Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

chimpanzee

The Real First Day of Spring

by

March 20th may have marked the first official day of spring, but around here we follow a different calendar. It’s not truly spring until the ever-elusive Negra emerges from her playroom nest to bask in the sun and partake in the delicacy of fresh spring grass.

The first sighting is always accompanied by jubilant announcements over staff radios and a frantic search for cameras to document the occasion.

web_Negra_eat_grass_YH_ek_IMG_1190

Of course, Negra has already gone out on the hill for forages this year, but always with a laser-like focus on collecting food and going back to bed indoors as quickly as possible. When spring arrives, she savors her time outside.

web_Negra_eat_grass_YH_ek_IMG_1223

For a few short weeks, the grass will be sweet and tender. The cold winds of spring will begin to relent, and the scorching heat of summer will have yet to arrive.

web_Negra_eat_grass_YH_ek_IMG_1227

This is Negra Weather™, and we will all relish every minute of it while it lasts. For soon, she will disappear back into the pile of blankets from whence she came, only to reemerge when the conditions are just right.

web_Negra_look_at_camera_YH_ek_IMG_1235

So, from Negra and all of us at CSNW, Happy First Day of Spring!

Take Action Tuesday: Speak up for Eli chimpanzee

by

EOA take action tuesday

A few weeks ago, we alerted you to a new Comedy Central show called Big Time in Hollywood, FL, with reported footage of a chimpanzee in several scenes. We know now that chimpanzee is Eli, who lives at a training facility called Steve Martin’s Working Wildlife.

One of the actors from the show, Lenny Jacobson, identified Eli in an interview where he talked about the experience filming with a chimpanzee. He mentioned that the trainer on set was missing a finger from a chimpanzee bite—which isn’t shocking given the true nature of chimpanzees. Chimpanzees are very strong, and once they become too hard to manage, trainers will discard them at roadside zoos or pseudo-sanctuaries.

big-time-hollywood-chimp-kiss-nosign

Eli’s trainer has a history of dumping former nonhuman ape actors at very decrepit facilities, including Walter, who was found kept in a dark, barren, concrete pit filled with garbage at a roadside zoo. Eli’s trainers also have repeatedly failed to meet minimal animal welfare standards. (www.eyesonapes.org/eli)

There’s still time to act—the episodes with Eli’s scenes have not aired yet. Please send a polite letter to the producers and to Lenny Jacobson letting them know that chimpanzees should not be used in entertainment. Not only are there numerous welfare concerns, but seeing chimpanzees dressed up in clothing and in physical contact with humans perpetuates the idea that they can be treated as pets.

Your letters do work! Another alert we sent out last month regarding a McDonald’s France commercial with Suzy (who lives with the same trainer as Eli) was pulled after they received feedback from Eyes on Apes supporters and other advocacy groups. Great victory! We hope to see Big Time in Hollywood, FL make the same progressive decision.

We’ve set up a sample letter which you can customize as you wish (click here). You may also post on the show’s Facebook page.

Sometimes choosing the best photos is hard

by

In any given day I may take one hundred or more pictures of the chimpanzees and secretly hope that at least half do not turn out. It’s not that I do not want one hundred pictures of the chimps, it’s just that it is so much harder to go through them and select the ones to use for the blog. There can be twenty of the same chimp doing almost the same exact thing, just at a slightly different angle or at varying degrees of zoom. Today was one of those days when so many of the pictures of Burrito turned out that it made choosing the best photos seem almost impossible. So, I figured I would post the photos of him and let all of you decide which ones are the best (don’t worry, I narrowed the number down from the thirty original photos).

Burrito was being so patient, seemingly turning on the charm while he was being photographed.

web_Burrito_closeup_face_enrichment_YH_GH_doorway_kh_IMG_0784

web_Burrito_closeup_face_enrichment_mouth_YH_GH_doorway_kh_IMG_0786

web_Burrito_closeup_face_YH_GH_doorway_kh_IMG_0787

web_Burrito_closeup_face_YH_GH_doorway_kh_IMG_0780

web_Burrito_closeup_face_YH_GH_doorway_kh_IMG_0781

web_Burrito_lie_down_deck_enrichment_in_hand_GH_kh_IMG_0803

web_Burrito_lie_down_deck_enrichment_in_hand_rest_GH_kh_IMG_0802

Do you have a favorite?

Missy now and then

by

I took this photo of Missy a few nights ago when she had joined Jamie for some “after hours” walking around the hill. I was trying to figure out why I love the photo so much (aside from the obvious cuteness of Missy from behind).

Missy bipedal from behind

Today, while on another walk, I think I figured it out – it reminds me of a photo we took a few months after the chimpanzees arrived during a big rainstorm. It was before there was a Young’s Hill and before there were greenhouse panels covering their original “outdoor area” that we now call the greenhouse. The outdoors and the elements were a whole new experience for all of the chimps, and, without the greenhouse roof that exists now, the rain was pouring into this area.

Chimpanzees don’t tend to appreciate getting wet, and all of the chimps stayed indoors for most of the storm, but curiosity soon got the best of Missy, Annie, and Jamie. Missy was first to look out the door into the still dripping outside world:

Missy in doorway during rainstorm

At the time, I remember how thrilled J.B. and I were that the chimpanzees were experiencing something brand new. We were thrilled that they were able to gather the courage to follow their curiosity. And we knew that this was  just one new experience in a whole line of new experiences they would be facing.

Still, I had no idea exactly what was to come into their lives, thanks to Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest supporters. I had no idea that Missy would embrace the two-acre outdoor habitat that was just beginning to be a kernel of an idea for the future.

I had no idea that six and half years later, Missy would run with glee across the 2-acres everyday:

Missy running

 

Exploring her territory:

Missy walking

 

 

Satisfying her curiosity:

confident Missy walking

I can’t wait to see what Missy and her six friends get to experience next, and what the next six and a half years will bring to the sanctuary.

 

 

A zoo for an elk

by

Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest is not open to the public like a zoo. In general, we like to give the chimps their privacy. When we do allow visitors, we limit the frequency of the visits and the size of the groups, and we always ensure that the group is guided by a staff member that the chimps know and trust.

But we have one visitor that doesn’t abide by our rules.

Most mornings throughout the spring and summer, Ellie the wild elk can be found laying beneath the visitor shelter, waiting for the chimps to finish their breakfast and head out onto the hill. She seems to enjoy watching them, and they in turn have at least grown accustomed to her. In fact, we have even seen Jamie and Ellie taking a walk together around the hill without us.

Jamie and Ellie:

web_Jamie_Ellie_YH_jb_IMG_0703

Burrito and Ellie:

web_Burrito_Ellie_YH_jb_IMG_0715

Ellie and Jody:

web_Jody_and_Ellie_YH_jb_IMG_0739

Ellie, Jamie, and Missy:

web_Jamie_Missy_Ellie_YH_jb_IMG_0949

So I guess – just this once! – we’ll make an exception to our visitor policy. It’s not like we could do anything about it anyway…

web_Ellie_jb_IMG_0969

web_Ellie_orhard_mountains_background_jb_IMG_0961

web_Ellie_look_at_camera_jb_IMG_0987

Jamie the walking machine

by

When Jamie first started her daily perimeter walks, it was usually just once or twice a day that she would ask us to accompany her (from the outside of the fence) around Young’s Hill. Now, it averages probably about seven to eight a day, maybe even more. She will ask each of her caregivers to go along at least once, but usually three or four times! She really has become a walking machine.

I think if the humans weren’t busy trying to clean enclosures, prepare enrichment and food, write the blog, and all the other things we do in a day—that Jamie would be asking to go on continuous walks non-stop. The other day, Elizabeth and I did a “walking relay” — I radioed her when Jamie and I were on our way down the hill so she could go wait at the gate (the starting point for these perimeter walks) with boot in tow. Jamie ran SO fast to meet up with Elizabeth and go on another walk!

It’s really awesome to see how excited she can be at times, because most of the time Jamie is all serious business. As Elizabeth mentioned yesterday, her moods can swing pretty wildly.

Here’s a couple recent pictures of Jamie on walks:

web_Jamie_walk_after-hours_yh_dg_IMG_0715

web_Jamie_run_bamboo_YH_jb_IMG_0278

web_Jamie_walk_forage_serious_business_Easter_party_YH_ek_IMG_8675

This one is from last fall, but I just love it.

Jamie looking awesome

Mood Swings

by

Jamie woke up on the wrong side of the nest this morning. From the moment we arrived at the chimp house and greeted the chimpanzees, it was clear that Jamie was feeling a little cranky. This isn’t terribly unusual, and we caregivers know to just give Jamie her space for a little bit until her mood brightens.

Once the chimps got some breakfast in their bellies, Jamie’s mood did brighten. By late morning, she was feeling a lot more mellow. Keri snapped these photos of Jamie in a quiet moment with one of her boots.

web_Jamie_lie_down_boot_look_at_camera_PR_kh_IMG_0572

web_Jamie_lie_down_blanket_nest_hold_boot_look_at_camera_PR_kh_IMG_0567

web_Jamie_lie_down_blanket_nest_hold_boot_look_at_camera_PR_kh_IMG_0565

web_Jamie_lie_down_sleep_boot_PR_kh_IMG_0571

web_Jamie_lie_on_blankets_rest_sleep_hold_boots_PR_kh_IMG_0574