Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Cle Elum 7

Foxie’s charm

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The big charmer at CSNW is no doubt Mr. B (I mean, just look at his face!) but Foxie has a charm of her own, and she’s able to use it to socially manipulate the chimp in charge, which is no small feat. Jamie is not easily persuaded by anyone. However, Foxie tries to keep the peace when she can, and if she sees Jamie getting upset about something, she will stomp playfully in front of Jamie to try and change the context. Get her mind off of being upset, and instead, get her to play. Foxie uses her playful charm as a sort of “cease fire” signal.

Foxie decided to use this special ability to her advantage. Sometimes when she and Jamie are playing, Jamie will take one of Foxie’s beloved trolls, which will occasionally make Foxie whimper. It’s all part of the game though, and soon enough they are wrestling and tumbling and Foxie does eventually get her troll back. (Read more about that dynamic here). She seemed to be treating the coconut in this situation as one of those trolls. First she whimpers as if to say “please, I’d really like this coconut” and when that doesn’t work, she starts to play with Jamie.

In the end, Jamie held on to the coconut and was able to crack it open using a plastic chopstick and sheer force on the stairs. However, when it broke into a bunch of pieces, Foxie was able to grab a big chunk and Jamie had no problem with her taking her piece.

Starting the day out right

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Burrito was the first chimpanzee I saw this morning. He was sitting in the last front room looking out the window with the morning light shining on his face. It was such a peaceful moment. And then we made eye contact; and from that moment on, he was ready to go. And by go, I mean ready to play. He took the little toy wooden block he had in his hand and put it in his mouth. Then he got up from the bench, gave a good foot stomp and ran out to the Greenhouse.

Who could resist an invitation to play a game of chase like that? So, I ran out to the human area next to the greenhouse and gave a good foot stomp. He ran back and forth along the platform, continuing to foot stomp along the way. As soon as I would catch up to him, he would quickly change direction and run the other way. In between running back and forth, he did a couple of play bows before running off again. We continued this for a few minutes before he sat down and put his back against the wire fencing, for me to give him a few knuckle rubs.

It’s moments like these that I find it so hard to imagine how he endured year after year, decade after decade in the tiny little cages he (and the other chimpanzees) lived in. Finally, he is able to wake up in the morning and start the day off with a good play session. To be able to run and play with the other chimpanzees and caregivers is what sanctuary is about.

Caregiver Katelyn was able to capture a few photos of him shortly after our play session. By that time he had changed his toy of choice to a hard plastic fish.

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Point A to Point B

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What is the quickest way to get from point A to point B?

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Well, for Missy chimpanzee, that means taking the tight rope walk across the fire hose railing to get to the platform on top of the climbing structure.
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Once she made it to the top platform, she took a moment to look out over the valley.

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In the first picture, Annie and Foxie were also on the climbing structure. If you look close enough, you can see the blue hair of Foxie’s troll doll lying on Foxie’s back.

Annie (bottom left), Foxie (top left), Missy (far right).
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Summer Lovin’

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Participants in our summer online auction were invited to donate toward an epic end-of-summer party for the chimpanzees, and they stepped up in a big way. Despite today’s not so summery weather here in Cle Elum, we threw the summer party to end all summer parties.

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Thanks so much to everyone who contributed toward today’s party, and to everyone who helps make the chimps’ lives as happy as possible!

Tool bench

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Last summer we got this pretty awesome workbench which the chimpanzees loved (and loved to death!) so we added the same workbench to our Amazon wishlist again recently. Jamie and Annie both spent a fair amount of time with it, but Annie was able to stay out of sight from the paparazzi 🙂 But we did get a few photos of Jamie playing with the tools.

First she knocked the bench on its side and twisted the vice around:
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And then she used the wrench as a screwdriver:
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Missy and Negra Wrestle

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Missy really brings out Negra’s playful side. She slows things down a little when she plays with Negra in comparison to Annie or Foxie who are more active than the Queen, so this play session is a little different than what you’re used to seeing when we post video of the chimps wrestling. Still, even without the tumbling and running, Negra is able to throw in a (playful) punch and a few bites, too. 🙂

Lips

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I’ve recently been asked about how we receive kisses from the chimpanzees. The simple answer is that the chimpanzees extend their lips through the wire caging toward us and we put the back of our hand up towards their lips. But, words can only describe so much; pictures actually show it. So, today I tried to capture that through photos, but none of the chimps offered kisses to me (perhaps because I had the camera in hand?). So, I had to resort to the next best way of showing how the chimpanzees extend their prehensile lips towards us to give us a kiss. Meal time is the perfect opportunity to capture the chimpanzees extending their lips through the wire caging.

In the following photos, volunteer caregiver Becca served breakfast to the chimps this morning. On the menu were red pears and oranges, along with a watermelon, banana and protein powder smoothie. Each of the chimpanzees are also given fiber pills and vitamins every morning. You will notice in the following pictures that Becca’s fingers never penetrate the caging. For safety reasons, we consider the caging to be a barrier between our space and that of the chimpanzees, therefore we never stick our fingers into the enclosures.

Annie takes her fiber pill at breakfast.
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Annie getting her share of the breakfast smoothie.
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Burrito uses his lips to slurp his smoothie.
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Jamie uses her lips to take her fiber pill.
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Missy
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Jody’s lips are pretty impressive. She seems to have the furthest “reach” with them. What do you think?
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Jody taking her vitamins.
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