Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary for primates.

doll

New Doll, Same Snow

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I mean wow! Foxie cannot thank you all enough for the stack of Strawberry Shortcake Dolls. She is rich in dolls! Now, she won’t get them all right away, but we did give her a new one. To say she was happy would be an understatement. She was holding her new doll close to her chest, flipping her around, and passing Strawberry Shortcake back and forth with her caregivers. It’s nice when something so simple can bring someone so much joy.

I hope everyone is staying safe and warm out there. Maybe these portraits of Foxie and Jamie can warm up your day.

Doll Thief

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Jamie and Foxie had a pretty epic play session while we were cleaning the playroom this morning. A few things to note about this video:

  • Everyone was playing all morning – this is just a small slice of all the craziness.
  • I love how Jamie shows Foxie how to get this game started – “Here, I’ve got your doll and you’ve got to try to get it back!”
  • If you ever question whether chimpanzees are stronger than humans, try hanging from the ceiling for 10 minutes and let me know how that works out.
  • Jamie employed a new move in this play session, which I have dubbed “The Motorcycle”. See if you can spot it.
  • Jamie is 43 years old and seems to have unlimited energy. I am 43 years old and would like a nap. I don’t know how they do it.

Oh, and I’ve got some good news to share – we’d like to thank the Glide Foundation, and all of you who donated this past year, for helping us purchase our very own portable digital x-ray machine! As you may know, we have been fortunate to be able to borrow an x-ray unit as needed from a generous local veterinarian, Dr. Kellar, but with additional chimpanzees on the way we knew it was time to have one of our own. Not an easy decision when you are talking about something the price of a nice new car, but we consider it a necessary investment in the health of our growing family and we’re so grateful that you all made it possible. We’d also like to thank our friends at Project V.E.T.S. for sending along some gently used radiation protection equipment to keep our staff and consulting medical professionals safe!

Morning on the Hill

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The volunteers set out a forage on the hill this morning.

After an initial course of smoothie, vitamins, and peanuts, the chimps went outside to search for pieces of orange, plum, grapefruit, and banana as well as some primate chow.

Jamie (below and at the top of the post):

Negra:

Burrito, confronting the dilemma faced by most male chimpanzees from time immemorial – do I feed myself and otherwise engage in the basic behaviors necessary to sustain life, or I do I follow that girl in estrus wherever she goes? For the most part, he chose the latter (poor Jody), but he did manage to grab a few scraps of food along the way.

Missy:

Annie, developing a nice wadge of primate chow:

Not to be outdone, Jody made a wadge of her own:

And finally, Foxie:

Though we didn’t fill the termite mound with food this morning, Foxie nevertheless checked its contents using a tool and technique never seen before in any wild population: Strawberry Shortcake dipping.

Mornings like these

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As I watched the chimps head out onto the hill today, I realized that it was a perfect moment to grab the telephoto lens and take some shots of the chimps on the towers. On mornings like these, Foxie likes to take to her usual spot, doll in hand, to spy on the world through the slatted walls of her fort.

Taking photos through multiple layers of electric and woven wire fencing is difficult. Many shots turn out blurry or obscured, so I often find myself laying in the grass to find the right angle and snapping dozens if not hundreds of photos in order to get a decent shot.

I watched as Foxie engaged in phantom nesting – a behavior that, while technically abnormal, can actually be a sign of contentment. Chimps who were deprived of nesting material or the opportunity to learn from family and peers when they were young sometimes show only the rudimentary, ritualized elements of nesting behavior, as if they are building a nest out of thin air.

She played her usual games with her doll, propping it up on the railing…

…and then knocking it down into her waiting arms.

While we make no effort to hide the fact that these chimps live in cages, behind glass and concrete, or within the confines of an electric fence, I can’t deny that I also enjoy perspectives like these that show how large their world has become, even within those constraints.

So there I was, laying in the grass, when suddenly I noticed that Jody had spotted me. She looked concerned, and I had to agree that my behavior was indeed quite unusual. I shouted, “It’s just me, Jo Jo!”

She walked a little closer, still worried. “Jo Jo, it’s me! It’s OK!”

Her expression first softened with the recognition that it was a friend and not a stealthy intruder lurking behind the fence, but it quickly turned to a look that – if I may be a bit liberal with my interpretation – seemed to convey her profound disappointment that I should go around scaring people like that.

Point taken.

With that crisis averted, she joined Foxie on the tower.

…and took part in the spying.

As soon as she left, Foxie returned to her games in peace, as she seems to prefer on mornings like these.

Fifth Day of Thanks, Featuring Vicki Fagerlee & Foxie

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Yesterday, J.B. took some photos of the chimpanzees enjoying their post-Thanksgiving morning romp on the hill. It was a beautiful morning yesterday and the chimpanzees wasted no time in taking advantage of the sunshine. There are some great images of Foxie in this post below!

Today is the fifth day of thanks highlighting seven different donors and their seven ways of donating + the seven chimpanzees at the sanctuary!

In case you missed the first four posts, day one featured legacy donor Bruce Davidson + Burrito, day two featured event donor Kathy Cochran + Annie, day three featured recurring donor Julie Olson + Jody, and day four featured challenge and competition donor Monica Best + Negra.

For the fifth day of thanks, we are sending big thanks to Vicki Fagerlee and everyone who sends items via our amazon.com wishlist. Vicki won a “spend the day behind-the-scenes at the sanctuary” auction item a few years ago and traveled halfway across the country for that unique experience. It was really special for the staff to be able to meet Vicki in person and get to know her, and to introduce her to the chimpanzees who she had been following via the internet. Vicki also donates cold hard cash, but she likes to supplement her cash donations by browsing the wish list for all of the somewhat boring supplies needed to run the chimp house and fun stuff for the chimpanzees too.

Here’s what Vicki had to stay about her wish list giving:

It’s an easy way to contribute to the functioning of the sanctuary and the happiness of the chimpanzees. With the wish list, I know what I’m buying is exactly what is needed. Plus it makes me feel so good to give in a small way. You are all so special and I saw first-hand all that it takes to keep things going on a daily basis.

She also added this about following the blog, “Your daily updates put me in my happy place.”

That last sentiment made my day. I just love knowing that people are following the lives of the chimpanzees and that these seven chimpanzee people bring happiness to a lot of human people out there.

For those who even just casually check in on the blog once in a while, you likely are very aware of Foxie’s love of dolls. Her main and original love is troll dolls:

foxie troll on neck

 

but she also likes Dora the Explorer and friends:

 

and the occasional “other” doll:

 

Her main type seems to be handheld size dolls with hard plastic bodies, big eyes, and a bonus for colorful hair.

Like any collector, Foxie has her old favorites. Today she has been carrying around a standard troll with orange hair that is missing one eye and is one firm bite away from being without feet. Each time I passed her by during the cleaning routine this morning, she pushed this troll out to me.

I think it was the same doll that she carried around all day last week:

foxie holding troll

 

Also like a true collector, Foxie  is always excited when new dolls arrive for her in the mail. So we do add dolls to our amazon wish list once in a while. There are a lot of materials that we’re not able to give to the chimpanzees (see the long list here), so when items are purchased from the wish list, you know they have been pre-approved by the staff.

Recently, Foxie’s been into a line of Strawberry Shortcake dolls. She had one of them on her morning romp on the hill yesterday. Here are those photos taken by J.B. that I promised:

foxie and the landscape

foxie holding doll

foxie tossing doll