Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary for primates.

Cle Elum

Diana’s Birthday Wish

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Today is my birthday! My birthday wish is for the newly integrated group of nine chimpanzees at the sanctuary to blossom into a stable family that includes new friendships as they watch the construction of outdoor habitats that are are being built just for them right now.

If you’d like to contribute towards this wish, at least the building of the habitats part (as for the stable group and new friendships, we will all just have to cross our fingers), consider investing in future adventures by making a donation on my and Monica’s GiveBIG page.

A pant-hoot thank you in advance and to those who have already made a donation!

Marmot Madness (and Other Harbingers of Spring)

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Although years, days, and seasons are observable phenomena supported by astronomical measurements, the custom of starting our calendar year in early winter seems comparatively arbitrary.

Personally, I tend to feel that western cultures missed a grand opportunity by not using the spring equinox to mark and celebrate another long journey around our star. The logistics of that switch may get a bit messy, but I would  support it symbolically… in spirit.

For one thing, spring is accompanied by the start of baseball season. That’s reason enough for me to regard it as a “new year.”

Importantly, it’s also a time of rapid transition around the sanctuary. We caregivers witness the local wildlife emerge from their winter dens (MARMOTS!), the pastures develop a tinge of green, and the chimpanzees venture outside for both recreation and reconnaissance. (Also, there are marmots.) All of these little signs gradually accumulate, day by day, until the  landscape is bursting with wildflowers and songbirds and we’ve forgotten all about the winter snowstorms.

In honor of this “new year”/equinox, I’m sharing some recent photos that feel undeniably spring-like. (Did I mention the marmots already?)

Annie surveying Young’s Hill
The Jersey cattle eating some fresh grass hay
Filling up the cattle’s water trough in the winter barn
A black-tailed deer (one of last year’s fawns) beginning to shed it’s winter coat
The crew from Sage Mechanical setting the fence posts for the expanded outdoor enclosures
A pair of ground squirrels having a moment in the sun
Honey Cow
A yellow-bellied marmot peeking out from its brush pile
This morning’s duplicitous weather: snow above, rain below
Willy B foraging for scattered nuts in the outdoor “courtyard”

What Now?

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Here’s something positive – the chimpanzees are really enjoying the snow snacks that are the result of Snowmageddon 2022!

I tried to get some good photos, but when photo opportunities presented themselves, the chimps were in motion and I only had a cell phone on me. so I only captured the cover photo of this blog post, this blurry image of Foxie who had just retrieved a mouthful of snow from her front rooms and was headed up to the loft in her playroom:

and Gordo who had brought snow from his playroom to the front rooms on that side of the building. He deposited the snow on the floor, and left a bit for Cy to enjoy (see main photo above).

I can’t say that the humans are enjoying the snow quite as much as the chimpanzees right now. Though the last few days have been an adventure, and we’ve certainly laughed a lot, it’s proving to be a logistical challenge to figure out where, exactly, to put all of this stuff. More looms above on the roof, not-so-subtly threatening to upend the progress we’ve made.

Look at the form on Kelsi. Is shoveling an Olympic event? I give her 10/10.

Young’s Hill is inaccessible for a few reasons: 1) there’s so much snow everywhere! The chimps would be chest deep in it, so they have to wait until we can get in there to create a pathway for them.  2) we haven’t yet been able to shovel a pathway for ourselves to the door that opens onto the hill, even if we could let the chimps out. 3) the snow is weighing down the electric fence wires, weakening the system.

More good news, though: we are fully prepared for winter storms. Though it will be a bit before full outdoor access is possible, all of the chimpanzees have lots of indoor space, blankets, toys, food puzzles, movies, and humans plus their partners who drive through the biggest snowstorm in decades to help the onsite staff take care of them.

In addition to all that, they have their indoor/outdoor greenhouses! I’m kicking myself for not getting photos yesterday of the chimpanzees in the new greenhouses (I did get a little video clip of Mave that I posted to our Instagram). We have a new heater that we turned on for an hour or so yesterday, and then the sun kept those tall enclosures warm for the rest of the day. I cleaned the greenhouses this morning and can attest to the fact that they were well used the day before.

All sixteen of the chimpanzees here are the product of very unfortunate circumstances. They shouldn’t be in Cle Elum, Washington. They shouldn’t have been used in medical research. They shouldn’t be in captivity at all. However, given their unfortunate histories, they are extremely fortunate chimpanzees now. And all of us are immensely fortunate to know them.

Even though I can’t shake the feeling that the snow lurking out every window and door is taunting me in some way…

I know it will not last forever. Spring will come, sure as it does every year. We have so much to look forward to as we hunker down and appreciate everything we have, including unlimited snow snacking.

Beasts of the Northern Wild

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Our particularly wintry December has transitioned into an even colder and snowier January.

The team has been busy shoveling paths around the Chimp House, endlessly plowing the property’s driveway, and entertaining the chimps (who are unanimously choosing to lounge indoors during the current snowstorm).

Yet another daily chore has been making it out to the winter paddock to muck the barn and provision the sanctuary’s bovines with fodder. Earlier today, caregiver Sam could barely see where she was driving the John Deere as the wind sent snowflakes whipping past her face. On top of all this, her snow shovel went rogue, somehow came to rest on the Gator’s gas pedal, and almost sent the whole rig fish-tailing into a snowbank. While laughing about it afterward, Sam said the ordeal was worth it to see the cattle happily munching on their grain and alfalfa.

Even though their seasonal paddock is covered in a blanket of fluffy snow, the rescued Jersey cattle have been making their own paths across the frozen terrain, thus ensuring that they can reach all their preferred shelters. During one of yesterday’s brief moments of clear sunshine, I served some hay at the furthest barn to entice them to stretch their legs. Unsurprisingly, they had already blazed a trail up there and almost beat me to the far gate.

Here are some photos of the Moo Crew and their surroundings:

Meredith, Nutmeg and Betsy wait for hay at the paddock gate
Betsy munches on some grass hay
A dark-eyed junco perches on the old paddock fence
Meredith hesitantly follows me across the pasture with her usual skepticism
The bovines trudge up the hill
Honey, the herd’s matriarch, looks back to check on the others
Honey sniffs around for the grain bucket
Mule deer cut across the pasture right before sunset
The view from the upper limit of the property

Snow Diggity

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With just over a week to go before the winter solstice, our valley is already in the midst of this year’s first big snowstorm.

The accumulating slush doesn’t seem to be bothering the chimps too much, though. On one side of the building, Annie, Burrito, Foxie, Jamie, Jody, Missy and Negra have been scarfing down handfuls of delicious wet snow. (It must be nice to have one of your favorite foods literally falling from the sky).

On the other side, Cy, Dora, Gordo, Honey B, Lucky, Mave, Rayne, Terry and Willy B are also enjoying cozy naps, working on food puzzles, and spending quality time with their respective group members, but they’re still “warming up” to the concept of eating snow. Fortunately, their taste for this Pacific Northwest delicacy is slowly developing; Gordo and Rayne already seem to relish the frozen treat!

Chad took this photo of Gordo inhaling a snowball this morning:

Of all the chimps who live in the new wing, only Honey B has bravely utilized the newly-enclosed greenhouses today. When I unlocked the Chimp House this morning, she was out there to meet me for a game of chase. There’s nothing like a bout of “the zoomies” to keep your caregivers sharp on slushy winter mornings!