Lots of laughter today.
csnw
“My” cozy nest
Annie made a cozy nest this morning in the greenhouse. She was so content there, she had no interest in going out on the hill while other chimps were headed out. Instead, she watched them explore from the comfort of her bed.
But after she abandoned her nest, Jamie decided it was the perfect place to take a nap.
Sleepy chimps
The chimps have been super mellow today- lots of nesting, grooming, and general quiet time. Elizabeth snapped a couple of really great pictures of Foxie and Negra resting on the catwalk in the playroom this morning. I love seeing the chimps so relaxed and peaceful.
Foxie:
Negra often lets her lips droop to one side when she’s relaxing. It’s almost like she’s so relaxed, she just lets gravity do the work.
Watermelon forage
Today we put out a watermelon forage on Young’s Hill to accompany the chimpanzees’ breakfast.
Burrito, collecting some forage:
If you look closely in the next picture, you can see the bright green grass in the background starting to come back from the part of the hill that was burnt in the fire. It’s along the irrigation line, so that’s why it’s a solid stripe of green grass.
This is Jody, sitting by a post in the shade while munching on watermelon pieces:
And my personal favorite—Missy with a mouthful of watermelon:
In depth story from KOMO
KOMO News (ABC Channel 4 in Seattle) has shared a longer, in depth video and interviews about the Taylor Bridge Fire at the sanctuary. They put the video on their website here.
You can watch it below and you can email KOMO to thank them for sharing the original story at this address: [email protected]
Negra’s amazing nest
This morning when I walked into the chimp area, everyone was super quiet (usually it’s a little noisy first thing in the morning) and I saw Negra sleeping in her favorite spot on the catwalk beside the window. The nest she was lying in was huge—way bigger than any nest I’ve seen before! It made me smile so much, just knowing how comfortable and content Negra looked. I took a short moment while everything was still and greeted Negra by reaching my arm out and nodding my head. She gave me a quick head nod in return and then shifted in her nest a little bit. A couple minutes later, the other chimps started to get up and it became the usual noisy morning, but Negra stayed in bed. This is typically how it goes—while everyone else is eagerly watching the humans prepare breakfast and get ready for the day, Negra sleeps in until we are about to serve. But today especially, her nest was so expansive and comfy looking, I thought she might stay in bed all day! But as soon as she saw the peanuts we were serving as a breakfast appetizer, she quickly jumped out of bed and headed to join the rest of the chimps in the greenhouse. The pictures we got of her nest were a little dark, and I did my best to brighten them up but I apologize for the poor lighting due to the sun in the window! The first picture shows just how big the nest was (24 big, fluffy blankets in all) and the second is a close-up of our Queen’s beautiful face.
Negra simply enjoying her big nest this morning started making me think about how awesome it is that she can do that now, after 30+ years in a lab. I thought about it all during cleaning, and as soon as I had a chance I went to our blog to find an entry from before the chimps ever arrived—one about Negra trying to make a nest with scraps of newspaper in the lab she was in before coming to CSNW. It was written almost exactly 5 months before the Cle Elum Seven arrived at their forever sanctuary home. It’s here if you want to read it, but be prepared to get teary-eyed. As Diana says in the post, “Negra deserves to be forever free from the fear of life as a laboratory subject. She deserves to have choices in her life. She deserves to have room to walk, run and climb. She deserves to have access to the outdoors. She deserves a daily supply of a wide variety of food. And she deserves lots and lots of blankets so she can finally make the bed that will truly make her feel content.”
I am so happy that her new sanctuary life has given her the opportunity to build a bed that Diana thought she might enjoy. It’s days like today that make me realize how amazing and resilient chimps are, after all they’ve been through that they can still find joy and contentment in life. It’s admirable.
We need nightbag mix!
“Nightbags” are paper sacks of a variety of nuts, dried fruit and seeds that we give the chimps each night after their dinner. All of the chimps really enjoy nightbags, especially Negra- whom I’m pretty sure lives for that moment every day. It is her all time favorite thing in the world and there is nothing quite as special as her facial expression as we pass it to her each night. Her eyes get wide and she blinks with excitement- almost disbelief- that the moment has arrived where she can have her precious nightbag. It is the best feeling in the world to be the one giving her that much joy.
But we are really low on nightbag mix! Like I mentioned, the mix usually consists of nuts (peanuts, pecans, and almonds are among their favorites), sunflower and pumpkin seeds, and any type of dried fruit, though we only give the chimps unsalted and sugar free foods, so if you are shopping around- be sure to look at the ingredients! For nuts, raw and in shell is best.
Nuts.com has pre-selected care packages hand picked for the chimps, where for $25 you can get a variety of in-shell, unsalted mixed nuts, however, we need seeds and dried fruit too, and some variety would be great!
***NOTE: Any sugar-free, natural dried fruit is fine except for mangoes! Annie is allergic.***
Here’s Negra enjoying tonight’s nightbag:
