Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Debbie recently posted a short video clip of Annie’s bird noises, but we haven’t had much luck capturing this endearing Annie-ism on film for more than a few seconds here and there.
Annie typically makes her bird noises when she’s feeling content and relaxed, usually lying on her back like in this video from this afternoon:
Last night, volunteers, interns, and primate behavior students from Central Washington University got together to make some enrichment for the chimps. Their club is Primate Awareness Network—if you’ve been following the blog for awhile, that might sound a little familiar to you—they’ve hosted talks by CSNW staff during their annual spring speaker series several times.
We are so appreciative that they spent some time putting together boxes for the chimps, with nuts hidden in paper inside. The chimps seemed to enjoy their fun forage!
Annie:
Jamie:
Jody:
Negra:
After Missy went through a couple of boxes, she surveyed the situation to see if anything else was up for grabs:
Caregiver Katelyn walked around Young’s Hill with Jamie and Burrito this afternoon, when her and the chimpanzees stopped to look toward the loud cracking sound made further down the hill. Katelyn soon spotted Missy breaking off a branch of bamboo and running back toward the Greenhouse with it in her mouth. Once inside, she broke off a small piece, put it in her mouth and dropped the rest of the branch on the deck. Then she ran inside to the Front Room area. As she ran inside, her dear friend Annie quickly climbed down from the top platform and snatched the bamboo. She brought it back up to the top of the platform and quickly began munching on the leaves. Missy, in the meantime, came running out from the Front Room area without her bamboo. She was able to grab a few small pieces of the original branch that had fallen off and climbed to the top of the platform to join Annie in feasting on the treat.
The area of Young’s Hill where Missy harvested bamboo.
Annie with the bamboo that Missy brought in from Young’s Hill.
Missy with her pieces of bamboo after she ran back out to the Greenhouse from the Front Rooms.
What is the best way to eat bamboo? With your best friend, of course!
Missy is chimpanzee-oriented, meaning she often chooses to groom or play chase with her chimpanzee friends over the humans (but we love that!) Every once in awhile she engages in fairly rambunctious chase or tug-o-war and will even quietly groom with caregivers on occasion. Times with Missy are a special treat for all of us! Today was no exception. She and Joel played a pretty fun game of chase. It seemed like Missy turned it into a sort of zumba-like exercise. Be sure to watch all the way to the end!
Missy was stuck in high gear today.
She tried joining Jamie on her walks but the walks were too slow, so she ran.
Eventually she gave up on Jamie altogether and just starting running around the hill by herself in the rain.
When the sun came out, all of the other chimps emerged from the greenhouse to spend time on the hill. She tried enticing Foxie to play by stealing one of her dolls, but Foxie wasn’t rambunctious enough.
She tried getting Jody to chase her, but Jody couldn’t keep up.
Missy is like an electron, orbiting around the other chimps as if they were standing still. But once and a while, she comes to a stop and starts looking around…
…looking for something that will give her an adrenaline fix.
And when she finds it, she can hardly contain her excitement.
Look at that smile on her face.
This day of sanctuary was also sponsored in remembrance of Pat Trotta by a wonderful friend of the Cle Elum Seven, Wanda Trotta, and her family:
“A day in remembrance of Pat Trotta who when we visited the “7” a couple of years ago was also taken by them. He, like Jamie, was a leader – in his field of optics. He leaves an enormous hole in our lives but fills our hearts with a 1/0 of love. Enjoy being whole again, Pat and we’ll see you soon.
We love you 1/0, The Trottas”
We’re so glad that the chimps touched your lives, and honored that you chose to remember Pat in this way. In memory of Pat, here’s Jamie, as she so often does, leading her family on a walk around Young’s Hill:
Burrito has a patented play move that is legitimately impossible to resist – we call it the blanket fling. He most often uses it when he’s trying to initiate play with a caregiver. The closest English translation I can come up with is “Heeeyyyyyy! Let’s get crazy!!” And get crazy we do.
