Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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chimpanzee sanctuary

Let the Countdown Begin!

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Eleven more sleeps until Jamieween. Though this blog isn’t really about Jamie, the Jamieween countdown has begun! As many of you may know or even agree, Jamieween is known as a staff and volunteer favorite for chimp celebrations! Not only do we get to celebrate Jamie and all her amazing-ness, but there is always an amusing pumpkin heist too! Not to mention Halloween is some of the staff’s favorite holiday. The gifts for Jamieween have been rolling in and we could not be more grateful. This is just a handful of items for Jamie’s haunting celebration! Personally, I can’t wait for Jamie to get her anatomy apron.

I don’t have much content for today because it was rather uneventful and eerily quiet today. So quiet that I had to check and make sure there were chimps in the building! But I do have lots of photos of Cy and Rayne.

I mean come on! How handsome is he?

Rayne and Cy sharing a bench.

Rayne is the absolute best! She is the type of person that when you see her she instantly warms your heart.

Rayne enjoying some rose hips.

I have a few extra photos to share with you all, as well.

Same bench, same sitting position, can you tell these two are related?

Honey B enjoying a leek in the green house.

Fall Vibes

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Fall is starting to set in real nicely here in the Pacific Northwest. Temperatures are nice and the days are sunny for the most part. We do have some rain in the forecast that is supposed to last some time. So to take advantage of this nice sunny mid-60º weather today, Jody’s group had one last forage on Young’s Hill before the rain comes in.

On today’s menu was corn, carrots, beets, and primate chow!

Annie:

Burrito:

Foxie:

Jamie:

Jody:

Missy:

Negra:

Cy’s group and Willy B’s group were also treated to a lunch of corn, carrots, and beets, along with their primate chow.

After lunch, every body spent most of the afternoon snoozing. Well, almost everybody.

Cy had to catch up on some afternoon ready:

And Mave spent her time soaking in as much sun as she could:

Another Lazy Sunday

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Sundays are for recharging energies and getting ready for the week, and over here it is no different. Enjoy some moments captured today on this lazy lazy Fall day.

Gordo resting in the front rooms, courtesy of Caregiver Katelyn.

Gordo resting in one of the platforms of the green house.

Jody enjoying some brussel sprouts during lunch time.

Which then led to laying down and munching on some potatoes.

Terry hanging out in the green house, catching some rays.

Honey B very much aware that Caregiver Anthony was doing cattle care.

Lucky in her favorite spot to nap, the platform of one of the front rooms.

 

[Read more…] about Another Lazy Sunday

Queen of Brussels (Sprouts)

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Please enjoy these photos of Queen Negra obtaining Brussels Sprouts on a gorgeous fall day.

She got in some calisthenics during the forage.

Bonus: Jamie and red peppers in the tall grass

Burrit-O’s

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As the temperatures begin to drop, Jamie’s group have been waiting a little while before going onto Young’s Hill in the morning, but not too long. Well… Almost everybody in her group…

One of the first things we do when we arrive at the Chimp House is to do a security check to give the chimpanzees access to Young’s Hill as soon as possible. This morning, as I opened the door to the Hill, most hung back a little bit for the sun to do it’s work and warm things up a little bit. But Burrito is a different story. We have been talking about how much we all could have the level of energy he has that early in the day. Once the door was open, *zoom* he was out the door and off to the races. I grabbed the camera and ran as fast as I could. I usually can keep up with him most of the day, however, the first run in the morning is the one where he undeniably beats me.

I grabbed what photos I could while running. As you might expect, they are just a blur.

This is probably only one of the clear photos I got of him, because he was waiting for me so he can turn around and run the other way!

This set of photos are when we completed a lap around Young’s Hill, then he decided to turn around to go again.

Then once we made our way back to the starting point, we went around again. This time though, other members of his family decided to join.

Burrito, Dora the Explorer’s friend Kate, and I waiting for Jamie to catch up. (Missy had already passed us as we waited.)

Then it was off to the races again!

Keep in mind, Young’s Hill is indeed a hill and most of the run is up. I say this as an excuse for my huffing and puffing, trying to catch my breath throughout the day. How he has this amount of energy in the morning? It’s almost as if he eats a bowl of Cheerios (or Burrit-O’s that I assume are more energy-packed) before we arrive to ensure he is ready to go once we walk through the door.

(Photo courtesy of Sam)

Some bonus photos from today!

Cy playing chase in his Greenhouse. He moves incredibly fast for such a big guy!
Lucky lounging on the firehose!
Jody enjoying her dinner leek! Don’t mind the corn kernels Jamie “accidentally” dropped on her head.

And a huge thank you who have supported us during Giving Day for Apes! There is still a few hours left you you wish and can support us to reach our goal! Because of you support, not just during Giving Day for Apes, but also on a regular basis, you help us try to provide the best life we can for the 20 individuals in our care. Thank you so much!

engineering challenges that create fun perspectives

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Designing chimpanzee buildings is not an easy task. There are so many functional needs to take into consideration, not to mention having to make everything virtually indestructible as well as fun for smart and strong chimpanzees.

For our most recent construction, in order to connect the two new greenhouses to one another so that chimpanzees could pass from one to the other, a door needed to be installed between them, but we also wanted a human hallway in between the greenhouses with a shelter overhead.

After much rumination, J.B. and Marc Brown of Marc Brown Design came up with a door above the hallway. Our doors on the new side of the building are on a hydraulic system and remotely operated, so the next challenge was figuring out how the human door-operators could see the door while operating it.

The solution was to create a small space of caging embedded within the ledge of the greenhouses on each side that allows the humans a clear view of both sides of the door (Door Q, in case you’re curious), while operating the door using the lever on the left in the photo below.

image: Door Q

Aside from the outdoor Chute, It’s currently the only place where the chimpanzees are directly above human space.

Rayne thinks this perspective is very fun, and she surprised me the other day by greeting me from above.

You may notice that Rayne has a strange looking pinky toe on her left foot – this is from a recent injury during introductions. If you know chimps at all, you won’t be surprised to learn that Rayne is not bothered in the least by this injury. She allows us to spray it with Vetericyn, and I’ve seen her friends occasionally paying close attention to it, but otherwise I forget she was even injured. Even directly after the fight when this injury happened, she was ready to be reunited with the sparring chimpanzees, so we put them all back together for the big playroom romp that J.B. wrote about.

The toughness and silliness of chimpanzees will never cease to impress me.

Feels like Sanctuary

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Today really felt like sanctuary, I mean everyday does, of course! But everyday is different, each chimps mood varies, what they feel like doing, or not doing. Today was full of patrol walks, laughter, exploring, displaying, excited breathy pants, and of course a few non shifters ;). The beauty of sanctuary is choice and with that choice gives them a sort of freedom, not the freedom they should have and very much deserve, but the closest freedom they can have. Some days I will catch moments that just make your heart want to burst with joy, like Jamie chasing Foxie on Young’s Hill. Because those moments are what sanctuary is all about!

We just updated our wish list for Wildlife Toybox. They have some really fun durable enrichment, we especially need the mirror cover for our “Looky Lou”!

Rayne says goodnight!