Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Today was sponsored by Dana Kennedy in honor of Jeff Kropp’s birthday weekend! Dana, thank you SO much for including the chimpanzees in your weekend of celebration and for all you do to make a lasting difference in their lives!
Jeff, we hope you have the best birthday yet! Thanks so much for sharing it with the chimps! Burrito would probably say he hopes you get to eat a lot of good food. A LOT of good food. 🙂
This morning when I opened the door to Young’s Hill for the chimps, the group filed out together to check on their 2 acre outdoor enclosure. Negra, who often goes back to bed after breakfast (instead of exploring), headed outside with everyone else. She found a perch on the nearest platform and was clearly watching the construction workers. Things have been a bit noisy lately as they have moved on from the masonry to putting in the ceiling rafters (quite a bit of thumping and bumping sounds are happening on the kitchen roof). There is a lot of activity to be curious about!
Perhaps she had an ulterior motive all along when she went outside, because she happened to snag a leftover sunflower and carried it back to her nest. Nothing signifies the end of summer quite like the lovely sunflower.
The chimpanzees and humans here have an amazing friend in Kathleen Corby, who sponsored a day of sanctuary full of love and gratitude today! Kathleen lives quite a ways away, but she is ever present in heart and spirit here, and in the lives of each of the chimps, every day. We’re all lucky to know her. She makes the world a better place just by sharing her special heart. She shared this beautiful and much appreciated message:
“I want to sponsor today to say “Thank You” to everyone at CSNW. Thank you for all you do every single day to ensure that Annie, Missy, Burrito, Foxie, Jamie, Jody and Negra live out the rest of lives surrounded by HOPE, compassion, family, friends, comfort, freedom of choice, and LOVE! You have given them a true HOME and that is the magic of SANCTUARY. But beyond all this, you have also placed their precious lives and courageous souls in our hearts and hands and for this I am truly grateful. My life is richer because I have come to know and love the Cle Elum Seven. Thank you.”
From our hearts, thank you, Kathleen! We so appreciate you and are grateful to have you as part of our chimp family.
Annie:
Burrito:
Foxie:
Jamie:
Jody:
Missy:
Negra:
Yesterday we threw a big party on Young’s Hill for Annie’s 44th birthday! The chimps were filled to the brim with all kinds of delicious foods, so much so, that there were still some leftovers deemed worthy by some adventurous foragers this morning.
Annie found what at first glance looked like a leftover banana leaf:
Upon further examination, it turned out to be the outermost skin of a watermelon rind.
Annie was more than happy to clean up after her own party
Jody found several remaining sunflowers to snack on as well:
Again today, Negra reaped some of the benefits of Jody’s hard work. I snapped this photo of her through the playroom window while we were cleaning this morning. 
What a day of celebrating beautiful, dear, sweet Annie! We decided to have the party on Young’s Hill, the chimps’ 2-acre outdoor habitat and it was complete with a chimp favorite, watermelon bowls filled with lettuce, blueberries, cherry tomatoes, onions, and cabbage, and a new treat of banana leaves filled with roasted sweet potatoes and onions and leftover watermelon, and beautiful organic sunflowers strewn about!
Aren’t these amazing?! They’re bigger than Kelsi! 🙂 We have the best volunteers who found a recipe for wrapping good stuff in squares of the leaves and another who found them in Seattle for us! Something completely new for the chimps!
Here’s the birthday lady opening her banana leaf packet:
Jody was actually first onto the hill and was very excited to make it back with two watermelon bowls! I caught her mid-blink – sorry Jo! – and food squeaking with delight:
Negra’s approach to the forage was to wait for Jody to bring her haul back to the greenhouse and promptly try to take it!:
Jody kindly let her have one. That said, when Jody came back later with another one she wasn’t so willing to give it up which the Queen wasn’t too happy about, though she did get what Jody couldn’t shovel in fast enough. Oh, Neggie:
Burrito found a bowl for himself and started to make his way back to the greenhouse food squeaking all the way. But he stopped short when he saw Jody and Negra near the raceway and decided to try and play it cool so as not to attract their attention (or probably more specifically, Negra’s). You can see how excited he is by his hair standing on end (pilo-erect):
Of course, he couldn’t wait too long before taking some bites:
Jamie’s tactic was to collect everything she wanted and put it in a good place to return to when she was ready:
Missy:
Annie and Jody out for more:
And Foxie! She was way out on one of the structures by herself when she found a watermelon bowl.
Then…Oh. My. Heart! We could hear Foxie food squeaking with excitement when all of a sudden she just couldn’t contain herself! When chimpanzees are overwhelmed with excitement or fear they will often express a facial gesture known as a “fear grimace.” This is what Foxie is doing here, but she was SUPER excited. Usually others chimps are nearby and they reassure one another, but Foxie just kept looking at us from afar as if to say, “Do you see this??!! Watermelon bowls!!! I just can’t…” We love how excited the chimpanzees get over something as seemingly simple as fresh food. It never seems to get old for them and certainly seeing their joy never gets old for us.
Happy 44th, Annie! May all your days and years ahead be filled with more love, joy and adventure than you ever imagined. We love you so very much!
The chimps’ good friend, Monica Best, sponsored today in honor of beautiful, beloved Annie! Annie, unbelievably, turns 44 today and naturally, we’ve been planning her celebration for days!
Monica, thank you as always for holding the chimps in your heart and for all you do to add to their lives! We appreciate you remembering Annie on her special day!
As I type this, the chimp house is singing with Annie’s classic “bird-noises” she makes by whistling through her hands and she’s washing her hair and face with water in her classic morning routine. Annie, 44 never looked so good! We have an exciting day ahead so check back later to see the festivities!
We love you so much, Annie! Your courageous, kind, gentle, goofy, endearing, full-of-moxie soul is an inspiration every day. May this, and each birthday ahead, be the best of birthdays yet!
Annie wouldn’t quite be Annie without her love for her best friend, Missy:
This morning for breakfast we had a forage in the Playroom! Everyone was very excited, food grunts and squeaks filled the whole Chimp House. However, sometimes excitement can turn into displaying. Most times like today the display you will see in the video is short and there is lots of noise and screaming and then everyone goes back to what they were doing before. I thought I might break down Burrito’s body language and behaviors he exhibits in the video before he starts his displaying. You can see that Burrito’s hair starts to get pilo (meaning his hair is standing up and making him look bigger), if you listen to the vocalization you can hear hooting (which sometimes means by the end of the hooting a big eruption will start, screaming, throwing things, etc.) Burrito then stands bipedally and rocks the barrel making noise, which then leads to him throwing the barrel, screaming, and running. This usually can get the girls screaming and mad at Burrito too. However, this is a very typical and normal behavior and today Burrito displayed, got it out of the way and everyone kept foraging!
