Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

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CSNW is a trendy establishment

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A couple weeks ago, volunteer Connie mentioned that she had a lot of pea plants and was inquiring whether or not the plant parts would be OK for the chimps to munch on. I did a little bit of online research and discovered that yes, the parts of a pea plant are indeed edible. In fact, there was this great article that describes it fairly humorously in my opinion: “You’ve probably seen them on plates in Asian restaurants and trendy establishments. Pea shoots and tendrils may look exotic or sophisticated, but even gardeners who can’t grow peas to maturity can grow pea shoots and tendrils.”

Well, Connie was able to grow not only the pea shoots and tendrils, but also the peas to full maturity in their pods! Today we put them out as a forage and the chimps really enjoyed them.

Negra, with the pea plants in the background:

Annie, taking a break and laying down while eating her peas:

Burrito:

Missy:

Burrito, the tool user

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Here at the sanctuary, we are constantly trying to find ways to encourage species-typical behaviors. Tool use is a great example. Presenting the chimps with a challenge that encourages problem solving keeps the chimps busy and entertained, which is so important in a captive environment.

Unlike Jamie, Burrito isn’t much of a tool user. J.B. said it perfectly in this post from last year- it’s not that he’s not intelligent enough, he just seems to lack the patience to use tools, especially when he can just ask for help from a caregiver.

However, the addition of the puzzles in the evenings to our daily routine has changed things a bit, and Burrito has been sharpening his skills. The fact that the puzzles are set up at the end of the day just before the caregivers leave, means that he can’t exactly ask for our help in some cases, so he’s becoming more and more willing to give it a try. There’s nothing like food to motivate Burrito!

Foxie’s 35th birthday video

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As promised, here’s some video from yesterday’s celebration:

Thanks to everyone who donated trolls and made this troll bonanza possible!

Photos from Foxie’s birthday party!

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It’s Foxie’s 35th birthday today! And we decided to celebrate by creating a huge troll bonanza for the troll-loving lady. We literally put out at least a hundred new trolls, most of which participated in last week’s Troll Olympics.

Here’s a few pictures from the day, tomorrow I’ll post some video from the party!

Some of the trolls in the sandbox:

Foxie picked out a couple of her favorites:

Troll blanket, found and troll-adorned by volunteer Jeani:

Foxie checking out the troll blanket:

We hung some frozen watermelon from the ceiling in the outdoor area, which the chimps really loved. Foxie eating her watermelon:

Jody munching on some watermelon:

More to come tomorrow!

More lovable Foxie

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We usually try to mix up which chimps we post about every day, but we also try to balance that with the day to day happenings, and today, since we are on the topic of what we love about Foxie, and we are celebrating her birthday tomorrow, I thought I would just keep going with the theme of “things to love about Foxie”. So, today’s “thing to love”- her love of watching herself in the mirror.

Foxie – so much to love

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I had the following conversation with Debbie this morning:

Me: (smiling) I love the way Foxie moves her bottom jaw up and down when she food grunts.

Debbie: I love everything that Foxie does.

And that about sums up how we all feel about Foxie. We are looking forward to celebrating her birthday in just two days!

Here’s a little video of the Loveable Foxie that I took last night in that quiet time after dinner: