Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Is there anyone sweeter than Annie? I think not!
Take a few minutes to share some moments with our beloved Annie. From a play session with Burrito, to a lovely afternoon breeze in her nest, a drink from the hose (perfect for summertime!) and a shouting match with the neighbors!
Sounds like a pretty good day, to me.
It has been an uber busy day in the chimp house today with cleaning, general tasks, staff meetings, and more! The day has flown by, so for this blog I went through my phone for a few ‘photos from the vault‘ and found some great ones of our handsome chimp gentlemen. They really are just the best guys around!
We’re off to serve dinner to the chimps now, so I hope you enjoy! 🙂
Terry, eating a snowball earlier this week:
Willy B, enjoying a quiet moment:
Gordo enjoying an avocado for dinner this past fall:
Cy, taking a moment to look through his magazine before diving into his coconut during a party this summer:
Burrito, finding out what we stuffed pineapples with during a party on Young’s Hill this summer:
Happy Tuesday!
Originally, I didn’t know I wanted to work with chimpanzees. From a young age, I was drawn specifically to orangutans. I have a vivid memory of being probably 8 years old, my mom and I were at the mall and we were in a candy shop that, in addition to candy, also sold random stuffed animals and Beanie Babies. There was a large size orangutan Beanie Baby (think the size of a 6 month old infant) that I BEGGED my mom for. It was $39.99, which was outrageous for a stuffed animal of any kind. Luckily for me, my mom gave in and bought it for me. This stuffed animal was just the beginning of my fascination with apes. I went on to do book reports in high school about orangutans where I would rave about how amazing they are.
Fast forward about fifteen years, I stumbled across the primate behavior program at Central Washington University while I was researching graduate programs and it immediately caught my attention. When I applied and even began the graduate program at CWU, I assumed that this was the beginning of the road to working with orangutans.
That is until I went to Fauna Foundation for a summer internship.
My internship at Fauna Foundation was the first time I had been around chimpanzees. I don’t think I had ever even seen a chimp in-person, as the Phoenix Zoo (where I grew up) only had orangutans and other smaller primates. I remember on the very first day of the internship, myself and the four other interns, were led around property by Dr. Mary Lee Jensvold. When we approached the chimp house, Tatu and Loulis greeted us from the outdoor aerial tunnels. Tatu began using American Sign Language to sign to her long-time friend, Dr. Jensvold. Dr. Jensvold signed to Tatu that we interns are new friends. I will never forget this interaction.
There was another memory from that summer that will always stick with me. We were doing a behavioral observation study where we were recording the chimpanzees’ activities throughout a day. We were creating a baseline for them, so their “normal” activity level would be recorded. Therefore, for about fifteen minutes at a time, I would observe a chimp’s activities and record them on an iPad. This one day in particular, I was observing Rachel. She was out relaxing on one of the islands when I walked up. After a few minutes of me observing her, she gathered her two stuffed gorillas and headed over to sit in front of me (her on the island behind the fencing, me on the sidewalk). Rachel sat there and stared at me for awhile. I tried not to stare back too much, as to not make her uncomfortable. It was clear to me she just liked being in the presence of someone. It’s a moment that is hard to describe, now that I’m behind a keyboard. Truly, it’s like everything clicked when I was sitting there with Rachel: how human-like chimpanzees are, how chimpanzees shouldn’t be in captivity, how they are just. like. us.
Ever since that summer, I knew I wanted to work with chimpanzees for the rest of my career.
Working with chimpanzees can be dramatic, stressful, exhausting, but it also is the best thing I have ever done.
When did you fall in love with chimpanzees? Comment below!
Burrito:
Negra:
Can you believe it’s Love a Chimpanzee Day again already?! Supporter Monica Best named April 23rd Love a Chimpanzee Day and has sponsored this day each year since 2010 for her chimpanzee friends at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, creating a calendar-worthy official holiday and another excuse to throw a party! That’s a lot of years of love that Monica has shared with the chimps.
With our birthdays so close together, Monica and I have once again teamed up by creating a joint fundraising page for GiveBIG, and we invite you to celebrate this day by checking out our page and making a contribution.
Donor Donna is matching up to $20,000 in funds raised through the end of GiveBIG on May 4th, so your donation now is doubled! HUGE thanks to donor Vicki for making a gift on our page that encouraged us to raise our initial goal!
Monica’s love of animals is not exclusive to chimpanzees – she’s also studied wolves and worked in dog and cat shelters. She’s had many feline and canine friends over the years and created Love a Chimpanzee Day on her birthday in honor of her cat Ozzie during a difficult and uncertain time when Monica was fighting cancer. She credits the sanctuary (especially Negra) with helping her in her years-long battle with the disease and the aftermath.
We are so incredibly grateful for Monica and all of her generosity. She’s been instrumental in the expansion of the sanctuary these last several years and in helping encourage others to give.
You can help us celebrate today and the on Monica and Diana’s GiveBig fundraising page or the sanctuary’s main GiveBig page.
Happy Love a Chimpanzee Day, everyone!!
It’s Wednesday and for many of us, we are busy with work, life, and all the in between. Personally, watching Dora and Honey B quietly groom and spend time with each other felt like some type of meditation. If you need a little zen or quiet time, this is the blog for you!
Sleepy Dora:
Bonus photo of Foxie this morning:
Hi, everyone! Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be a volunteer here at CSNW? More specifically- have you ever wondered what it’s like to be a level III volunteer who interacts and serves the chimps? Worry no more- today is the first in a series of Guest Blog Writers! We have some amazing Level III Volunteers who have volunteered (because they’re awesome) to write a post or two about their experiences here, so be on the lookout for them over the coming months.
First up to bat, we have Dusty- a level three volunteer in training! She has volunteered with us for about six years!! So, without further ado, check out Dusty’s blog below!
The New Kid in Town, by Volunteer Caregiver Dusty
As a volunteer, it’s a lengthy training process to learn how to serve the chimpanzees their meals. There are books to read, videos to watch, observations to be made, steps to take, lessons to learn. This intimate activity must be done with the utmost thought and care, after all I am entering their private home. Imagine someone new coming into your home to serve you
breakfast. Who would get the first apple? Maybe you like your smoothie before your chow. Maybe your sibling likes the pears you are served better and takes yours away. This experience is exciting and humbling and I’m constantly reminded by the sixteen – I’m the new kid in town – which transports me back to 1976 when The Eagles released “The New Kid in Town” song as part of the Hotel California album. If you’ve never heard this song (where have you been?) or to refresh your memory, take a listen to the song at the same time you read about my training experience below.
The New Kid in Town
There’s hoots in the hall, it sounds so familiar
Initiation time, all the chimps are watching you
Smoothies and plums, how do I serve them
Even though they know me they treat me like I’m someone new
Dusty come lately,
The new kid in town,
Better serve the food right,
or they won’t come ’round.
I look in Terry’s eyes, his Bronx cheers began to play
Gordo sprays me with water, here we go again
Rayne runs to hide, Lucky looks the other way
It’s those precious hearts I want to mend
Dusty come lately,
The new kid in town,
Better serve the food right,
or they won’t come ’round.
There’s so many things Jamie should have showed me
Serve her pears first, serve Neggie slowly, slowly
Jody got extra oranges, holy moly!
There’s hoots in the hall, it’s there to remind you
Doesn’t really matter which side of the caging you’re on
You’re walking away, they’re plotting behind you
Initiation will continue ’til somebody new comes along.
Dusty come lately,
There’s a new kid in town,
Better serve the food right,
or they won’t come ’round.
Just another new kid in town
Everybody’s gawking
There’s a new kid in town, I don’t want her apples
There’s a new kid in town, I don’t want her bananas
There’s a new kid in town
There’s a new kid in town
Everybody’s hooting
There’s a new kid…
Serving Jamie at breakfast:
Still in training, so Chad is close by!
Bonus Photo: Honey B being goofy while caregivers cleaned her front rooms.
There are many amazing benefits to working or volunteering with the chimps (and cattle) here at CSNW. Don’t get me wrong – the days can be challenging (Anthony spoke about that wonderfully here), but it’s not lost on me how lucky I am that I get to come to work and hang out with 16 of my best friends… And the humans are pretty cool, too. 🙂
Like all humans, though, all of us have good days and bad days. In those moments where we are just feeling down, we are reminded of another perk of this job – we can (usually) rely on our chimp friends to get us smiling! Whether it’s Gordo’s bunny hop, Lucky’s excited greetings, Negra’s bed head, Annie’s bird noises, or a plethora of other small moments- no matter what our mood when we get to work, we often leave feeling content, happy, and fulfilled. I hope the daily blog gives you those feelings, too!
Missy, enjoying the brisk sunshine today out on Young’s Hill:
Rayne having a lil’ nap in the Riverview Greenhouse:
Zoomed out of Rayne’s lil nap- oh, hello Cy!
Negra looking past me to see what’s for breakfast:
Another of Missy outside, because I couldn’t pick just one:
Lucky resting inside while her caregivers cleaned:
Jamie watching Burrito run out onto the hill:
Gordo enjoying his breakfast avocado:
Hello, handsome Cy:
Annie spying on her neighbors whilst sporting the latest fashion:
