Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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chimpanzee rescue

Mave’s Feminist Uprising

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Mave is currently living her best life. She seems to thrive in a larger group with more chimpanzees to interact with and look after. These last few days, she’s virtually never alone.

The video above is of a very fun play session between Mave and Rayne, but the blog post title is more about these two stories…

You may remember from a blog written by J.B. entitled “It’s Only Natural” that Terry and Dora are the only two chimpanzees who express a certain natural behavior. We know from their former caregivers at Wildlife Waystation that they haven’t always done this – they did it for a while, stopped for a very long time, then started again in recent years. Terry only requests that Dora mate when food is brought out for meals. Yep, food is VERY exciting for chimpanzees. From our observations so far, Dora is not always in the mood for Terry’s advances, but she eventually gives in to his requests.

Enter Dora’s new friend Mave.

Mave, apparently, is not willing to tolerate Terry’s behavior and will not only yell at Terry if she catches him requesting Dora to copulate, but will physically “protect” Dora. Chad wrote up the first instance of this the other day. To quote Chad, “Mave began screaming at Terry, and blocked Dora from him via hugging her.” She apparently spent the rest of lunch guarding Dora while also trying to reconcile with Terry. At that point, Terry was more interested in lunch. He did reassure Mave that all was okay, and did not make another attempt that day.

We’ll have to see how this plays out in the end, but I can tell you that the female humans at the sanctuary were feeling a certain feminine solidarity with Mave.

 

The second story is from last night when everyone was getting ready for bed. I was watching on the remote security cameras. Every night prior to last night, Mave, Willy B, and Honey B have slept in one of the Front Rooms while the six chimpanzees from the other group spread out among the two playrooms.

Last night, Cy was still up taking some alone time (or so he thought) in the Mezzanine. I watched as Mave gathered some blankets from the Marmot Mountain Playroom. I expected her to take her large pile of blankets through the Mezzanine and down through the door in the floor that connects to the Front Rooms. What she did instead was make a nest right in the “cubby” of the Mezzanine, blocking the door that connects it to Marmot Mountain. She made a beautiful nest and lied down.

A few minutes later, Cy approached where she was lying down. It was clear to me that he wanted to vacate the Mezzanine. Mave, however, remained lying down, not moving a muscle. He got a little closer and patiently waited again. Still no movement from Mave. After about ten minutes, he climbed over her to get out the door. She still didn’t move.

Mave is a female figure that we all can admire. She’s a friend to everyone but is strong and confident in her position.

If you haven’t already, I suggest you celebrate Mave by getting a Mave hoodie. I will wear mine with even more pride and admiration now.

The Grass is Always Greener

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As caregivers arrived this morning, the sun was bright and the weather was warm. So one of our first orders of business was to conduct our security checks to let Negra’s group out onto Young’s Hill as soon as possible. As the door that leads to Young’s Hill opened, all seven filtered through, with Negra in the lead.

As I watched Negra sitting in warm sun, seemingly taking it all in, I was amazed at how green the grass was. It’s just one of those things I don’t notice as it’s happening until I see it through the view of the camera lens.

On her way in, Negra found a pine cone that she wanted to bring back to her Greenhouse.

It was at this point I knew a lunch forage was in store today. How could I not let them have a forage on such a beautiful day?

On today’s menu was sweet potatoes, mini bell peppers, carrots, and chow biscuits.

Annie:

Burrito:

Foxie:

Jamie:

Jody:

Missy:

Negra:

Jamie watching Missy tightrope walking across the firehose:

Burrito taking his chance on the firehose:

Have you ever had that feeling you’re being watching?

Oh, it’s just Burrito:

Burrito relaxing and enjoying his lunch in the privacy of the hammock:

As you read about Negra’s group enjoying their lunch forage on Young’s Hill, please don’t forget that construction is well under way to complete the outdoor habitat for the new group of nine! One way you can help us is to donate, and what better way to donate than to help with Monica and Diana’s WA GiveBIG wish? Every little bit helps ensure the construction continues to move along and helps us get closer to letting Cy’s group enjoy a forage on their own hill.

Diana’s Birthday Wish

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Today is my birthday! My birthday wish is for the newly integrated group of nine chimpanzees at the sanctuary to blossom into a stable family that includes new friendships as they watch the construction of outdoor habitats that are are being built just for them right now.

If you’d like to contribute towards this wish, at least the building of the habitats part (as for the stable group and new friendships, we will all just have to cross our fingers), consider investing in future adventures by making a donation on my and Monica’s GiveBIG page.

A pant-hoot thank you in advance and to those who have already made a donation!

Please Excuse the Interruption

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To our supportive blog followers and lovers of the sanctuary:

We are always ever so grateful for all the love and support you have given us throughout the years and want to thank you for following along and interacting with us through the blog. As you all know, we have been in the process of integrating Cy’s group and Willy B’s group over the past several months. Our friend and colleague, Jen Feuerstein, will return tomorrow to help us with progressing even further into the integration process this week. During this time, we are going to be extremely busy monitoring the process as the chimpanzees come together and work on their relationships with one another. We will still be posting the daily blog, but please forgive us if at times this week it seems it is abbreviated or posted a little later in the day. We hope you understand. We will be back on a regular schedule soon!

As we prepare for the week ahead, please enjoy these photos from today!

Willy B:

Honey B:

Mave:

Cy:

Lucky:

Gordo:

Dora:

Rayne:

Terry:

Love a Chimpanzee Day 2022

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Today was a Love a Chimpanzee Day for the books! Not only did Monica continue her tradition of generosity by paying for party supplies (including a bunch of stuff like scarves and giant stuffed animals that are not pictured here, but the Primate Awareness Network at Central Washington University also got involved and planned the party! It was bug themed and the food for the day included bugs on a log (celery with peanut butter and berries), whole sweet potatoes, watermelon radishes, kale, bok choy, and Swiss chard.

We didn’t get a lot of photos of all of the elements of the parties because the chimpanzees were a blur of excitement, but Kelsi and Anna got some great photos of the chimpanzees. There were so many, I had a difficult time selecting only a few.

Thank you to those who have already donated on my and Monica’s GiveBIG fundraising page in celebration of Love a Chimpanzee Day. Monica’s matching donation is live, so your donations will be doubled.

Huge hugs of thanks to Monica, and Happy Love a Chimpanzee Day to everyone!

 

Gordo enjoying Swiss Chard:

 

Terry enjoying bok choy:

 

 

Beautiful Rayne:

 

Some set-up shots of creative party elements that the Primate Awarness Network made for the chimps:

 

Negra digging into a box and later eating some greens on the hill:

 

 

Willy B with the big party banner:

 

Missy slack-lining and carrying sweet potatoes:

 

Burrito with a watermelon radish and bok choy then “hanging out”:

 

Annie with some kale:

 

Jamie was the first on the hill and collected as much bok choy as she could:

 

A goodnight photo of Mave grooming Honey B while Honey B was in her nest:

Much to Celebrate Today

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After a week of snowy conditions, there was the break in the weather where it was sunny and warm enough to celebrate today.

When Missy’s group were first given access to Young’s Hill this morning, everybody went out and explored the Hill. In fact, Negra was the first one out, if you can believe it or not! As the chimpanzees scattered across their outdoor enclosure, I saw Missy at the very top on the furthest structure surveying her domain.

Later on in the day, the weather still held out for a forage outside. Today was filled with paper eggs containing nuts, carrots, sweet potatoes, mini bell peppers, and hard boiled eggs for all!

Here is one of the paper eggs as seen in Willy B’s enclosure for reference (of course they celebrated too!):

Initially we caregivers thought Jamie’s group would run out onto the hill, grab what they could, and head back to their greenhouse since a slight, chilly breeze began to pick up. We were wrong! Every single one of them stayed out for quite some time, enjoying their forage.

Jamie:

Jody:

Burrito:

Foxie:

Annie:

Missy:

Negra:

On the other side of the Chimp House, both Willy B’s group and Cy’s group also enjoyed their set up.

Cy:

Terry:

Rayne:

Willy B:

Mave:

Honey B:

For those who celebrate, we wish you a:

Happy Easter!

Chag Pesach sameach!

Ramadan Mubarak!

Siblings and the Sounds of Sanctuary

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Today is National Siblings Day! A day in which we honor our siblings! So today we are going to celebrate the siblings who who live here at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest!

The siblings here are Honey B, Cy, Lucky, and Rayne, as well as Gordo and Dora!

Cy and Lucky share the same mother and father, Sally and Herbie (respectively).

It is almost apparent they are full siblings since they look very identical to each other:

Along with being full siblings, Cy and Lucky are also related to Rayne and Honey B. They all share the same father: Herbie.

Cy, Rayne, and Lucky:

Honey B:

At certain angles and in the right lighting, you can somewhat see the resemblance between them all. As we know, Honey B’s mother is Missy, and Rayne’s mother was named Thelma.

The other half sibling pair who reside here are Gordo and Dora:

Both of them have the same father: Les. Gordo’s mother was named Andrea and Dora’s mother was Stella. Though these two do not share many physical traits, this pair love to play with each other and be around each other.

Gordo:

Dora:

We wish all the siblings out there a Happy Siblings Day!

As a bonus, attached to this blog are sounds from around the sanctuary. These sounds can be heard on any given day. On the days I am not in the Chimp House, I miss them dearly. It’s almost like an autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) to me. That is when a stimuli (sound or visual) triggers the brain to produce low-grade euphoria, or good feeling. It’s why some of us get goosebumps when we hear a particular song that is associated to happy event, or when we see an old photo of good times. To me it’s currently the sounds of the Chimp House.

I hope you enjoy.

And one final bonus photo of Lucky!