Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Cle Elum 7

Paper, it’s fun and practical!

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As JB mentioned in his blog post last month about power, mornings at the sanctuary can often be determined by the luck of the draw. Today I should have played the lottery because I was blessed with good weather, good moods, and good enrichment.

If you’re a long time reader of the blog you’ll be familiar with the concept of enrichment and how central it is to engaging the chimpanzees actively in their environment. If you’re new here I encourage you to explore to find older entries we’ve written about it, like this one. We try to provide new and engaging activities and items for the chimpanzees on a regular basis to help mitigate the boredom that can result from captivity. To that end, we have an enrichment calendar to schedule themes for creating the daily enrichment that the chimpanzees are given; it helps us stay creative.

Today’s theme was lots of paper, and yes, it’s been done before, but the reprise was just as good as the original, if you ask these chimpanzees. Of course, you don’t have to take my word for it, you can see it for yourself in the video below!

Second Thoughts

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Jody sometimes showers her caregivers with a mouthful of water. She has this hobby in common with many other captive chimpanzees, who often find creative ways to express themselves.

Jody fills her mouth up with water at one of the wall-mounted water spigots in the chimps’ enclosure, and holds onto it for awhile, mouth bulging, apparently waiting for the perfect time to let it fly. But sometimes, we caregivers are spared when Jody seems to have second thoughts. Maybe she’s waited so long with the mouthful of water that she can’t remember why exactly she felt such an urgent need to spit it in the first place. Maybe she just decides we’re not worth the effort. In these instances, she dips her head down slightly and lets the water fall gently from her mouth in a perfect stream.

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St. Patrick’s Day Party – in brief verse

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There were seven chimps of Cle Elum
Who were ready for breakfasts of melon.
The party was set
In the greenhouse the fete.
At foraging they were excelling!

And, yes, I apologize in advance for my less then ideal rhymes, it’s very difficult to come up with words that rhyme with Cle Elum. Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all!!

Annie forages for nuts in a sock:
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Foxie forages for strawberries on the wooden platform:
(Jody’s drinking from a tiny cup in the background.)
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Jamie takes up two chairs while she forages for treats:
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Negra forages for chow with the bamboo behind her:
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Missy forages for treats from the party bags:
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Jody forages for fruit on the platform in the greenhouse:
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Burrito also forages, but for chow, on the platform:
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Jamie
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Missy
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Negra
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Jody
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Foxie
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Burrito
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Annie
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Scale

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We tend to use the zoom lens when taking photos of the chimpanzees on Young’s Hill. This allows for a close-up view of the chimps, but doesn’t give much of a sense of what it’s like to see the chimps on two acres of land. Some of my favorite photos are those in which the chimps are just specks on the larger landscape.

Foxie and Missy:

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Jamie, Missy, and Jody:

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Jamie:

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Negra:

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Missy and Foxie:

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Jamie:

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The Queen Gets Some Fresh Air

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Most of the chimpanzees think being outside on Young’s Hill is worth tolerating some less than ideal weather conditions. Jamie even went for a perimeter walk in the rain recently.

But Negra has her standards. If the weather is less than perfect in any way, she wants no part of the outdoors. Luckily, today is beautiful and Negra was happy to participate in the lunch forage on Young’s Hill.

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Play, play, play

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Annie and Missy are quite well-known for their excited games of chase and wrestling throughout the chimp house. Negra, however, isn’t always the most likely play partner—and when she does play, she’s got her own speed (kinda slow). This time Negra was keeping up with the experts!

This video is a little longer than some of our others but I thought you wouldn’t want to miss a second of this fun play session. Thanks again to Patty W. for sponsoring today for us and for being Negra’s Pal!

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