Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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chimpanzee sanctuary

Watermelon forage

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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

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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.

Tune in tonight

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Eric Jensen and Eric Johnson won an Emmy for their story about the chimps’ release onto Young’s Hill last year, and we were happy to have them back today to film a story about the Taylor Bridge Fire and our recovery. Tune in tonight at 5pm to KOMO 4 if you’re local to the Seattle area, or check KomoNews.com later this evening for the full story. We’ll post the link when we have it.

And while you’re waiting, wouldn’t you just love to know what Foxie was thinking when I snapped this picture earlier today? We often get asked to interpret what the chimps might be thinking, and that’s generally an impossible task. But whenever I see Foxie looking at her troll dolls, especially a new one, I’m struck by how intense the connection seems.

We need nightbag mix!

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“Nightbags” are paper sacks of a variety of nuts, dried fruit and seeds that we give the chimps each night after their dinner. All of the chimps really enjoy nightbags, especially Negra- whom I’m pretty sure lives for that moment every day. It is her all time favorite thing in the world and there is nothing quite as special as her facial expression as we pass it to her each night. Her eyes get wide and she blinks with excitement- almost disbelief- that the moment has arrived where she can have her precious nightbag. It is the best feeling in the world to be the one giving her that much joy.

But we are really low on nightbag mix! Like I mentioned, the mix usually consists of nuts (peanuts, pecans, and almonds are among their favorites), sunflower and pumpkin seeds, and any type of dried fruit, though we only give the chimps unsalted and sugar free foods, so if you are shopping around- be sure to look at the ingredients! For nuts, raw and in shell is best.

Nuts.com has pre-selected care packages hand picked for the chimps, where for $25 you can get a variety of in-shell, unsalted mixed nuts, however, we need seeds and dried fruit too, and some variety would be great!

***NOTE: Any sugar-free, natural dried fruit is fine except for mangoes! Annie is allergic.***

Here’s Negra enjoying tonight’s nightbag:

Hugs and kisses

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Burrito was a bit nervous going out on Young’s Hill today- most likely because before Friday, due to the Taylor Bridge Fire, the chimps hadn’t been out there in nearly three weeks. As soon as he got out there, he stood bipedally and his hair was pilo erect (standing on end), both signs that he was a bit worked up or aroused. But Foxie and Missy both reassured him that everything was safe.

Burrito trying to steal a hug from Foxie, who was walking by right after the door to the hill was opened:

who then hugged him back as a way to calm him down. If you look closely at the photo, you can see that Burrito is fear grimacing (aka- showing all of his teeth. This facial expression looks much like a human smile, but is usually a sign of fear or intense excitement).

Still a bit nervous, he approached Missy with a bent wrist. A bent wrist is a submissive gesture and often an effective way to gain reassurance from a more dominant individual. He has a large fear grimace in this photo.

Later, seeing that Burrito was still nervous, Missy approached him, breathy panted and gave him an open mouth kiss, again letting him know that all was okay.

He eventually settled down and got busy doing what he does (and loves) best- foraging for chow.

Negra and Jody play

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Negra and Jody are two out of our seven residents that are more relaxers and not as much rough-and-tumble players, like Foxie or Missy. So, it’s a nice treat getting to see them playing with anyone—and even more so with each other!

Cuteness Overload

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Burrito definitely loves playing with his human friends (and we love playing with him!) but I really like seeing Burrito play with other chimps. He and Foxie play pretty frequently– I would suspect that of the chimps, Foxie is his best friend. But he and Missy play sometimes too. I caught them in a rambunctiously goofy play session this morning in the greenhouse. They were so caught up in their silliness that neither of them even noticed me taking photos through the glass window in the playroom.