Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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chimpanzee

The Birthday Tomato Queen

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Today we celebrated Missy’s 42nd birthday and the amazing chimp woman she is, so naturally we’ve been partying all day long!

If you know Missy, you know that she thinks tomatoes are the.best.thing.ever! So naturally, we bought more tomatoes than we thought one small chimp woman could possibly eat. $42 worth to be exact. Missy was beside herself when she saw them all this morning! These are of course meant to stretch out for a couple days (our plan, not hers), but we still served tomatoes with every meal. And she still thought it wasn’t enough.

We planned an indoor/outdoor forage brunch party with fresh fruits, veggies, and primate chow to compliment the tomatoes along with sparkling cider and pineapple coconut juice and everyone seemed pretty pleased with the festivities. Though I didn’t include a photo of her, Jamie was on the go drinking up all the juice.

Missy with a mouthful of cherry tomatoes:

Missy’s bestie, Annie, with a treat bag:

Negra with a mouthful of corn:

Missy on the go, foraging:

Burrito:

Jody:

We also scattered forage with lots of tomatoes on Young’s Hill with some special hothouse tomatoes still on the vine high up on the shaky bridge – a classic Missy spot – in the hopes she’d be the one to find them. Foxie is right up there with Missy as far as tomato connoisseurs go and they ended up being the only two who decided to venture onto the hill for the outdoor portion of the forage. They headed out together and played it cool so as not to attract the attention of the others.

Foxie found a whole tomato and quietly looked around to make sure no one was watching before popping the entire thing in her mouth. And you may not be able to see, but she’s rubbing her toes together which is Foxie speak for pure happiness and contentment:

Here she is hiding behind a post as she enjoys her secret tomatoes:

Missy searched high and low (and she did find the tomatoes on the vine!):

The Birthday Tomato Queen herself. We love you Miss! Happy Birthday and sweet tomato dreams. Rest up! There’s more tomatoes to eat tomorrow!

Happy Birthday, Missy!

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We have two wonderful people to celebrate today! The first is Missy!! Unbelievably, Missy turns 42 today and naturally that means party in the chimp house! Ramona Isbell kindly sponsored this special day wishing Missy “a wonderful day with her playmates.”

Ramona, thank you so very much for thinking of Missy and wanting to celebrate her on her special day! It means so much to us all.

Missy. She’s a loyal, courageous, beautiful person and she’s got her friends’ backs no questions asked. She’s brave and daring and a bit of a thug. She is mother to Honey B and Josh (who reside at Wildlife Waystation in California), best friend to Annie, and trusted backup to boss lady, Jamie. She is an athlete extraordinaire and loves nothing more than spending her days zipping, zooming, swinging, tight-rope walking and tumbling around for the sheer joy of it and she thinks tomatoes are the.best.thing.ever. She never hesitates to use her “medical expertise” to doctor her families or her own wounds and she sometimes puts on socks when she’s ready for some serious games. Despite all she’s been through and endured, Missy is the kind of person who opens the door to life and runs toward it, arms open. And when I watch her my heart is zooming right alongside her, I love her so.

Beloved Missy, happiest of birthdays yet to you!! We could not have more love and admiration for you and we can’t wait to celebrate all the amazingness and beauty that is you.

missy running on youngs hill

Stay tuned for Missy’s tomato lovin’ festivities and our second Sponsor a Day!

Guy Time

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Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest tends to be female-heavy (as do most animal care professions). Of the seven chimpanzees who live here, only one is male. Of our six-person staff, only one is male. Out of our 36 current chimp house volunteers, seven are male. Out of the 10 volunteers who are trained to play and interact with the chimpanzees, two are male.

Burrito is a friendly and inclusive guy, and when it comes to human play partners, he does not discriminate. That said, he does seem to feel a little outnumbered from time to time. It’s a special treat when one of his guy friends is up for some man time.

Never Assume

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When training new volunteers and staff, learning to identify the chimps is very important. The chimps all have distinguishing features about them. Staff will try to give helpful pointers to help figure out who is who. For example, Foxie has what looks like a bow tie on her swelling, some chimps have defined brow ridges like Jody, and Missy is petite and has a short neck. Some have freckles, permanently crazy bed hair, different body types, and others have scars or pieces of ears or toes missing. There is also the way that they carry themselves. Jamie often walks with confidence and always looks like she is 3 steps ahead of you. You can often find certain chimps in a particular area that they like or holding specific enrichment they are fond of. For example, Negra loves to make a nest on the second floor in the corner of the playroom. However, this is where it gets tricky and why we tell staff and volunteers to judge only by physical characteristics and not by what we know they like or where “their spot” is. I have also seen little Miss nesting in the same spot as Negra! Jamie loves boots and Foxie always has a doll with her, but they like to throw us curve balls! I often find someone else holding a doll like Jamie or even today I spotted Negra holding a troll doll and putting it in her pelvic pocket. We train our staff and volunteers to take their time identifying the chimps, get to know the chimps, and especially their physical characteristics!

Negra: Holding a troll doll

Happy Birthday, Arlene!

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A weekend of celebration has been sponsored for the chimpanzees by Michael in honor of his wife, Arlene, for her birthday! Michael and Arlene are such wonderful friends to the chimps and we’re so happy to celebrate with them! Michael shared this sweet message about today:

“This is for Arlene’s birthday weekend!! I would like to sponsor today and tomorrow to my beautiful wife!! As this is all she wanted was to help the chimps.”

Michael and Arlene, thank you so very much for including the chimpanzees in your special celebration! We’re so grateful to have you as part of our chimp family. Your kind and compassionate hearts are a gift to them and make a lasting difference not only in their lives, but the world in general.

Arlene, all of us at CSNW hope your birthday weekend has been filled with all that brings you joy, comfort and love and wish you the happiest of birthdays yet! The chimps wishes might look something like this…

Annie and Missy wish you the love and companionship of friends and family (and stylish birthday fashion accessories):

Foxie wishes you adventures as often as possible:

Burrito, of course, wishes you all the good food you can possibly eat:

Jamie wishes you well, whatever you want:

Jody wishes you lots of lounging time:

And Negra wishes you a peaceful heart:

Excitement (or not) of the day

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This morning, we humans noticed a large puddle above the greenhouse. Since we have not had significant rain in months, we knew that there must be an issue with the irrigation system. J.B. was called in to investigate, and Jody watched his every move very carefully (from a comfortable position):

Jody lay and look

 

The investigation involved entering Young’s Hill, which delayed the chimpanzees going onto the hill for a bit. Burrito and Foxie waited patiently together in a windowsill (look at those great chimpanzee feet):

Burrito and Foxie window sill

 

Negra, on the other hand, was happy to spend the extra time sleeping (I feel you, Negra):

Negra sleep

 

J.B. quickly fixed the issue (a blown hose), and the chimps were eager to get outside (well, except for Negra, who continued to sleep). Annie found a potato left over from yesterday’s forage (that’s pretty exciting):

Annie with potato

 

Jamie and Missy explored and made sure that J.B. didn’t leave anything out on the hill:

Jamie profile

Missy walk hill

 

Bonus photos – a lot of people ask if Jamie ever wears the boots that she loves so much. The answer is yes, occasionally. And today was one of those days:

Jamie wearing boot

 

Jamie stand platform

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Snake!!!

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The chimps follow one simple rule: ALL SNAKES, NO MATTER HOW SMALL, POSE AN EXISTENTIAL THREAT AND MUST BE REMOVED BY ANY AND ALL MEANS AVAILABLE. Sometimes this means enlisting the help of their caregivers.

(In case you are wondering, the sanctuary is surrounded by 1,500 feet of rattlesnake barrier, but smaller, less harmful snakes live within the chimps’ two-acre enclosure and occasionally get into the indoor enclosures).

In this video, you can see and hear Annie alarm calling, while she and Burrito stay safely out of harm’s way. Jody, Foxie, and Jamie mustered the courage to force the snake out from its hiding spot and hand it over to the proper authorities, who in this case was Co-Director Diana.