Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

chimpanzee rescue

Negra and friend

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Negra spent the day hanging out with a new friend. And if you’ve been following the blog recently, you may be able to guess who that might be. Diana got some great photos of the Queen enjoying a leisurely morning in the greenhouse and it didn’t take long to spot her new companion.

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You can just see a tuft of white hair sticking out from under Negra’s hip pocket:

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Negra heard the train coming and one of her favorite things to do is watch it go past in the valley below. She also loves to bang on the window at it as it passes by and today she seemed to be telling her little friend all about it.

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Similar hairstyles…

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For reasons unclear to the humans, trolls are the “it” item du jour in the chimp house again. Jody has been wearing a scarf with several trolls tied onto it for two days! She even ran back in before breakfast to retrieve it and put it on during her meal. But no worries about Foxie, she’s been spending her time with Dora today.

The light of Annie

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Annie’s inner light is shining through. It’s taken a long time for all those layers of anxiety and fear to fade, let go of the hold they had on her when she first arrived. After three decades in biomedical research, any of us would have difficulty seeing the world through a different lens.

When Annie first arrived, she often had anxiety attacks during which she would throw herself on the ground, flail about and scream. Sometimes it was seemingly an over-stimulated response to a high arousal situation, or a misunderstanding with one of the other chimps. Sometimes it was often difficult to tell what, if anything outside of her own mind, precipitated her distress. These events still occur from time to time, but much less frequently.

And until the last year or so, Annie never left her best friend, Missy’s, side. She became extremely anxious if Missy happened to go off to explore the hill, or decided to engage in a play session with any of the other chimps. The first year that the chimps had access to Young’s Hill, Missy would bound outside to explore while Annie watched anxiously from the greenhouse, rocking back and forth in the doorway until Missy returned. Heartbreaking doesn’t adequately describe what it felt like to watch her in distress in these moments. To be unable to reassure her, knowing she had to find her peace and calm in her own way and time, was difficult to say the least. But as the chimpanzees continually show us, provided with a caring, respectful and loving environment in which to heal, they are capable of finding their way back to themselves. One step at a time, one day at a time, sometimes one minute at a time.

It was around this time last year that our hearts swelled with joy over finding Annie peacefully sleeping in the greenhouse on her own. Now it’s an increasingly regular occurrence. Just a few days ago Annie was alarmed by something she saw outside and led the way out onto Young’s Hill, her hair standing on end and swaggering bi-pedally. She rushed out without hesitation or thought of who might serve as back-up as she courageously went to protect her home. And the others followed her lead! And just today during lunch when Jody, who holds a more dominant position in the group than Annie, attempted to take some of Annie’s lunch (as is normal chimpanzee hierarchical behavior) Annie turned her back to Jody and held fast to what she wanted, despite Jody’s displeasure.

Yep, Annie is shining through all that darkness of the past, brighter, steadier and stronger with each passing day. And what a beautiful gift it is to witness.

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Jamie at Rest

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It is nearly impossible to satisfy Jamie. She has a mind that never sleeps; it needs constant stimulation. She demands a lot of her caregivers. When she’s bored – and captive chimpanzees are always in danger of boredom – she turns to us to entertain her. Most of the time, we are able to figure out what she wants, or to come up with an enrichment idea that keeps her busy for awhile. But sometimes we just don’t seem to be able to please her no matter what we do.

So it’s always a relief and a pleasure when we catch Jamie in a peaceful moment – relaxed, satisfied, and in need of nothing.

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Happy Birthday, Harry Hmura!

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This day of sanctuary was sponsored by Alison Chapot in honor of Harry Hmura’s birthday! Alison has been a long time supporter and friend of the chimpanzees and in celebrating today she shared, “Harry is a dear friend and advocate for apes around the world.”

Harry Hmura is a musician and volunteers his performances to bring awareness to great apes and the sanctuaries that many of these individuals call home and assist with fundraising. Gaining inspiration from Dr. Jane Goodall and all of the great apes, Harry created a unique project called, I AM, I AM, in which he composed and produced an album using great ape vocalizations. “The entire collection of great ape vocal recordings, beginning in 2007, of chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, orangutans and gibbons including background environment sounds were recorded at sanctuaries or in natural indigenous habitats around the world.”

“I AM, I AM Project’s mission is sharing half the proceeds for much needed funding with sanctuaries around the world. Sanctuaries are amazing places, innocent beautiful lives, the spirit between humans and great apes. They are home to individuals, each unique from the next with different names and faces rescued from laboratory research, the entertainment and pet industry, the bushmeat trade and loss of habitat. They provide life time care, rehabilitation, companionship, shelter, protection, even sometimes reuniting family members, bringing new meaning and desires to life.”

Alison, thank you so very much for thinking of the chimpanzees and giving them a special day as you honor your friend, Harry, and celebrate his life!

Harry, we are so grateful to you for the work you do to advocate for great apes and sanctuaries worldwide. Thank you for sharing your talent and compassion by bringing awareness of these incredibly special beings to so many others and helping to make a real difference in their lives.

Jamie, always living her life to the fullest:

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Snippets

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Some of the most important things we can provide the chimpanzees are choices. The choice to explore their outdoor area or to nest inside. The choice to play with their chimp and human friends or nap. The choice to play with enrichment or ignore it. The choice to stay in one area or not when we are trying to shift them for meals or cleaning. The choices are many and we particularly love it when the chimps take it upon themselves to engage throughout the day in what they find interesting as long as we provide the options.

Choices relieve the inevitable bouts of boredom these intelligent, curious and active people experience at times being in captivity. And choices of how the chimps wanted to spend their moments and days was not something they often received prior to living in sanctuary. Yes, they are still in captivity and ultimately, the humans control their environment and schedule, but we do our very best at all times to work cooperatively with the chimps and give them choices at every possible opportunity. We want the chimpanzees to feel as much as possible that they finally get to call the shots. And really, they do.

These photos will hopefully provide an idea of how the chimpanzees choose to spend their days, in snippets:

Negra, dozing in the morning sun in the greenhouse when I first arrived:

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Foxie and Dracula troll enjoyed a toothbrush while waiting for breakfast:

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After breakfast, Burrito headed up Young’s Hill to climb one of the structures:

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He is exhibiting a fear grimace here (notice it looks very similar to a human smile, but means quite the opposite for chimpanzees – when chimps smile they only show their bottom teeth). Burrito sometimes fear grimaces when doing new things on the hill until he feels more comfortable. He may be feeling a little nervous as he courageously walks out to the end of the plank:

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Feeling more comfortable back on the platform:

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Jody wasn’t far behind Burrito, but decided to survey the area for some wild greens instead:

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Success! And she decides to head back to the greenhouse:

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Annie chose to head straight for the new structure and enjoy a little quiet time and the view from Carlene’s Tower:

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Missy decided to take the swinging bridge over to the other side:

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Jamie decided to join Missy on Jamie’s Tower, but climbed the pole as opposed to taking the “simple” way up of the ladder:

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Foxie joined Jamie a bit later:

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While all this was occurring on the hill, Negra changed nests and took a post-breakfast nap:

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Back inside later in the day, Jamie was thrilled to find one of her favorite enrichment items out – her “kitchen sink” filled with water and paper towels at the ready. She immediately wiped her nose:

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And washed and dried her hands:

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In between lunch and dinner the chimps also enjoyed checking out their growing garden and sampling some fresh peas and green onions, playing chase and grooming with caregivers and each other, cooling off with an ice cube snack, and napping throughout the day. And Jamie went on to check out new boots and enjoy an evening of walks around the hill while the other chimps headed to bed in the cooler playroom after dinner.

Annie, utterly relaxed:

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As caregivers, continually providing the chimpanzees with new and interesting options of how to spend their time is one of our biggest challenges. And seeing them utilize all their options and sometimes create their own, is one of our biggest joys. And hopefully, one of their biggest joys as well.

Jamie (and J.B.) get new boots!

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The chimpanzees had some good friends, Nikko and Billy, stop by with special gifts today. These two generous souls drove all the way down from British Columbia specifically to deliver multiple boxes of all but brand new boots from their family business, Stampede Tack and Western Wear in Canada! Many of the boots are men’s sizes and after suffering through wearing Jamie’s smaller boots, J.B. was pretty excited to find a pair that not only fit him, but were comfortable.

J.B. headed in to show Jamie, preparing to head out for a walk and as you may imagine, she was almost as excited as J.B. Jamie’s hair stood on end (pilo-erect), and she stomped her foot in excitement, but instead of heading out for a walk around the hill, Jamie decided she needed to inspect them immediately and demanded that J.B. hand them over. Too bad for J.B., it was almost like he had a birthday present taken away, but Jamie’s the boss around here.

Sometimes when Jamie gets really excited about something new, it’s almost as though she becomes overwhelmed and has to “walk away” to collect herself. After receiving the boots from J.B., Jamie took them into the playroom, softly hooting in excitement, but then she suddenly left them to sit out in the greenhouse momentarily. A few minutes later we found her with them, apparently ready to handle the excitement of her newest acquisitions.

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Nikko, thanks so much to you and your family for such kindness and generosity! You made Jamie’s (and J.B.’s) day!

Burrito enjoys his lunch

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One of the unfortunate aftereffects of the anesthetic drugs Burrito received for his exam last Friday is that his stomach has been a little upset. For a guy who normally loves food above all else, this is the ultimate cruelty.

Luckily for Burrito, and for all of us who love to watch him love his food, his nausea seems to have all but disappeared. Here he is enjoying his lunch this afternoon. Turn your volume up and listen for his periodic low moans of contentment.