Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

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Laws of Motion

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First, as an update, we are 20% to our goal on the Giving Day for Apes fundraiser and about halfway to receiving those matching funds pledged by Donna. Big, big thanks to everyone who has donated and helped us get this far! We are still eyeing that 10:00 -11:00 a.m. PT Power Hour on October 3rd to compete in the most donations raised during that hour. Are you with us?!

 

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There are so many opportunities for scientific discovery here at the sanctuary. As I was watching the chimpanzees forage today, I pondered two immutable laws of motion that Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest operates upon.

#1: Burrito Chimpanzee in motion tends to stay in motion:

 

#2: While Negra Chimpanzee at rest tends to stay at rest:

 

Bonus paparazzi photos I took of Terry very stealthily absconding with one of two coconuts that were part of The Bray forage today. He played it sooooo cool.

“In my day, you had to walk 15 miles in the snow…”

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Unlike what Anthony reported yesterday, the sun was not out much today. But that didn’t stop Missy and crew from going out onto Young’s Hill!

When they were given access to their outdoor enclosure, they ventured to the same structures as yesterday.

Burrito on the other hand wanted more. He tried to convince me to run around the hill with him.

He thought better of it as the outer edges of the perimeter still have a good deal of snow (thankfully for me since the human side of the fence is covered in snow and mud). Instead, Burrito decided to explore Negra’s Cabin.

His desire to run around Young’s Hill seemed to have sparked the desire in everybody else though. Shortly after, Missy, Annie, Jody, and Jamie made their way to a set of logs that haven’t been seen since Fall.

Jody:

Missy running to greet Jamie as Annie watches:

Missy and Jamie greet each other:

Jody heading down to greet Burrito:

Though they already ventured further than they have been, it still wasn’t enough for some.

Jody on a further structure to gaze at the Yakima River:

Missy sitting amongst her beloved trees:

You might guess what is next…

Missy began her ascent up her tree:

There was a good two minute window where I thought Annie was going to follow Missy up! She would stand and grab the tree, but then let go and sit down. She repeated this a few times. In between each take, she would hype herself up to overcome her fear by rocking and tapping the tree and ground. But alas, today was not the day Annie would make her go at climb the trees.

She did, however, settle on climbing on to the top of the near by structure to be somewhat close to Missy.

After a while, Annie decided it was time to head back inside for lunch. She convinced Missy this is now the plan, and Missy obliged.

Look at that dismount!

After landing a perfect 10 dismount, it was time to head inside to enjoy some lunch!

Bonus Photos:

Jody a little piloerect from the cold air:

Burrito on top of Negra’s Cabin surveying Young’s Hill:

more tree-climbing adventures!

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What a day! The video above says it all, but below are a few still photos.

Chad, on his day off, happened to see Missy’s climb as he was accompanying a former chimp house volunteer on a walk around the hill. He and J.B. took some videos with their phones as I walked up with the camera and telephoto lens, which was not working right away, but I did get one good photo of Missy amidst the branches, foraging on pine needles:

and some photos on her way down:

Video: The Chimps are Back on the Hill

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As you may have seen in yesterday’s blog post, the Seven are back on the hill! Here’s the video, as promised.

In case it’s not clear, we had to take down the original fence so that we could expand the overall habitat area and split it into two enclosures. The Young’s Hill side, which belongs to the Cle Elum Seven, was pushed further up the hill and to the north and grew by an additional half acre to 2.4 acres. This was only possible because we purchased the surrounding lots and no longer have to worry about encroaching development (after closing on another parcel yesterday, the sanctuary now owns approximately 110 acres). More space means more room for climbing structures, irrigation, and plantings, and we still have a lot of work ahead of us in that department, but we wanted to get the Seven back out as soon as the fence was complete. Perhaps more important than the expansion in habitat size, Young’s Hill now includes a stand of pine and fir trees, which Missy has already conquered. Who will be next?

One thing to note: Negra is not in the video as she did not go outside on the first day. Too many people and too much excitement, perhaps. But she just went out for a lunch forage this afternoon, so the Queen is also back on the hill.

Now that they are back out, we can turn our attention to completing the Bray. The Sage Mechanical crew is welding the remaining gates and post assemblies now and it will be at least a few weeks before we can complete the fencing on that side. We were fortunate from a construction standpoint to have a prolonged summer but fall weather arrives this weekend and winter won’t be far behind. So the timing for Cy’s group to learn about electric fencing and explore their new enclosure is somewhat up in the air. Whatever happens, we’ll work as fast as we can to keep our options open.

Our thanks go out to all of the donors that made this project possible. I also want to thank Dustin and East Slope Earthworks, Katie, Sean, Dusty, Ben, Karen, Richard, Elizabeth, Tom, Gordy, Steve, Debbie, Donna, Laurie, Kurt, Kristin, Jeremy, Liz, Michael, Lisa, Jesse, Adam, Kyle, Grace, Ryan, Jacob, Nolan, Karen, Claus, Logan, Kyle, Jan, Chet, Sabrina, Brenda, and Chelsey for volunteering their time and energy to help build the habitats. My apologies to anyone I accidentally left off the list. And of course we are grateful to Gary, Aaron, and Jose of Sage Mechanical for all of their hard work on this project. There’s something about the fact that these habitats are built by a community of supporters that makes them even more special.

When She’s Not Constantly Moving….

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When one’s mission in life is to stay in motion, to go from point A to point B, running as fast as one can, climbing everything in sight, exploring new structures and tightrope walking (well, in this case it’s fire hose walking), it can be hard to get good closeup pictures. Do you know which chimpanzee I am describing? I’ll give you a hint, she was one of the chimps featured in yesterday’s blog.

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If you guessed Missy, then you are right!!

Be sure to stay tuned for the Jamieween celebration (Jamie’s birthday and Halloween combined) happening tomorrow!

Journey to recovery

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Each day the Cle Elum Seven continue on their journey to recovery from their former lives in the laboratory. In some ways, it’s hard to believe they’ve been at the sanctuary for over eight years now. Thinking back to the early days and years (and looking at photos from that time), it really hits home how far each of them has come on their own journey. As the days blend together into years, we have witnessed their individual transformations as they break through the shells of their former selves and continue to test the boundaries of what is comfortable to them.

Take Burrito for instance. Even as recent as a few years ago, he really preferred to stay on the ground to forage and explore, unlike Missy, who climbed everything in sight. But more often these days, he can be found climbing and spending time on top of the highest structures scattered throughout Young’s Hill.

Just this morning, he climbed to the top of this structure, walked out on the beam, sat for a minute looking at his surroundings before climbing back down. He’s not quite as graceful a climber as Missy, but he’s getting there.

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The chimps’ transformations are only happening because they’ve been given the opportunity to live the rest of their lives in sanctuary. They’ve each been given a chance at a new life, one in which they so much deserve. And it’s only been possible, because a whole world of people (including you), have taken each of them into your hearts. Because of you, Negra now feels comfortable to venture to the top of Young’s Hill to forage, alone. Because of you, Jamie and Foxie have an endless supply of boots and dolls to call their own; Annie feels safe and secure enough to spend time alone enjoying her surroundings. Because of you, Missy can run (let’s face it, it’s more of a full-on sprint), leap, balance and climb to her hearts content. Jody has blankets aplenty to build elaborate nests with. And finally Burrito. You’ve given Burrito the time he needed to feel secure enough to climb to new heights this year. More and more, we’re seeing him on top of the various structures scattered throughout Young’s Hill; something his former self spent very little time doing.

Wild Chimpanzees

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Don’t tell Missy and Annie that they fall into the “elderly” category for chimpanzees. Just watch today’s video!

All of the chimps REALLY enjoyed the cooler weather this morning and were out and about. I took about four zillion photos, but when I was going through them, I realized I needed to highlight the video clips of Annie and Missy’s Olympic-worthy antics.