Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Today was sponsored in honor of Lindsay Zager by her parents who shared the following sentiments:
“This is in honor of our beautiful daughter, Lindsay’s, birthday! Lindsay’s passion for chimpanzees has motivated and inspired many to learn and know and LOVE the world of these amazing primates. We thank you and love you sweet girl! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!”
Thank you so much to the Zager family for caring about the chimpanzees and including them in your special day. Have a wonderful day, Lindsay!
The sanctuary is located in a canyon formed by the Yakima River, and there is a period each morning when the sun has risen but it has not yet begun to shine directly onto Young’s Hill. In the summer, when temperatures regularly reach into the 90’s or higher, this is the most comfortable time for the chimps to be outside.
This morning, the gang went outside at around 7:45 – all except for Negra, of course. She needs her beauty rest, and she loves when the rowdier chimps leave her alone in the building to sleep in.
But everyone else took to the hill to play and explore. Foxie managed to keep her birthday party going an extra day, because she immediately found an orange that had gone undiscovered in yesterday’s forage.
Burrito followed the girls up the hill, going further than he normally does, all the while holding on to his yellow toy hammer.
Annie sat upon a climbing structure, where she could keep an eye on her friend Missy as she ran around the hill.
Jamie hung out with the other chimps for a while, but eventually she turned to me and gestured to signal that it was time for me to grab a cowboy boot and join her for a walk around the perimeter.
Missy gathered grass from around the bamboo, where it stays lush and green from irrigation.
Jody also gathered grass, which is one of her favorite pastimes, but something was obviously upsetting her.
She approached Missy for reassurance and Missy offered it to her, with all the coolness and confidence of Don Corleone.
Some of you may have seen this photo posted on our Facebook page yesterday, but if you missed it—here it is. Sure to make anyone smile!
Burrito and Debbie had a fun game of chase going this morning, with Debbie running on the outside of the chimp building where the garden is, and Burrito running inside from window to window. At one point in the game, Burrito generously shared a little bit of his water.
Jamie played a bit too, but she mostly wanted Debbie to pick her something from the garden.
I love chimpanzee feet.
These are Missy’s feet and they carried her through thirty years in lab cages. But that was then. Now Missy’s feet are for sprinting and leaping and tickling and sometimes holding surplus food at mealtime. I can’t wait to see what they do next.
We have some largely unsung heroes that are a big part of Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest – our Board of Directors who volunteer countless hours overseeing the organization. We decided it’s about time we sung about them, so this is the first of a monthly series of blog posts about our amazing board members and how they became involved with the sanctuary.
We currently have ten board members and are looking to fill a few open seats. This post is about our outgoing Board President David Brotherton.
David learned about the sanctuary through a long-standing board member, Bruce Wagman. David and Bruce share a love of live music and, though they live in different states, often attend shows together.
David first met the chimpanzees more than three years ago. His introduction to the group involved Jody spitting quite a bit of water on him. This baptism left him with the distinct impression that the chimps were not there to entertain, but were giving him the choice to either help out or get out. He chose to help.
David brings to the board a wealth of strategic communications experience as the founder and director of Brotherton Strategies, a Seattle-based consulting firm that works with a wide mix of grant making foundations and socially minded corporate clients. Before getting involved in public relations, marketing and brand strategy, he worked in Washington D.C. as a congressional speech writer and political reporter. Perhaps we should have him report on the politics of the Cle Elum Seven!
David has a passion for Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest and is eager to see the organization thrive long into the future with a firm strategic plan in place. He gushes about the amazing supporters of the sanctuary and describes the organization as unlike any other that he’s known or supported.
He recently served one term as the Board President and is now helping Kimber Leblicq transition into that role. His tenure as president spanned an important period in the sanctuary’s history. David helped guide us through the Taylor Bridge Fire (and not just in a governance role – he brought tortilla chips and beer to the staff and volunteers the day after the fire and allowed us a few moments of relaxation and laughter). He then oversaw the search to hire our no-longer-new Executive Director Jennifer Whitaker.
With the support of one of his clients, Provitro Biosciences (formerly known as Booshoot), David also introduced the chimps to the bamboo now flourishing on Young’s Hill, which the chimpanzees have been loving ever since. Now that I think about all he has done these past few years, I realize that I actually owe him a beer!
Feel free to leave a comment for David below this post.
Apes (humans included) all have the same dentition pattern, which is a fancy way of saying we have the same number of teeth, and in the same order, across the board. We also have baby teeth, or “milk teeth,” that we loose when the adult teeth come in.
One difference between our dentition is that though non-human apes have canines in the same place as humans, their canines are much larger than ours. What we know about diet probably doesn’t explain why they would have almost carnivore-sized canines. All apes eat mostly fruit, leaves, and other plant items as well as the occasional small mammal meat in the case of chimps. Still, even that small amount of meat wouldn’t be the reason for why non-human apes have such large canines.
What other purpose can teeth serve if not to chew up food? Threat. Certainly large canines are quite intimidating, and can serve as a warning to enemies to stay back, or else you could get bit and boy—it’ll hurt!
In these photos you’ll see the large canines I’m referring to—the chimps are only yawning, but you can see just how intimidating their teeth can be. Just another reason why chimpanzees do not make good pets!
Foxie:
Negra:
Burrito:
Jamie:
