Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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Funny faces

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Foxie loves mirrors and tends to immediately make funny faces at herself whenever she sees her reflection (one of my favorite videos of Foxie in a mirror is this one from 2009– check it out). She’s been particularly interested in mirrors lately because she has an injury on her forehead that she has been inspecting, so today I put out a few extra mirrors so she could check herself out if she wanted to. Not to my surprise, she did just that – only she wasn’t as interested in looking at her wound as she was making funny faces at herself.

Foxie with a mirror

Foxie with a mirror

Foxie with a mirror

Foxie with a mirror

Foxie with a mirror

Foxie

Nightbag Rituals

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As Diana mentioned yesterday, she got some photos of the chimps enjoying their nightbags last Friday. As most of you know, Negra is the biggest fan of nightbags and almost seems to live for that time of the day. But the reality is, nightbags are truly loved by all. Each one of the chimps has their own ritual with nightbags. If we serve them in the greenhouse, everyone immediately scatters when they get their bag, heading off to a safe and more isolated location. Nightbags are a prized possession, so everyone is careful to ensure their bag is not stolen by someone. Jamie immediately goes up to the window sill, tears it open and dumps everything out so she can pick through what she wants to eat first. Negra doesn’t tend to move away very far, as eating it is her number one top priority (not to mention I think she knows no one would steal her nightbag!). She tears a hole in the bag and munches on it through the hole, allowing nut shells and empty sunflower seeds to collect on her belly. Jody tends to lay down to eat hers, usually tearing it open but leaving it neatly on the bag while she picks through the mix with her lips. Annie usually bites a hole in her bag and holds it like a cereal bowl. Foxie’s method is pretty similar to Annie’s, only she usually dumps small amounts in her hand and sorts through it there:

Foxie

Missy usually tears it open and spreads it open like Jamie- a perk of being a more dominant chimp, in that you don’t have to worry about people stealing it as much so dumping it out isn’t as big of a deal. And then you get to go through and eat each nut and seed at your leisure:
Missy

Burrito uses the cereal bowl method as well though I think his favorite part is going back and sorting through people’s abandoned scraps!
Burrito

Negra in her cabin!

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I took some photos last night and had a whole blog post about night bags ruminating in my head, but then, today, this happened…

negra sit in cabinNegra finally spent some time in Negra’s Cabin!

The thinking behind the cabin that you helped us build through our 4th anniversary fundraising, was that the chimps, particularly fair-weather-loving Negra, needed a spot on the hill where they would be protected from the wind and rain, which we had both of today.

Here’s the full story of Negra’s big venture to her cabin –

Now that the snow is gone and we’ve had some warmer days, Negra has been spending a bit of her time on the hill, especially when we spread food around for the chimps to find. Below is a photo from last night of Negra heading back towards the greenhouse after gathering some sweet potato:

Negra sweet potato in mouth

Generally, Negra’s been going out long enough to gather food, then coming back inside, but today was a little different.

The weather has been weird today. One minute sunny and warm, the next windy and overcast, and the next sleeting. There was a window of good weather around the chimps’ lunchtime, so we decided to set up a forage on the hill. We’re defrosting the freezer today, so J.B. took a hammer to some frozen watermelon that had been in the freezer for who knows how long and we included that in the lunch forage.

Jody went for the frozen watermelon in the cabin, and took her stash away as Negra approached:

Negra approaching cabin

Negra approaching Jody in cabin

Negra displacing Jody in cabin

Once in the cabin, Negra actually just sat for a while. I think and hope that she was realizing how great it is in there!

Negra in cabin 1

Negra in cabin profile

negra sit in cabin

Jody got all of the watermelon from the cabin, but there was still some other food that Negra found:

Negra reaching for food in cabin

Negra eating tomato in cabin

Hopefully this is the first day of many that Negra will enjoy the warmth and protection of her cabin.

 

For Bruce

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Volunteer Deborah sponsored today in honor of her husband, CSNW Board Vice President Bruce Wagman. Bruce works tirelessly for all animals – the Cle Elum Seven of course, but also horses, dogs, cats, farm animals, and countless others, not to mention the “Wagmanagerie” of cats and dogs who live at the beach with Bruce and Deborah.  Deborah loves you for all your hard work, Bruce, as do the rest of us here at the sanctuary! Have a happy Valentine’s Day Eve!

web Burrito walk look at camera young's hill YH IMG_9782

Getting some fresh air

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Normally after cleaning the playroom, we put out a small forage of nuts, seeds, dried fruit or some combination before letting the chimps back in there. They most certainly know our routine so as we start to wrap things up in there, the chimps start checking in with us to see what the forage is going to be. They watch us scatter what ever it is and (depending on how exciting it is) they begin to food grunt (and hopefully food squeak) in anticipation. Today, no one was around as we scattered the forage – not even Burrito, who is always interested to see what the forage will be! We locked everything up and I opened the door for the chimps – nothing.

But as it turns out, the absence of chimps wasn’t because they just weren’t hungry or interested in the forage – it’s because all seven chimps were out on Young’s Hill! No one had even seemed to notice that I had opened the playroom back up for them. I walked outside to see what they were up to and Burrito and Jody were roaming the very top of the hill, Annie and Missy were wrestling on the shaky bridge, Jamie was walking around in the bamboo with a boot, Foxie was on top of one of the climbing structures playing with a pink-haired troll doll, and Negra was simply sitting by the log structure.

With it being as cold as it has been, it’s been a while since I’ve seen Negra just “hanging out” out there. She’s gone out a few times since the snow melted but not for very long. This morning, it was warm and sunny enough that she just sat down and took in some fresh air.

As J.B. mentioned the other day, we often can’t get photos of Negra on the hill because she “doesn’t deal with the paparazzi” as well as the others, but today, for what ever reason, she didn’t seem to mind one bit. She sat there for a good 15 minutes with me snapping photos. I guess all that fresh air and sunshine made dealing with “obnoxious” photographers trying to get a glimpse of the Queen worth it.

web Negra profile sit on YH IMG_3164

web Negra look down driveway sit on YH IMG_3167

Looking down the driveway:
web Negra look down driveway sit on YH IMG_3166

web Negra look towards valley sit on YH IMG_3168

web Negra arms crossed look at camera sit on YH IMG_3170

How well do you know the seven?

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Today’s enrichment theme was “pre-made nests”, meaning the caregivers built nests based on the things each of the chimps typically incorporate into their nests, including the items in the nest, types of blankets, blanket placement and nest location. It was a lot of fun to set up! While the chimps love to build their own nests, it’s fun to mix things up a little bit every once in a while and do something kooky. All of the chimps went to their “correct” nest, which was very satisfying to us goofy humans! I would love to give you all the details, but we thought it might be fun to see how well YOU know the chimps instead. Can you guess who’s nest is who’s? While some are trickier to guess than others, there is a solid hint in each photo.

pre-made nest

pre-made nest

pre-made nest

pre-made nest

pre-made nest

pre-made nest

pre-made nest

Nesting in the Cabin!

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We are having another spring-like day at the sanctuary today. I can’t tell you how great it feels! I just got back from playing a very exhausting game of chase with Jamie. She wanted me to chase her while I was holding a very specific pair of boots that her friend Wanda T. sent her recently. While I was being run around the outside of the fence by Jamie and then Missy, J.B. was taking some photos. And, guess what? Annie was making the first nest we’ve seen anyone make in Negra’s cabin!

annie nesting in Negra's cabin

Annie was repeatedly distracted by Missy, who kept coming by and inviting Annie to chase and wrestle, but J.B. said Annie went back a few times to work on her nest.

Today is just the kind of day that is perfect for Negra’s Cabin. With the lexan walls blocking the wind and maximizing the warmth of the sun, it’s the coziest spot on the hill. We definitely still have some winter ahead of us, but the first nest in the cabin is a hopeful sign of spring days to come!

Speaking of the cabin – the sign is almost done and will be installed soon! The sign has all of the names of those who donated towards our 4th Anniversary Fundraising, helping to exceed our goal amount so we could spend a little of that raised to build Negra’s cabin. Thank you to everyone who contributed to that fundraising campaign. It’s probably one of the most unique cabins ever built, and we can’t wait to see the chimps, maybe even Negra, spending time out there soaking up the sun. It’s truly amazing what we’ve been able to give the chimpanzees since their arrival, and it’s all because of you.

Here are some sneak peak photos of the sign:

Negra's Cabin donor sign 1

Negra's cabin sign 2