Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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chimpanzee

Year Four

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In celebration of CSNW’s 8th Anniversary, we are taking a trip down memory lane. Today we look back on the chimpanzees’ fourth year at the sanctuary.

By the beginning of Year Four, we had a long-standing dream of expanding the sanctuary and giving the chimpanzees a spacious, open-air outdoor habitat, unlike anything they had experienced in their lives.

Young's Hill – The Dream from Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest on Vimeo.

By the summer of 2011, thanks to help from supporters Karen and Don Young and so many others, Young’s Hill was nearing completion.

the hill

The chimpanzees were able to watch the construction from the greenhouse, but it’s hard to say what they thought of it. We hoped that they knew it was for them. They were certainly curious.

As the big day approached, we all tried to predict how the chimps would react to the door to Young’s Hill being opened for the first time.

log bridge

For most of them, this would be the first time in their long lives that they would feel grass under their feet and have an unimpeded view of the sky above. We guessed that they would probably be too apprehensive to stay outside for long on the first day, and that some of them would likely be too afraid to venture out at all.

We should have known not to underestimate them.

On the day that the door to Young’s Hill was opened for the first time, all of the chimpanzees showed astonishing courage by stepping eagerly into the great unknown. Watch video of their exhilarating first moments outside. It was an emotional day for the chimps and for all the humans who love them.

The opening of Young’s Hill set off a series of firsts for the chimpanzees that year. It was the first time they were sharing a habitat with other creatures, and they had to deal with a lot of strange noises.

Having lived in indoor or partially-indoor enclosures for their entire lives, they had never fully experienced weather or seasons. On Young’s Hill they encountered sun, wind, rain, and snow.

Despite their burst of courage and adventurousness on the first day, not everyone felt immediately at home outside. We saw the more confident chimps support and encourage the more hesitant individuals.

We all got chills seeing the chimps behave like a wild troop for the first time, now that they had a territory to patrol.

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And we continued to be amazed as they stretched their legs and their horizons.

Year Two

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To celebrate the Eighth Anniversary of the chimps’ arrival to the sanctuary, we’re taking a quick trip down memory lane. Click here to read about Year One. 

As the chimps entered their second year in sanctuary, their physical and emotional transformations were becoming ever more apparent. When they first arrived, their hair was sparse, their skin was pale, and their muscles were atrophied. These early photos of Jamie speak volumes.

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Some bore not just the scars of experimentation, but also indelible, haunting reminders of their traumatic pasts in the form of prominent identification tattoos.  Jamie was CH-522.

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To our great relief, the tattoos became harder and harder to see as their bodies recovered from years in that windowless basement. By Year Two, their hair had begun to grow in, their skin had darkened, and their faces – once frozen and nearly expressionless – were overflowing with personality.

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As Diana mentioned in her Year One post, our resources were extremely limited in those early days. With our goal of freeing the chimps from that laboratory basement accomplished, we set our sights on improving their sanctuary home as best we could. Thanks to support from our amazing donors and volunteers, we were able to convert the chimps’ modest outdoor area into a four-season, convertible greenhouse so that they could bask in warm sunlight even on the coldest winter days:

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Greenhouse Fun!

With their bodies healed and their sanctuary home upgraded, the chimps did what happy chimps do best – play! It was amazing to watch them throw off the weight of all those decades in the lab.

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Foxie and Jamie’s epic play session

“Oh, Neggie…”

Missy and the Kong toy

A Big, Joyful Day

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We have a lot to celebrate today! Negra is turning 43, and it has been eight years to the day since the Cle Elum Seven stepped off the transport trailer and into their new home at the sanctuary. (If you haven’t already, check out Diana’s thoughts in this morning’s blog post here.) I think these photos from today’s celebration paint a pretty good picture.

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Burrito:

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Missy:

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Foxie:

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Jody:

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Annie:

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Jamie:

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Jamie had an especially good day. At this year’s Hoot! gala, we auctioned off two pairs of fabulous white cowboy boots, procured and donated by auctioneer and friend of the sanctuary Laura Michalek. Maryam Salt, the winning bidder, is now the proud owner of one of the pairs, while the other is for Jamie, our resident boot enthusiast. Jamie was beyond thrilled when we presented her with this gift today. Thanks so much to Laura and Maryam!

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As for the birthday girl, she has had a pretty perfect day. She partied hard:

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Then rested up afterwards:

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And later explored her wilderness:

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Year One

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Today marks the eighth anniversary of the arrival of the Cle Elum Seven chimpanzees–Annie, Burrito, Foxie, Jamie, Jody, Missy, and Negra–to Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest and a celebration of Negra’s 43rd birthday.

It’s so hard for me to believe that eight years have already passed since the chimps’ arrival, and it’s even harder for me to believe that Negra is eight years older than she was when the truck full of chimpanzees pulled up the sanctuary driveway on June 13, 2008.

truck pulling up driveway with chimps

Negra in transport cage

Because this is such a nostalgic time for everyone who has been following the story of the chimpanzees at the sanctuary, and because so many people are relatively new followers, I thought it would be fun and informative to take this week to briefly chronicle some of the events of the last eight years, one year per day.

Of course I know you won’t want to miss the news of today’s big celebration, so we will be sharing that later today on the blog too. If you are subscribed to the e-newsletter, you will also be receiving an email today that celebrates Negra’s journey over the last eight years.

For now, here’s a glimpse of the first year of sanctuary for the Cle Elum Seven.

 

EVERYTHING was new to the chimpanzees.

 

From enrichment:

 

 

To the views out the windows:

 

To the changes in weather:

 

Rainstorm bravery

Missy standing in doorway

 

Let it snow!

Annie eating snow, Jamie and Negra in doorway

 

And the chimpanzees were new to us humans, too. Though we had met them at Buckshire before they came to the sanctuary, we didn’t have the chance to really get to know them until we spent time with them in their new home. We started to learn about their personalities and their likes and dislikes pretty quickly.

Here is one observation about Jamie and her intelligence a few days after the chimps arrived:

Learning about Jamie

 

And of course the humans, and Foxie herself, discovered her lasting love of troll dolls during her first year of sanctuary, leading us to ask supporters for more troll dolls. None of us knew then how big her collection would become!

Foxie with Troll and night time package

 

Foxie’s first troll doll:

Foxie and Trixie

 

Foxie demonstrating that troll dolls suit her fun-loving personality:

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We were delighted to discover Burrito’s out-of-this-world food-squeaking:

 

Touched by Annie’s love of Missy:

Annie grooming Missy

Missy and Annie with big playfaces
Missy and Annie with big playfaces

 

And thrilled with Jody’s ability to relax:

Jody on Valentine's Day, just holding her feet

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Every day of the chimps’ first year in sanctuary was an incredible gift.

I’m not going to lie–we had some tough times as an organization as we were just getting our footing. There were stressful moments, to be sure, but it was so inspiring to have the opportunity to watch the chimpanzees learn more about their new home and themselves. And it was incredible to connect with other people who wanted to be a part of giving them that chance. This blog has played a big role in that process, and I’m grateful to everyone who has read it in the past and is reading it right now. Thank you!

It’s pretty thrilling to think that if you stick around you will also be a part of providing so many “firsts” for more chimpanzees who will be coming to Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest in the future.

 

Meandering Night Adventures

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If you’ve been reading the blog for a while, you know a few things about Jamie–that she likes to patrol the outdoor area, that she likes to have the humans join her on the other side of the fence on these patrols, and that she often keeps the humans late at night in the summer by insisting that we do walk after walk until she is satisfied.

We don’t complain too often about these overtime duties because it makes Jamie happy and because it’s a beautiful time to be outside on the sanctuary property.

Last week, we had a heat wave that prevented the chimpanzees from spending a lot of time outside during the day, but it always gets cooler here at night, so Jamie simply waited until the temperature dropped to get her exercise for the day.

Sometimes, especially during the day, Jamie is very focused on the perimeter trail that she’s worn in the grass, and will follow this path at a fairly brisk pace as we walk on the trail on the other side.

Her dusk-walking tends to fulfill a completely different desire, though, and Jamie will often veer from the perimeter path and explore the climbing structures in the middle of a walk, often stopping to take in a view or rest for a bit. The new Twister structure is a favorite viewpoint of late.

Below are a few photos of her nighttime meanderings.

 

At the top of Twister:

Jamie close up on Twister

Jamie on Twister

Jamie hanging from Twister

Jamie at the top of Twister

Jamie with the sunset

 

After viewing the setting sun, she came down the hill and did some more meandering on the shaky bridge:

Jamie on the shaky bridge

 

Balancing on the metal pole structure:

Jamie balancing on metal pole

 

Finally choosing a cross-legged position to rest for a minute:

Jamie sitting cross-legged on metal post

 

And moving along again:

Jamie hanging from metal pole

 

Eventually heading back inside, quite satisfied:

Jamie in the grass

Remembering

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It’s often said that healing is not a matter of forgetting, but of accumulating new memories that, over time, crowd out the bad ones.

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If this is true, then Negra’s road to recovery began by replacing memories of powerlessness with ones of safety and predictability.

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Soon, memories of love and friendship and family began to replace memories of loneliness.

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Eventually, memories of courage and adventure pushed aside memories of fear and anxiety.

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For some chimps, recovery is a long, steep climb. Thirty-five years in the lab leaves behind far too many memories.

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Those memories will never be forgotten. But every time I see Negra absorbing the view from the top of Young’s Hill, I think of how far she’s come in these last eight years, and I hope that moment becomes yet another healing memory that pushes an old one further out of reach.

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