss needs at least one day off from monitoring those pesky humans.

Though it seemed there was nothing that could ever convince any of them to get out of their perfectly cozy spots, lunch arrived and they all sprang up. On today’s menu was carrots, onions, and tomatoes.

Jody savored every bite of her carrot.
Burrito had some minor difficulties juggling his food.
But once he got it, he was in Noms-ville.

Most of the chimpanzees are now tucked away for the night in their nests. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow will bring. Will it be another lazy day, or one filled with adventure.

Bonus photo of Annie enjoying her slices of dinner orange.

Twelve Years Ago Today

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I am not very nostalgic, and I’m quite bad at remembering and acknowledging anniversaries and birthdays within my personal life (sorry friends and family).

I’m also not the most patient person. I tend to just plow ahead into the future, driven by a feeling of urgency that time is passing and there’s a lot to get done.

Today, however, I was struck with some deep nostalgia thanks to Facebook reminding me of a post I made on my personal page this day twelve years ago.

It simply said, “is anxiously awaiting seven chimpanzees”
(this was back when many people bizarrely worded their Facebook status updates in the third person – it was a thing, it wasn’t just me).

Wow, did that memory ever bring back some feelings.

Here I’ve been plowing ahead in my usual fashion, anxiously preparing for our upcoming first-ever virtual event on Saturday, without taking the time to truly contemplate what the event is celebrating, all that has occurred between that date twelve years ago and now, and all of the people who have been a part of the sanctuary during those years.

This nostalgia drove me to the blog. I posted twice on the blog on this day twelve years ago.

The first post was a brief thanks to those who had attended our housewarming party days prior, an update that founder Keith and J.B. had visited the chimpanzees at Buckshire (J.B. had made a point of telling me that Negra was great and was going to love her new sanctuary home), and a reference to an article that has long since disappeared from the internet.

The second post was the first report from the road! Keith and J.B. were following the truck that was transporting the seven chimpanzees from Pennsylvania and the post included a photo of the truck and trailer that held those seven precious lives and one of Jody in the transport cage on the truck.

In just a few days we will be celebrating twelve years of sanctuary for this ragtag group of seven chimpanzees who have embedded themselves into the hearts of people who have gotten to know them both in person and at a distance through this blog.

We will be celebrating Queen Negra’s 47th birthday. We will be celebrating the addition of the three Californians who joined us less than a year ago.

And we will be celebrating all of forages, naps, play sessions, and adventures that the next year, and even the next twelve years, await these chimpanzees and future chimpanzees who will call Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest home.

I hope you will join this celebration, The Queen’s Brunch, on Saturday at 11:00am PT. You can set a reminder via Facebook right now. Don’t worry, you’ll be able to watch even if you don’t have a Facebook account.

Originally, Saturday’s celebration would have involved a party for the chimpanzees and a separate in-person gala event in Seattle for about 200 human attendees.

With the pandemic, we had to pivot to an online virtual celebration.

Our budgeted fundraising goal for the original in-person gala was $200,000. Not knowing when we pivoted (and still not knowing!) what to expect from a virtual event and what will come of our postponed gala very tentatively scheduled for September 18th, we set the fundraising goal for The Queen’s Brunch at a much more modest $50,000.

Thanks to everyone who has donated and bid on online auction items so far, we are inching towards half of that goal as I type this.

I’m still plowing forward because there’s a lot to be done and a lot at stake.

But I will certainly take a break to celebrate Honey B’s birthday tomorrow! In addition to all of the lovely details that Katelyn wrote about on Monday, did you know that Honey B has a particular nesting style? It’s related to her sarong-wearing that Katelyn mentioned. After creating her nest base, she takes a blanket and wraps her lower half in it, tucking herself in perfectly.

Then she’s ready for sleep

Thanks to Earthrated for the new cozy green blankets.

I will also take some time to think about just how much has transpired since the day that truck pulled up in the driveway with seven chimpanzees who had no idea what was ahead for them.

truck pulling up driveway with chimps

I will especially think about the last twelve years of sanctuary for the chimpanzee who will always be my queen.

This is one of the very first photos I took of Negra at the sanctuary:

And this is the photo that Anna took of her a few years ago that we’ve been using as part of the logo for The Queen’s Brunch (available in pillow form to buy now).

Thank you, thank you, thank you, to everyone who has been a part of her life and a supporter of the sanctuary at any point during the past twelve years and even before, when it was all just a dream.

Hi, I’m Mave!

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Mave has been in such a fantastic mood lately. She has been grooming a lot with Honey B and Willy B. She has been very playful, playing chase with caregivers, full contact wrestling with her roommates, spinning around on the floor, even climbing the caging so she can to meet the caregivers at eye-level to show off her amazing play face and presenting her belly. I didn’t have the camera on me at the time, and Katelyn and I weren’t able to pull our phones out quick enough to catch it yesterday. So here’s a photo from a couple weeks ago during one of our play sessions. You would just have to image her with that face, but high on the caging to meet eye-to-eye before jumping down and engaging in another game of chase.

One other sign Mave is getting into a playful mood is with her fashion choice. When she is playful, she usually plays with a sock or puts it on as Kelsi mentioned in Mave’s birthday blog. Recently, she has been loving these fruit themed socks we have in our enrichment inventory.

Mave with a strawberry sock.
Mave with the grape sock.

And today, she decided the banana sock was today’s choice after a rousing game of chase.

Once her sock was on, the game of chase continued.

There are only two other fruit sock variations left I have not been able to catch a photo of her with: grapefruit and pineapple. I have seen her wear or at least interact with them, just haven’t been able to capture them on camera.

Speaking of two different variations, have you seen the Mave shirt available on the Queen’s Brunch Online Auction? There is a brown version and a blue version. I am super thrilled with how these designs came out and can’t wait to get mine.

Be sure to register for the Queen’s Brunch to ensure you receive updates on items added to the auction.

Mave and Honey B grooming in their pink car fort.