Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Cle Elum 7

Fun on the hill

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The chimps seem to be spending a little bit more time on the hill lately, despite the super hot weather we’ve been having. Today, when I opened the door for Young’s Hill, everyone went right out. It’s still awesome to see all seven chimps out there at once. Here are a few random good photos from the last couple of days.

Burrito chomping on some grass by the treat rock:

I am completely in love with the new bouncy bridge! We haven’t seen any wild games of chase on it yet, but the chimps seem to like it.

Foxie:

Jamie:

Bouncy Bridge!

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The other day, volunteers from the Boy Scout Troop 336 from Federal Way finished up a fun bouncy bridge (I can speak from experience because Jackie and I just had to, for safety reasons of course, test it out. There is no video of that, however). The video we have is a combination of footage we took from the chimp house and also the chimps’ view from the GoPro camera. Thanks so much to the Boy Scouts for putting this together! I can’t wait to see wild games of chase on the bouncy bridge.

Happy Birthday Foxie!

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I’m pretty sure Foxie was in heaven today. We caregivers were too! Boy Scout Troop 336 from Federal Way made it out yesterday and were able to finish the new bridge. It looks amazing! The chimps were pretty excited about it too– more on that tomorrow.

And, we have just $1,398 to go to meet our goal for $36,000 for Foxie’s Birthday! It’s been an exciting day for everyone! Thanks so much to everyone who’s donated so far and please keep sharing the information with your friends! The day’s not over yet!! Click here to learn more.

As usual, Foxie has been in a super goofy playful mood all day… how could you not be when you are surrounded by all your favorite things?! Thanks so much to everyone who has been tirelessly collecting troll dolls and Dora the Explorer dolls for the big day! I’m pretty sure it was the best day yet for Ms. Foxie. 🙂

Jordan and Lucy love Foxie

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Jordan and Lucy Bower sponsored today for Foxie’s 36th birthday. Jordan and her daughter Lucy are big fans of Miss Foxie, and they show their love frequently and generously. They sponsor Foxie through our Chimpanzee Pal program, and they even sent Foxie some new Dora the Explorer dolls. (Foxie was very grateful.) Thanks so much to Jordan and Lucy for being such great chimp friends! We’ll be sure to throw Foxie a truly magnificent birthday bash today.


(Photo credit: Stephen Brashear)

Missy up close and personal

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I am rarely able to get photos of Missy. There are two reasons for this. First, as the resident CSNW athlete, she’s rarely sitting still. Second, she’s camera shy. When she sees me coming near her with a camera, she either leaves the premises or turns her back. So I was pretty excited today when she let me get some close-ups of her during a grooming session with Burrito.

More on brave Burrito

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Burrito is often intimidated by new things, so while we all had high hopes, we never really expected him to explore Young’s Hill all too much (fun fact: almost ALL the caregivers wore Burrito shirts on day one of letting the chimpanzees out onto the hill. That was not planned– but a great way to cheer him on apparently, as he went right out when the door was opened!). He has completely surprised all of us and is surprisingly comfortable out there, though has never ventured too far away from the safety of the greenhouse. But as Diana mentioned in yesterday’s blog post, Burrito spent some significant time out there foraging and exploring areas we haven’t seen him explore yet, including the bamboo and the furthest climbing structure. The interesting thing is that Jamie was the one leading the way for him! While I wouldn’t call them enemies, I also wouldn’t call them the best of friends either. Jamie often picks on Burrito and treats him like her annoying little brother, so it was really nice to see that yesterday Jamie decided to treat him like a buddy.

Burrito and his popper toy

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All the chimps have been in great moods today! (Check out the status update I posted this morning on our Facebook timeline).

Burrito spent probably an hour non-stop playing with this popper toy. He kept pushing it—with his hands and even on his head! He sat on it, carried it around with him, and seemed to be really enjoying himself. It was pretty hard to focus on getting the front rooms clean when we had to pause every couple minutes to laugh and be goofy with him.