Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Cy

Secret Santa

by

Boy howdy! What a busy day! Besides our daily Chimp House duties, we had our bi-weekly staff meeting, are deep in preparing for the resident’s Christmas party, sorting through gifts that arrived from the recent Comfort & Joy auction, and trying to keep up with Burrito!

We want to thank those who have purchased items off our Amazon Wish List! We just wanted to let you know if you have purchased something off the wishlist, or sent something directly to us, please be assured that we have or will receive it. It may just take a little bit for us to process things in order to send out the confirmation it has arrived.

If you would like to still purchase items off our wish list for their Christmas party, there’s still time! But time is starting to run out for it to be delivered on time. If you can, please peruse through our Amazon Wish List. We hope to make this Christmas a special one for them!

Now for some photos from today!

Terry taking his chow biscuits to go!

Missy trying to encourage Negra to get our of bed!

Honey B enjoying some persimmons at lunch!

Annie also enjoying her lunch persimmons!

Missy enjoying a forage of cabbage and snow!

Willy B eating his lunch chow biscuits with a view!

Beautiful Lucky!

And handsome Cy!

Mave taking in the sun coming through in the Oakwood Greenhouse!

Rayne taking a rest after lunch!

Winter is Here to Stay

by

Today was a quiet snowy day at the chimp house. The humans were busy shoveling snow and cleaning, while the chimps ate snow and napped in their cozy nest! Everyone was so content grooming or napping that it was hard to capture photos of them. So please enjoy these photos of some cozy chimps I was able to capture. Speaking of cozy, today is the last day of our Comfort & Joy auction! The auction will be wrapping up at 6 pm PT so make sure to check on your bids or bid one last person out! We will be starting to slowly add Christmas gifts for the chimps on our wish-list soon, so be on the look out!

We got a little bit of snow last night and this morning…

Burrito sat still long enough to snap these photos:


The ever so handsome Cy:

Neggie’s silhouette eating snow:

Negra can’t wait for all of her new blankets from the Comfort & Joy auction!

Jamie getting a little shut eye:

Jamie nesting, Neggie style (blanket over head):

Mave in the middle of a big grooming party in the green house:

Bromance Isn’t Dead

by

As today’s video suggests, “bromance” is very much alive in this chimp house. I caught Terry and Willy B engaging in an exciting grooming session – with tons of breathy pants. It still amazes me to think that a year ago at this time, Willy B and Terry lived in two separate groups. Now, Terry and Willy B (plus their 7 friends!) have been living together for 7 months (as of tomorrow)! I’m so happy for each of them as friendships help enrich their lives.

Speaking of the group of 9, I had a photoshoot today with Cy. He took me both indoors and outdoors in attempt to get the perfect shot. I tried, Cy!

Photoshoot with Cy:

Lucky:

From the other “Cyde”

by

I spent most of today trying to capture footage of Burrito interacting with his new burrito Squishmallow for today’s blog. However, it just wasn’t happening! He kept running by it and wanting to play chase with his caregivers instead. He’ll play with it later, I’m sure!

Burrito Squishmallow for Burrito:

Burrito with a burrito:

Instead for today’s video, I wanted to focus on Cy and his love for reading. I was able to capture him reading while cleaning the Mezzanine recently. This angle shows how much he scans each page and picture of his magazine, something you can’t always see from the other angles. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

The VIP Lounge

by

The chimpanzees spend more time resting and socializing in the heated indoor areas as the weather gets wetter and colder.

We’ve recently been focusing much of our content on the chimps’ outdoor enclosures, especially Young’s Hill and The Bray. Large outdoor habitats are irreplaceable because they provide chimpanzees with unique opportunities to engage in “natural” behaviors such as climbing, foraging, and patrolling as a group. The greenhouse-type enclosures, including the new Riverview and Oakwood Greenhouses, also have certain characteristics that the chimps can take full advantage of at their leisure.

Even so, chimpanzees living in sanctuary also need clean, climate-controlled, enriched indoor spaces. These are locations where they can be cozy, entertained and secure, regardless of the conditions outside. It would be easy to look at the artificial interiors and think that these enclosures are inferior to the outdoor ones, but the chimpanzees don’t seem to think so. Instead, the residents seem to utilize the various spaces differently so that together they provide one expansive, complex, multi-functional home.

Sofia highlighted the indoor front rooms in her September post “Back to Front Room 7” and Anna wrote about them again in last week’s post “Small space, big fun“. I thought it might be fun to share some additional video clips of the chimpanzees enjoying that same space today!