Supporter Dana Alan Troyer thoughtfully sent the chimps the Disneynature movie “Chimpanzee”. Burrito and Foxie have always been fascinated by movies and they were especially excited about this one! You may notice at one point it looks as though Burrito is “dancing” to the beat of the music, but in reality I suspect he was just generally excited about seeing the chimps on TV. He loves TV but is particularly interested in movies with free-living chimpanzees. His face while watching the movie was just priceless! Thanks, Dana!
chimpanzee sanctuary
The many faces of Foxie
Chimps, just like humans, have really expressive faces. Here at CSNW, Foxie definitely has one of the most expressive faces, many of which we’ve dubbed “Foxie’s cute face” or “Foxie’s sweet face.” Here’s a compilation of Foxie faces I found today, stretching back a couple of years:
Foxie’s “I got a new troll” face:
Foxie with a mouthful of food:
Foxie’s relaxed face:
Foxie’s “intense face”:
Foxie’s play face: (She is wrestling with Jamie)
Foxie’s sleepy smooshed face:
Foxie’s hoot face:
Foxie’s up close cute face:
“My” cozy nest
Annie made a cozy nest this morning in the greenhouse. She was so content there, she had no interest in going out on the hill while other chimps were headed out. Instead, she watched them explore from the comfort of her bed.
But after she abandoned her nest, Jamie decided it was the perfect place to take a nap.
Take Action Tuesday: Time is running out for H.R. 1513/S. 810
Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest supports the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act. Watch this newscast from PCRM and, if you agree, Take Action. PCRM has a link at the bottom of the video to find a form you can use to contact your representatives to share your opinion.
Already written your letter? Share this post with everyone you know. Post it on Facebook, Twitter, and send via e-mail. Get the word out that GAPCSA needs more support to move forward in the current session of congress. If this bill passes, it would release all federally owned chimpanzees to sanctuaries. After going through invasive medical testing (which is mostly unnecessary according to the Institute of Medicine) they deserve to be retired. Just see what sanctuary life can do for chimpanzees like Negra.
Here are a few bullet points that you can include in your letter to congress:
- Chimpanzees actively used in biomedical research are routinely tested on—undergoing surgeries, infected with deadly viruses, and injected with vaccines. They are very intelligent and suffer from immense psychological distress due to lack of proper socialization, separation from their mothers when infants, and absence of mental stimulation.
- Evidence has shown that although chimpanzees are indeed genetically very similar to humans, they are a poor research model for many diseases due to basic molecular differences between the two species. For instance, chimpanzees infected with HIV do not acquire AIDS, which makes them a poor medical model for finding an HIV/AIDS vaccine for humans.
- Many chimpanzees are currently warehoused and are not actively being used in testing, but it is still costing taxpayers millions of dollars to house them. Retiring them to sanctuaries will not only provide higher quality living conditions and care, but it will save taxpayer money.
Sleepy chimps
The chimps have been super mellow today- lots of nesting, grooming, and general quiet time. Elizabeth snapped a couple of really great pictures of Foxie and Negra resting on the catwalk in the playroom this morning. I love seeing the chimps so relaxed and peaceful.
Negra often lets her lips droop to one side when she’s relaxing. It’s almost like she’s so relaxed, she just lets gravity do the work.
Watermelon forage
Today we put out a watermelon forage on Young’s Hill to accompany the chimpanzees’ breakfast.
Burrito, collecting some forage:
If you look closely in the next picture, you can see the bright green grass in the background starting to come back from the part of the hill that was burnt in the fire. It’s along the irrigation line, so that’s why it’s a solid stripe of green grass.
This is Jody, sitting by a post in the shade while munching on watermelon pieces:
And my personal favorite—Missy with a mouthful of watermelon:
Negra’s amazing nest
This morning when I walked into the chimp area, everyone was super quiet (usually it’s a little noisy first thing in the morning) and I saw Negra sleeping in her favorite spot on the catwalk beside the window. The nest she was lying in was huge—way bigger than any nest I’ve seen before! It made me smile so much, just knowing how comfortable and content Negra looked. I took a short moment while everything was still and greeted Negra by reaching my arm out and nodding my head. She gave me a quick head nod in return and then shifted in her nest a little bit. A couple minutes later, the other chimps started to get up and it became the usual noisy morning, but Negra stayed in bed. This is typically how it goes—while everyone else is eagerly watching the humans prepare breakfast and get ready for the day, Negra sleeps in until we are about to serve. But today especially, her nest was so expansive and comfy looking, I thought she might stay in bed all day! But as soon as she saw the peanuts we were serving as a breakfast appetizer, she quickly jumped out of bed and headed to join the rest of the chimps in the greenhouse. The pictures we got of her nest were a little dark, and I did my best to brighten them up but I apologize for the poor lighting due to the sun in the window! The first picture shows just how big the nest was (24 big, fluffy blankets in all) and the second is a close-up of our Queen’s beautiful face.
Negra simply enjoying her big nest this morning started making me think about how awesome it is that she can do that now, after 30+ years in a lab. I thought about it all during cleaning, and as soon as I had a chance I went to our blog to find an entry from before the chimps ever arrived—one about Negra trying to make a nest with scraps of newspaper in the lab she was in before coming to CSNW. It was written almost exactly 5 months before the Cle Elum Seven arrived at their forever sanctuary home. It’s here if you want to read it, but be prepared to get teary-eyed. As Diana says in the post, “Negra deserves to be forever free from the fear of life as a laboratory subject. She deserves to have choices in her life. She deserves to have room to walk, run and climb. She deserves to have access to the outdoors. She deserves a daily supply of a wide variety of food. And she deserves lots and lots of blankets so she can finally make the bed that will truly make her feel content.”
I am so happy that her new sanctuary life has given her the opportunity to build a bed that Diana thought she might enjoy. It’s days like today that make me realize how amazing and resilient chimps are, after all they’ve been through that they can still find joy and contentment in life. It’s admirable.