Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Cle Elum

The Art of Grooming

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Grooming is a standard activity here at the sanctuary. Usually, the chimpanzees groom one another. Some of the chimps enjoy being groomed by their caregivers. Jamie, though, likes to be the one doing the grooming. For safety reasons, the chimps don’t have the same level of physical access to their caregivers as they do to one another, so when Jamie wants to groom a caregiver she grabs a tool.

Jamie is fascinated by humans and often uses her tool to explore as much of us as she can. She removes dirt from the bottom of our shoes, checks our fingernails, and tries to remove buttons from our clothes or undo zippers or velcro. She pays special attention to any wounds, scars, or tattoos.

The Luck o’ the Cle Elum Seven

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The Cle Elum Seven may not head to the pubs on St. Patrick’s Day, but they still know how to have a good time. We had a breakfast party in the greenhouse this morning with fruit smoothie in plastic shot glasses with lime garnishes, peanuts, and chow. The main event, though, was undoubtedly the whole green apples. The chimpanzees find whole fruit infinitely more exciting than the same amount of fruit cut into pieces. We put this morning’s apples inside socks and hung them around the greenhouse. The chimps were beside themselves. Here are a few highlights from the celebration.

Jamie went after the “apple socks” with a laser focus. She had some trouble carrying all her treasures, so she made good use of her opposable toes.

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Foxie with a lime wedge:

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and getting the last drops from a cup of smoothie:

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Negra held onto her apple for awhile before eating it:

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Burrito with an apple and searching for more:

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and enjoying smoothie:

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and more smoothie:

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Annie thought there must be food inside this big green plastic egg that volunteer Alex brought:

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Alas, there wasn’t.

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But she consoled herself with some smoothie.

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

The Best Laid Plans

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Jamie is religious about her Young’s Hill perimeter walks. As the boss, maybe she feels some responsibility to make sure the sanctuary is safe from intruders. But she doesn’t like to go alone. Her preferred walking partners are her caregivers. I can only think of a handful of times we’ve seen her walk by herself or with only other chimps as company. But today, she was desperate to go and couldn’t wait for us caregivers to get our act together, so she tried to recruit Foxie.

Commander in Chief

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There are certain people that have such presence that you can’t ignore them. Jamie is one of those people. She runs the show around here, and you know it at first glance, from her perfect posture to her cocky strut to the steely glint in her eye. When she is focused on something, you can feel all her energy coming through her gaze.

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From the moment staff and volunteers arrive at the chimp house in the morning, we are aware every second of being in Jamie’s home. She doesn’t let us forget it. We are expected to keep her company when she wishes (and get lost when she wishes), to retrieve things for her that she can’t get herself, to be available to her at all times. She lets us know if we are being too this or too that, or not enough this or not enough that. Jamie has unapologetically co-opted the humans in her life as her minions, and for someone who was powerless for so long, we think that’s pretty great.

Quiet

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Negra is an introvert. While she enjoys the occasional grooming session or gentle play with the other chimpanzees, she chooses to spend the vast majority of her time by herself, usually under a blanket, napping or gazing out the window at the valley below the chimp house. As the grandma of the group, she sometimes has to tell the other, more rambunctious, chimps to settle down so she can have some peace and quiet.

It’s not unusual to catch Negra in pensive moments like this one.

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A Nightly Treat

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Each night after a dinner of fresh fruits and veggies, the chimpanzees are given a “night bag” consisting of a handful of nuts, seeds, dried fruit, and other healthy treats. This tradition began on the chimps’ first night at the sanctuary, and they’ve enjoyed night bags every night since.

As soon as we pass out the night bags a hush falls over the group as everyone digs in. The chimps are masters at shelling the nuts and seeds with their mouths and then discarding the shells. Burrito demonstrates below.