Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Replacing the playroom window cages with chimp-proof glass has really paid off. Removing the caging from in front of the windows lets much more light into the playroom and gives the chimpanzees an unobstructed view of the world beyond the sanctuary. Negra, in particular, really seems to appreciate this. There is nothing she loves more than gazing over the valley (well, she might love peanuts more).
This is approximately the view that Negra is enjoying in the above photo.
I took the camera out to the greenhouse this morning and found Foxie chilling out on a tire. After a minute or two she ran over, passed me her troll doll, and ran back to the tire. Pass-the-troll is a favorite game of Foxie’s. She tosses a doll through the caging to a caregiver and watches closely to see what the caregiver will do with it – the more ridiculous, the better. In this photo she’s watching me balance the troll on my head while trying to handle the camera.
Eventually, she’ll let us know she’s ready to have her troll back by holding out her hand for it. Once the troll has been returned to her, she often inspects it closely as if looking for signs of damage. Foxie knows that her dolls aren’t alive, and she often treats them as the inanimate objects they are, but she can also be very nurturing toward them. It seems that the mothering instinct that she didn’t have an opportunity to express toward her own babies in the lab has finally found an outlet. Sometimes it even appears that Foxie likes to put her dolls in “dangerous” situations — entrusting them to a caregiver, or pushing them off a beam of a climbing structure — so that she can then “save” them.
I love to watch Jody nest. It’s such a science to get the blankets just right so that you feel safe and comfortable in your bed – and Jody is a master at getting comfortable!
Hopefully you have heard about our Team Chimp Fundraiser, but if not check out this link. Team Jody is in last place! Give her some love and join her team!
The other day I caught Burrito sitting by himself in the greenhouse with a pasta spoon in his mouth. He was just casually hanging out, minding his own business, and I snapped this photo:
Then he caught me taking pictures, and started being ridiculously cute:
Have you signed the petition to help retire the 110 NIH chimps that are slated for relocation from New Iberia Research Center to Texas Biomedical Research Institute? Though they are no longer going to be used in any invasive research, they should be able to live out the rest of their lives in a sanctuary where they can receive lifetime quality care. Those 110 chimpanzees deserve the same retirement that the Cle Elum Seven now have after decades in labs. Something that I always find haunting are the pictures of the chimps before they came to CSNW or when they first arrived, compared to just a few months in a sanctuary and especially after a few years. Look at this before and after comparison of Jamie, who is also in the photo below. For others like her, please sign the petition and if you have already, share it with your friends!
Chimp Haven is hoping to raise funds in order to take those 110 chimpanzees. They need to add housing space and are running a drive to get donations for doing so. When you share the petition, let your family and friends also know here is how you can help build a better home for these deserving chimpanzees: The Road to Chimp Haven. Remember, every signature helps!
We try to use this blog to share meaningful stories about the Cle Elum Seven — what they went through during their time in laboratories or how they’re experiencing sanctuary — or to talk about some interesting aspect of chimpanzee behavior. But sometimes I’m just so astounded that we get to look at these faces every day that I have to share.
Here’s Foxie enjoying the last good bits of a pomegranate peel from this morning’s breakfast.
No two souls can cheer me up quite like Annie and Missy. A couple of weeks ago, the BFFs were chasing each other around the hill, taking turns being the chaser and the chasee.
First Annie chased Missy
but she started to gain on her
as Annie passed, Missy playfully bit her shoulder
Then they played a little bit of peak-a-boo through the lexan panels of the cabin
