Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Sweet September

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This weekend we host our last two summer visits for our supporters for the year. These small visits feature an educational talk from one of our staff members and a chance to view the chimpanzees as they forage for their lunch on Young’s Hill. Today’s lunch forage featured highly prized whole sweet corn (husk and all!).

Burrito spent most of his time picking up primate chow, but managed to get some corn too:

Foxie enjoyed some corn and a good view from one of the towers:

Jamie:

Negra:

Missy:

Jody made several trips outdoors to get her lunch:

There’s no better time to eat corn on the cob than in September -or at least Annie thinks so. She “won” the forage today by collecting the most corn and scaling the Escher structure for that final piece!

A BIG thanks to our supporters and some leisurely afternoon activities

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In case you haven’t heard, yesterday’s Giving Day for Apes was nothing short of a success! Check out the above video for a thank you from the Queen herself.

In other news, today after lunch, wadging paper primate chow bags seemed like top priority for Annie, Jody and Foxie. Jody and Annie had to take theirs to go so they could go spy on a big yellow construction vehicle that was backing up to the chimp house. Every day we get to see so much progress on our new building. It’s truly an exhilarating experience to be a part of!

Here’s Foxie and her wadge:

Jody:

And Annie:

My favorite photo is this profile of her. You can really see just how full her bottom lip is!

The inspiration of Negra on Giving Day for Apes

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While we’re in the midst of raising funds for the expansion (and we will be for a while), we also have seven chimpanzees to care for each day. They are the top priority as well as the inspiration to push forward to be in the position to help more chimpanzees.

The “we” in the above paragraph includes everyone who supports the sanctuary. Donations provide everything from laundry soap to staff salaries to funds to expand. We’re all in this together!

Negra has been a big inspiration for supporter Monica Best over the last several years. Having the connection to the sanctuary and reading about the daily lives of the chimpanzees on the blog helped Monica battle cancer four times.

Monica loves all of the chimpanzees, but feels that Negra is a kindred spirit. She relates to Negra’s need to just get under a blanket and take a good nap:

She understands Negra’s desire to have buddies:

and also the comfort Negra finds being on her own, sitting in her cabin:

In Monica’s words, “knowing that Negra’s safe and just gets to be who she is brings me so much joy.”

Monica is the kind of donor who gives whenever there’s a call to give, so it’s no surprise that she’s pledged $10,000 for the 4-5pm PT Power Hour during today’s Giving Day for Apes.

With Monica’s generous donation, we will be in the running for the bonus $2,500 that will be given to the North American sanctuary that raises the most donations during 4-5pm PT.

Monica hopes you are ready to give during that time and encourage others to give too! She will match every donation up to $10,000, doubling your contributions!

 

Jamie

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Sometimes when I hangout with Jamie there is a moment when it hits me how overwhelmingly cool she is.

Today, this was that moment:

Bonus Foxie with her strawberry shortcake doll:

Of course there are many points in the day when I come to this realization about Jamie or any of the other chimps. For example Jamie was having a great day today and at a certain point after lunch she was ready for her current favorite boot. As I quietly (so as to not disturb Jamie) played spin-kiss the doll-pass it back to Foxie, Jamie gathered her blankets and boots while quietly breathy panting in contentment and excitement for what was going to be a great nap. Unfortunately, we can’t always capture those moments in a photo!

What’s for Lunch?

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Today we had a very fall colored lunch! The chimps enjoyed carrots, tomatoes, and some sweet potatoes. There were lots of food grunts and squeaks all through the chimp house.

Jamie stood on higher ground to get a good view of what was served:

Missy also climbed up to get a view (mostly for the tomatoes):

Burrito holding on to some sweet potato:

Negra was really enjoying the sweet potato (Neggie was not as interested in the cut up tomato, she only really likes them whole):

Jamie on her firehose perch:

Volunteer Lizz serving Annie some tomatoes:

Did we mention Missy’s favorite food is tomatoes?:

Jamie loading up on the veggies:

Negra patiently waiting for her carrot while the wind causally blows through her hair:

 

 

 

 

Facial Expressions

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Just like humans, chimpanzees use a wide variety of facial expressions to display their emotions. Since we often think of chimps as so similar to humans, you can see how easy it might be for newcomers to chimpanzee behavior to misinterpret some of the photos they might see out there of chimps seemingly grinning happily for the photographer. Here’s a little tour of some chimpanzee facial expressions we see on a daily basis and the meanings behind them.

A typical relaxed face, as demonstrated by Negra:

Jody has the best relaxed face, drooped lip expressions:

Here’s Burrito’s sneer face. In this case he seems to be uncomfortable with the long grass poking him in the face or the prickly vegetation underfoot:

Negra’s pout face. She often pouts when she is uneasy in a situation or she is trying to assert her dominance and take something from another chimpanzee. One way or another, she usually receives a lot of reassurance from her friends when she is pouting and whimpering:

Here are two happy chimpanzees (Missy and Annie) displaying giant play faces. Notice how their top lips cover their top teeth and their bottom teeth are exposed. This is how you smile like a chimpanzee!

Now compare those happy smiles to these full open grin fear grimaces that Annie and Jamie are showing here. I can almost hear them screaming at each other (maybe over a food disagreement?).:

Needless to say, they aren’t happy in this photo. We’ve probably all seen photos of young chimps dressed up in costumes and posing on the cover of greeting cards or in commercials with similar fearful expressions as Annie and Jamie. To learn more about how you can advocate on the behalf of these chimpanzees, follow this link and thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge with others.