Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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chimpanzee

Superbowl Sunday at CSNW

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Because we’re always looking for an excuse to throw a party, and because the Seahawks are our home team, the chimpanzees had a little Superbowl shindig today. We decorated the greenhouse with Seahawks colors; everything from blankets to breakfast was green and blue. The chimps foraged for bok choy, green apples, and honeydew smoothie in blue plastic shot glasses.

Jamie used this perch as a lookout to scout for food:

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and found some smoothie:

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Burrito was on a mission searching for anything edible:

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Missy found some bok choy and stuffed it in her mouth for safe keeping:

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Foxie with a mouthful of food:

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Negra was all about the peanuts, as usual:

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Jody took her food up to this windowsill, where she could keep an eye on everyone else:

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And Annie filled every inch of mouth space with green apple:

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Our Superbowl party appears to have been a success and, I think, an indication of good things to come this afternoon. Enjoy your food, friends, and family wherever you are and join the chimps in wishing the Seahawks a great end to a great season. Go, Hawks!

Negra with seeds on her belly

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It’s no secret that Negra has a big place in my heart. I first wrote about my love for her in this blog post from 2008, before the chimpanzees had made the journey across the U.S. to come to Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. She has many endearing qualities, including her enjoyment in watching her caregivers dance (as shown in the Dancing with Negra video from 2009), the multiple stages of her droopy lip, and her love of the night bags that we give the chimpanzees after dinner each night (there’s a short video of Negra getting her night bag here).

As mentioned in this post, one of my favorite sights is a very content Negra eating her night bag while the shells of the seeds in the night bag drop on her belly. Tonight, I finally got a few good photos of just this. Negra has lost a little weight at the sanctuary, but, despite our attempts at rationing her food, she still has a buddha belly. She actually eats quite a bit less than the other chimpanzees and isn’t as food focused as, say, Burrito, but she’s also the least active of the chimpanzees. I consider Negra’s shape to be a pretty endearing quality in itself.

I hope these photos make you as happy as Negra with seeds are her belly makes me.

Negra with night bag

Negra eating night bag

Negra eating night bag

Negra eating night bag goodies

Negra looking at camera with night bag

 

 

Happy Lunar New Year!

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The CSNW party planners were at it again today, helping the chimps celebrate the first day of the Year of the Horse. Volunteers Patti and Stephanie brought decorations and food, as well as a special new toy for Burrito, and interns Larkin, Julie, and Whitney helped prepare for the party.

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The festivities began in the playroom after cleaning. Jamie went right to work opening the “firecracker” gifts, and Missy inspected the decorations.

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At lunchtime, the party moved to the greenhouse. Annie gathered snap peas from the party boxes.

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Negra filled her mouth with eggplant, then added a crayon for good measure.

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Thankfully, she saved a little for Foxie.

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Jody seemed to enjoy the lemongrass. We weren’t sure if the chimps had ever had it before.

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And Burrito was in his element. There is no purer form of happiness on this earth than Burrito with a mouthful of food. He started with the party boxes.

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Then he foraged for chow in the straw.

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He ended up with more food than he could hold on to. This made him even happier.

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For Burrito and the rest of the Seven, it doesn’t matter what holiday they are celebrating. Any day is an excuse for new toys, good food, and the company of friends. And lucky for them, our volunteers provided all three!

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Oh, Happy Day

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Today was a happy, happy day at the sanctuary. There was snow on the ground, the sun was shining, and we all celebrated the life and memory of Dr. Mel Richardson. (Thanks again to Lynn, Connie, and Sue and Dawn and Jo for sponsoring today in celebration of what would have been Dr. Mel’s 64th birthday.)

The chimpanzees celebrated in style. The hit of the party was definitely the snow in plastic shot glasses. The chimps have been waiting all winter for snow to eat, and the last couple of days finally delivered.

Jamie:

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Burrito:

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Annie:

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Missy:

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Foxie with snow in mouth and troll in hand:

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After the party everyone found a sunny spot to rest. BFFs Annie and Missy groomed each other in the playroom:

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Negra headed to her favorite spot on the catwalk:

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The day was extra special for Jamie. Bill Jackson, who has done some work for us at the sanctuary in the past, stopped by with a pair of boots. Last time he was here, he noticed that Jamie admired the boots he was wearing, so he came back today to hand them over. The chimps really do attract the best people.

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As we wrap up the day here in the chimp house, we’re thinking of Dr. Mel, and all the good people of the world, and smiling.

Shop AmazonSmile to help the chimps

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Amazon.com recently launched a program called AmazonSmile. You may have noticed there’s a link to signing up on the sidebar of the blog that looks like this:

Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

The simple explanation is that you follow that link and that leads you to a page to sign up for AmazonSmile and designate Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest as your charity to receive funds.

I signed up myself and wanted to explain a little bit more about how it works. The most important thing to know is that, in order for your purchases to help the chimps, you have to login in to smile.amazon.com (instead of just amazon.com) every time you shop.

So, you may as well take that link – smile.amazon.com and bookmark it. Once you’ve designated Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest as your chosen charity, when you sign in to shop it should look like this (yours won’t have the word “prime” if you don’t also use amazon prime):

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Then you just shop normally and 0.5% of eligible purchases will go to the chimps! I haven’t shopped around too much to determine what purchases are eligible, but this is from amazon’s FAQ about the program: “Tens of millions of products on AmazonSmile are eligible for donations. You will see eligible products marked “Eligible for AmazonSmile donation” on their product detail pages.”

The donations through AmazonSmile will be made to us 45 days after a calendar quarter ends, so it will be a little while before we know how much we’ll be receiving.

And in case you had the clever idea of buying a bunch of stuff and returning it – amazon is way ahead of you – they will not count returned items in their donations.

Thanks for taking advantage of all of the many ways that you can help the chimpanzees. There are a few more listed here: www.chimpsnw.org/you_can_help/single/help-us-fundraise

And here’s some chimpanzee smiles from your favorite chimp BFF’s Annie & Missy:

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Missy interrupts Annie making a nest

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Missy is Annie’s best friend, but she is more dominant on the chimp hierarchy. Today she took Annie’s place in a huge paper nest Annie built (called “displacement”), but Annie didn’t get upset—instead, she started to play.

Routines

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The routine of each chimp house day that we’ve established with the chimpanzees allows them to know what to expect, and allows us to do the eight+ hours of work efficiently. But it’s not just the humans who have their routines. I’m always delighted to participate or witness a chimpanzee-created routine, like Jody’s morning greeting or Foxie’s after dinner, casual “give and take the troll” game.

Jamie’s routine of walking around Young’s Hill is probably one of the most written about aspects of our chimp-driven activities, but there’s one aspect of the walks that I really love because it seems to give Jamie so much pleasure. She doesn’t always do it, but more often than not, when Jamie takes me on a walk (which is really the way it goes), there’s a spot on the far side of the hill where she will veer away from the perimeter. She’ll walk on the log bridge over there or wander in the bamboo. I usually walk a little further and then wait. When she’s done with her lone exploration, she  comes barreling out, heading directly toward me. She doesn’t do this in an aggressive manner, though it was somewhat intimidating the first time I witnessed this; and I’m glad, for her sake and mine, that she is secure behind two tall electric fences. She just really seems to find it great fun to come out of hiding and run quickly towards her walking companion, and then continue the rest of the way around the perimeter.

I got a few photos of this today. They’re not award-winning images, but hopefully with the story behind them, you’ll have a better sense of what they are about.

Here’s an establishing photo to show what the landscape has looked like around the property for the last week or so. It’s not snow, it’s hoarfrost, the rather pretty cause of our power outage the other day. The cold temperature did not stop Jamie from walking around the hill twice today. These photos are from our second walk

hoarfrost above young's hill

Here’s Jamie leaving the perimeter:

Jamie walking away from perimeter

and here she is bursting out of hiding:

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jamie running frost background

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