Cle Elum 7

One Queendom Two Queens

October 22, 2022 by Sofia Castro-Loza

Here in Chimpanzee Sanctuary, we have a member of true chimpanzee royalty. Negra, first of her name, Queen of the Chimp House. The first 30 years of Negra’s life, after being captured in the wild, were filled with laboratory procedures, an unjustified prolonged period of isolation time, and general despair. Since 2008 Negra has been ruling the Chimp House with an iron fist, determination and self assurance. That said, in this Queendom, there is room for two queens. In the past, Jody was crowned Queen of Nest Building and Relaxation for her love of building amazingly intricate nests to rest in, and then carrying them around the Chimp House. But today, I want to officially add another tittle.

Humans, I here present unto you Queen Jody, your undoubted Queen of Nest Building, Relaxation, and BUBBLES.

There is enough space for these two queens. Negra in the back, Jody in the front.

Queen Negra herself.

Play Day Tuesday

October 4, 2022 by Chad de Bree

As caregiver Grace and I were cleaning Burrito’s playroom, I saw him and Missy engage in a fun play session. They were having such a fun time, the play session lasted a very long time. Every time I tried to pull away from recording to help Grace clean, they would engage in a different game that I had to record.

Here are some bonus photos as well!

Annie eating her breakfast chow biscuits while watching the construction crew work on Young’s Hill.

Gordo also watching the construction while sitting inside a Prima-Rocker in the Oakwood Greenhouse.

Then sitting in one of his favorite spots, the window ledge.

Mave waiting for lunch service to begin.

Negra still cozy in her nest as I said good morning to her when I got in.

Lucky being beautiful as always!

And this guy! I can only imagine what is going through his head.

Oh right! Playing! That’s what’s on his mind!

And don’t forget, Giving Day for Apes is right around the corner! Tuesday, October 11th to be exact! You can help us by donating on our page or by creating a fundraiser page of your own! Be sure to check out when the Power Hours are and other prizes on the 11th to try to make your contribution more impactful!

Lunchtime With the Cle Elum Seven

October 2, 2022 by Grace

Meals are always an exciting time of the day around here! The chimps get fresh fruits and vegetables for all three meals of the day, along with forages and food puzzles throughout the day and evening. Everyone has their favorites, of course, and today Caregiver Katelyn prepared tomatoes, mini sweet peppers, and avocados for lunch!

Join us for lunchtime with the Cle Elum Seven on this beautiful October day. 🙂

Terry, inspecting his own hand:

Terry, noticing me taking photos:

Negra during a meal last week:

Missy, watching Foxie play with Caregiver Katelyn:

Lucky hanging out with me earlier this morning:

A thread of Burrito photos, because he’s handsome and I couldn’t pick just one:

Morning Play, Coffee Required

September 27, 2022 by Grace

It’s almost always a guarantee that when you are the first person into the chimp house in the morning and you look through the kitchen doors to Front Room 4, you will see Burrito sitting there. He usually has a block in his mouth or a blanket in his hands. A few head nods and breathy pants later, you’re off on a morning game of chase.

There are many reasons I drink one too many cups of coffee in the morning and this is one of them. Once you initiate a game of play with Burrito, there is no time to stop for fuel. There is no time to stop to chat. There is no morning to-do list. There is only play.

This morning was one of these mornings- I got into the chimp house and as soon as I opened the kitchen door, Burrito was ready. He took off to the greenhouse and it was on! He was also throwing out his Burrito-Spin-Move-Classic, which always brings a smile to your face- no matter how early it is.

Check out the video to come along on a morning play session with Bubba!

Burrito, on the move:

Foxie with her bebe:

Jamie keeping an eye on me:

Jamie with her favorite Lucy Bonobo Book:

Lucky with the right idea- a late morning nap!

Missy trying to convince me to sneak her some tomatoes from the garden:

Negra resting in the greenhouse, in the morning sunlight:

Terry, snoozin, uninterested:

This Is A Bit Munch

September 4, 2022 by Grace

Hi, everyone! It’s a *beautiful* Sunday here in Cle Elum and it feels like everyone’s enjoying it. Right now I can see Cy on the security monitors relaxing in the Mezzanine with a new magazine, a few mall walkers walkin’, and Jamie’s group relaxing after a lunch forage on Young’s Hill. For today’s forage we had baked sweet potatoes, mini sweet peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers… And the chimps were so very excited. Baking fruits and veggies might seem like no big deal to us humans, but the chimps (for the most part) love it when they get baked foods. Whether it be the texture change or the natural sweetness that comes from baking a fruit, they get all worked up in the best way.

Speaking of mealtimes, the other day I was sitting with Gordo at dinner and he allowed me to snag a few videos of him eating. If you’re anything like me, it is the bane of your existence when you can hear another human chewing their meals. It’s not logical, I know, but something about it just gives me uncomfortable goosebumps. Having the opportunity to sit and listen to the chimps eat, though, is the best. The humans have talked about it and for some reason most of us feel the same way- listening to the chimps eat with their food grunts, lip smacks, and munchin’ sounds just makes you smile.

You might not believe me and that’s okay, but don’t worry- I’ve compiled a six minute long video of the chimps munchin’ away to try and change your mind. 🙂

P.S: don’t forget that our annual fundraiser is coming up next week! On Friday, September 16th we will be celebrating the chimps at HOOT! 2022! You can read more on the celebration in Diana’s blog post here, but you can still purchase tickets for both in-person and virtual festivities. We will have a live and silent auction, with items so good that some of us caregivers are trying to figure out how to snag them without Diana noticing, and if you sign up for a VIP ticket (for either in-person or virtual) you will be registered to attend an exclusive, virtual tour of the sanctuary! Join us to celebrate the chimps and sanctuary next week! 🙂 See more by clicking here.

P.P.S: As a 501(c)(3) registered nonprofit organization, we rely on your support to provide lifetime quality care and sustainable sanctuary for our residents. There are a variety of ways to support us- like helping us reach our goal of being rated a 2022 Great Top-Rated nonprofit by GreatNonprofits! It’s as easy as going here and clicking “Share Your Story”. The humans, and the residents, of CSNW say thanks in advance!

Now, some photos from today’s forage on Young’s Hill! 🙂

Annie, enjoying some peppers:

Burrito, mid-swing:

Missy snagging a tomato:

Negra searching for baked sweet potatoes:

Guess Who?!

August 29, 2022 by Grace

Today has been… a day here in the chimp house. Most of the time, you come to the chimp house with a plan- you hype yourself up on the car ride in, telling yourself all will be golden and the chimps will be happy and shift for you no problem. You pull up the driveway listening to what would be your baseball walk-out song if you had one and by the time you get the day going, you’re feelin’ pretty darn good about things.

Sometimes, the chimps let you have the win for that day. And, sometimes, it’s like they all had a before-hours conference call where they decided to take your plan for the day and stomp, not so gently, all over it. Today was the latter. Thankfully, though, cleaning got done (or, most of it) and we are working through the daily check list as I write this blog. Phew!

One of the big factors in our day is the morning cleaning. And whenever we shift the chimps for cleaning, we have two trained staff members complete safety checks before we unlock and enter a space. This includes two independent chimp counts, where each staff member positively identifies each chimp so we can be sure they are not in the area we are wanting to open up. This can be quick, like when the chimps are all lined up for breakfast service… and this can also take a while, say, if the chimps are somewhere out of sight or if they are only granting you visual access to a toe. So, for today’s blog, I wanted to do another installment of “Whos that chimp?!” in honor of today’s shifting woes. 🙂

The scenario: you are doing a chimp ID for Cy’s group, as you are hoping to enter the Oakview Greenhouse for a party set up. This chimp is a little out of range for a quick ID, but you can see some of them. 🙂 I’ll be posting the correct answer in the comments tomorrow morning! And if you need a quick review on how we tell the chimps apart, check out Jenna’s awesome blog post from last week!

Hmm… who could it be?

That’s a pretty good lookin’ hand. Need some more identification, though…

Oh no, they’ve moved and now they are laying in front of another chimp! Shoot. Let’s see what we can see.

Well, that’s a nice ear.

Ok, have you figured it out yet? 🙂 Check back in the comments tomorrow to see if you got it right!

Missy, I Love You From My Head To-ma-toes

August 23, 2022 by Grace

Hi, everyone, and welcome to the birthday edition of our daily blog! Today, we celebrated Missy’s 47th birthday. She adores all things tomato, so of course we had to have tomatoes at every turn for her birthday party. Missy is a special chimp who is more acrobatic than any human I know- seriously, she will sprint across Young’s Hill in no time. It is very impressive. She often spends time in play sessions with her BFF Annie (there might be a few extra precious clips of this on today’s blog:) ) and she is witty, loyal to her friends, and often too cool for her human caregivers.

Missy’s journey to sanctuary has been a special one. Back in 2014, Diana wrote a blog post about Missy and how she almost didn’t make it to CSNW. Diana said it best, so I have copied some of that blog here:

“About a month before the chimpanzees left Buckshire in Pennsylvania (the private facility that owned them and leased them to different laboratories for decades), all of the chimps had health check-ups. During these check-ups, the veterinarian discovered that Foxie and Missy had uterine tumors.

Buckshire quickly arranged for both of them to have hysterectomies. The surgeries went fine, but when they were transporting Missy back to Buckshire, she crashed. She was brought back to the veterinarian under manual ventilation and had a very weak pulse. From what we were told, they “worked on her for 10 minutes and brought her back.”

We didn’t find out about this until later, and it came as a shock to know that she was so close to not having her chance to enjoy a sanctuary home. It remains a reminder to me that each moment of sanctuary, each moment of life, is invaluable.”

We are grateful every day for Missy, her group of 7, and the newly integrated group of 9. Every moment spent with them or in their presence is unique and priceless.

Happy, happy birthday to you, Missy!!!!

Cy’s group also got to celebrate and that video will be coming tomorrow (thanks, Kelsi!). 🙂

One more note- there is still time to register for the Chimpanzees in Need virtual update meeting on Friday, August 26^th at 4pm PT! We are so close to safely re-homing all of the Wildlife Waystation chimps and this will be a short online Zoom meeting where NAPSA will share updates on construction of new homes, transportation efforts, and where we are with raising the funds to complete the campaign this year. There will also be an update from us, CSNW, on how the 9 are doing! Be sure to register now and tune in for the update.

Now, some photos of Missy throughout the day: