Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary for primates.

chimps

Chimp ID: Cy

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Today’s blog is all about how to ID our lovable friend, Cy! Out of all the chimpanzees I have worked with over the years, I have never met a chimp like Cy. Each chimp I have met has amazing and different qualities about them, but Cy is kind to his very core. Even when he is displaying, he has a play face, he just never seems mad.

Cy is a big guy with an even bigger heart!

Cy has the kindest eyes.

Cy has a prominent white beard. From the front he has very dark features, but from behind his hair is more grayish white. We joke that he reminds us of a gorilla from behind!

Cy is an good leader. He knows how to navigate social situations extremely well. He can recognize when to let things go and when to make a point.

Cy is a bibliophile

Cy resembles his sister Lucky quiet a bit!

Cy is the type of guy to become your instant friend. He will want you to play chase, sit while he tickles the back of your hand, or just hangout with him while he reads.

Cy is also stubborn! He and Lucky are often hold outs, like their half sister Honey B!

Three More Sleeps

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This month has flown by! Can you believe there are only three days left until the chimps celebrate Christmas? The caregiver elves are working really hard to get everything ready for the highly anticipated day! Today Anna and Chad built Jamie and Honey B’s workbenches! Lucky’s group has not yet experienced a CSNW Christmas and we look forward to them opening the amazing presents everyone has donated! Every year we express our gratitude to you all for your generous donations and kind words and this year is no different! As the presents roll in, I am always in awe of how much support you all give to us! So thank you!

And as a thank you I thought I would share a little photo shoot with the ever so kind and beautiful Lucky!

And because it is the season of giving we have a few bonus photos ;).

Jamie savoring her icicle!

Gordo playing with one of his favorite enrichment items (a box!) and eating one of his favorite foods!

Portrait of a Pant Hoot

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The day started out on the warm side, considering that we are well into the month of December. The chimps’ greenhouse spaces were cozy all morning.

A storm came through in the afternoon, making the most delightful sound as the droplets hit the greenhouse roof panels.

Just as the rain began, Dora went into her greenhouse, looking up towards the sound:

glancing at me:

and then beginning a glorious chimpanzee response to the rain – a classic pant-hoot (for a classic video of pant-hoots, go here):

Her display was short-lived. She calmly retreated to a windowsill:

The Unlikely Meetup

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This week is an intro week and I spent a lot of the day trying to get Dora alone so she could spend time with Honey B’s group. However, Dora is really hard to get alone. To make Dora a little more comfortable we decided to try to do a quad with all girls. Rayne kindly stayed with Dora and I think Willy B had a good laugh when I thought I could get just the girls. With all my best efforts Willy B decided he could not be left out. So today’s meet up was Honey B, Willy B, Rayne, and Dora. This intro made us all a little nervous, Willy B isn’t always the best at giving the girls the reassurance they might need and Dora is still a wild card for us. We had decided that we would just stick to the mesh unless there were a lot of positive behaviors at the mesh. Well, right off the bat they were breathy panting, grooming, reassuring each other, giving kisses, and playing through the mesh. We had to open the door, so we held our breath and we let them in together. Overall, it went really well! Near the end Dora and Willy B had a miscommunication, which led us to separating them. As you will see in the video Willy B was having a blast with Rayne and Dora! What you all might not know is that Willy B and Dora have met a few times and they were non-eventual, but today Willy B really learned how Dora wanted to play! At first he was overwhelming her, so he backed off and waited for her to come to him. To see how far Dora and Willy B have come is really spectacular. Though it didn’t end on the highest note there was a lot to take away from this intro!

Also Rayne is the best at introductions! She is so good at making the other chimps feel at ease, she gives reassurance when needed, and distracts others by instigating play instead of screaming when they are nervous. She is one of a kind.

We Made it!

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Hooray, we made it to the weekend! I for one am exhausted this week, between the chimp’s Thanksgiving and the human’s we are all wiped. I was asked a lot this week what I am grateful for. So I thought I would share a few things that I am especially grateful for.

1. I am grateful for our expansion to be able to take in more chimps. It has been an extraordinary experience to get to know these six incredible chimpanzees!

2. I am thankful for the chimp’s health. This pandemic has been overwhelming and very stressful. The lengths that we go to protect these chimps are obviously working and we are so fortunate to have such a dedicated group of people to help protect them.

3. I am forever and always grateful to be able to care for these sixteen remarkable chimpanzees. To help provide a safe and enriching life for them is a true honor.

4. This year I was extremely thankful to be surrounded by the people that I loved. So many of us were not able to do that last year, which makes this year even more special!

Enough mushy stuff, let’s look at some photos! I was able to capture some photos over the last week. Not all the photos make it to the blog, fit the theme, or sometimes we capture a moment throughout the week!

I think this photo perfectly captures Jamie. She is beautiful, extremely intelligent, funny, always thinking, and has moments of letting her guard down.

This photo of Burrito was taken last Friday when it had just snowed. So, of course Burrito’s mouth is full of snow!

Negra sleeping peacefully in her nest.

Sleepy Rayne napping in the front rooms.

Willy B laying down watching his soaps having a nice afternoon!

Cy, I mean look at this guy!

Cy and I were playing chase the other day, we had to take a break and play with the foot box a little!

Gordo stopped to check himself out through the camera.

Her firehose is only fit for a queen. Let us all hail Queen Lucky!

You Can Never Have a Case of the Mondays with this Bunch

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Today was a somewhat busy day. While we humans were making progress cleaning enclosures in the morning, we were thwarted by two holdouts by the time the afternoon rolled around. Now I won’t mention names, but…

*ahem*

*ahem*

While it’s pretty easy to work around when certain somebodies holdout, it just adds a little more time to the day. We don’t necessarily get upset about their choice to remain in certain areas we want to clean when we want to clean them because it is just that. Their choice.

During some periodic breaks during cleaning as we tried to develop our next plan of action on the fly, I was able to get these photos.

Jamie during her mid-morning walk around Young’s Hill. Annie is on top of the Twister with Missy right below her.
Foxie and Orange Blossom during her group’s afternoon patrol around Young’s Hill.
And last, but not least, Honey B in her greenhouse after lunch was served.

Hopefully these photos will bring some joy to you on your Monday.