dora

A Meeting of the Girls Club

July 5, 2024 by Ellen Brady-McGaughey

I was lucky enough to stumble upon a meeting of the Girls Club last week, aka Mora B, aka Mave, Dora, and Honey B. I was walking around the sanctuary to give out some juice before heading to lunch myself when I found these 3 ladies lounging in the shade in the chute. Dora initiated play with me, so I sat down to enjoy the moment. She tapped the back of my hand with her (super cute) toes, let me knuckle rub her arm and back, and then I took my phone out so she could look at herself in my camera. While she was admiring herself, Honey B realized the camera was out and joined the party, which turned into playing with Dora while occasionally still watching themselves on the phone. I hope you enjoy watching all of this play out in today’s video, and be sure to stay until the end for a special guest appearance at Girls Club.

Three Years with the Lucky Six

June 26, 2024 by Kelsi

Today we celebrate three years since the Lucky Six arrived! I truly can not imagine life without them. Each one of these chimps brings so much life to this sanctuary. When I think about the day that they arrived, the day was so full of excitement. We had done it, we had reached our goal of expanding the building to take in more chimps to provide another chance of security and a life of choice. The Lucky Six have grown so much in their 3 years here. We have watched chimps like Gordo grow confidence and comfortably with things that are unfamiliar. We have watched the group of six become a group of nine, which has provided them with more social opportunity. Watching chimps like Dora become a social butterfly and Rayne being able to use one of her best strengths, her social savvyness, to help her group navigate and build friendships! We watched all of J.B.’s hard work paid off to build the Bray, their 2 acre outdoor habitat. To be able to watch Rayne walk outside like she had done this everyday of her life was certainly one of the many highlights of my career! I could go on and on about how amazing they are, but I think that when it comes down to it we are just so lucky to have them and we are all the better for knowing them!

Cy:

Gordo:

Terry:

Dora:

Rayne:

Lucky:

Mora B: Playing Hooky

June 22, 2024 by Sabrina

This week Mave, Honey B and Dora decided they would prefer not to shift with the rest of their group for cleaning and instead played hooky in the front rooms. where it was just the three of them. This is the not the first time you’ve heard about Honey B enticing her friends to skip out on shifting and hang out with her for a private play session and as you’ll see in today’s video, none of the girls had any regrets!

This One’s for the Girls

June 12, 2024 by Kelsi

Nothing is more important than your girl friends. As you will see in the video, Honey B and Dora agree! Today, Honey B and Dora held back in the front rooms so that they could have some one-on-one gal time. Sometimes you just need a break from the men, ya know! Watching these two play really warms my heart. I often get asked by people, what sanctuary means to me. For me, it’s the little moments, like watching Honey B build friendships within her group, or to watch Dora flourish and become a social butterfly, or to watch someone like Neggie turn 51 (tomorrow!) and thrive in sanctuary: making choices that was not allotted to her in her previous life.

Tomorrow is the Trifecta Jubilee, celebrating our sweet 16! I cannot believe it has been 16 years since the Cle Elum 7 arrived to the sanctuary or that Negra will already be turning 51 years young. But, lets not forget our sweet friend Terry who is turning 34 tomorrow! It will be quite the celebration! If you would like to help us celebrate, check out our Sweet Sixteen online auction.

I think it will come to no surprise that I personally love this painting, Jamie’s Boot by Cheryl Feng. I love how Cheryl captured Jamie! Place your bids today!

Happy Birthday Dora!

June 6, 2024 by Anna

Today Dora turned 35 with her friends by her side! Staff and volunteers crafted a lovely forage of avocado “toast” (aka primate chow dust mixed with banana) and berry sorbet. The wild yellow roses that grow on the property made for beautiful and delicious garnishes.

On the other side of the building, Jamie’s group enjoyed a similar party.

Missy and her party plate:

Negra devoured the avocado and roses!

Annie found some bonus boomer ball enrichment on Young’s Hill:

Happy birthday to this incomparable chimpanzee spirit!

Mr. Caterpillar

May 16, 2024 by Kelsi

Over the past few days, I have been gathering photos and thinking about a theme for today’s blog. At first, it was going to be about Rayne holding her new broccoli enrichment toy. However, this morning, Dora allowed me to take some amazing portraits of her. So then I ran with the idea of writing about the “Small, but Mighty Dora”. But then… Burrito started playing with Mr. Caterpillar! After that, Lucky and Willy let me take some awesome portraits too. So today I thought, why not have it all, a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I hope you enjoy the video of Burrito playing as he is always making our day brighter. And of course, all the bonus photos!

Mr. Burrito Caterpillar:

When the weather gets nicer, we often find Cy like this 🙂

Yesterday was a beautiful day. So beautiful that Honey B decided to hold out in the Chute 🙂

Lucky portrait:

And a Lucky smooch:

Mave grooming herself in the chute next to Dora:

Rayne relaxing in a nest:

Rayne holding her broccoli toy and enjoying the warm greenhouse:

Rayne’s typical breakfast spot, however, yesterday she brought this brush with her and never let it go:

She has amazing balance:

Willy B checking himself out:

And the little mighty Dora enjoying the warm sunshine in the chute this morning:

Champion Among Apes

March 18, 2024 by Chad de Bree

The fact that the apes exist and that we can study them is extremely important and makes us reflect on ourselves and our human nature. In that sense alone, you need to protect the apes.”

We join the primatology world in mourning the loss of researcher Frans de Waal. Frans was one of the bigger names in primatology. His studies on cognition, emotions, empathy, intelligence, (this list goes on) are widely regarded as some of the most important studies contributed to the study of primates, particularity those relating to chimpanzees and bonobos.

Though in his early years most of his studies we focused on captive lab settings, he started to champion for non-lab studies and conservation efforts. In fact, he has been associated with many sanctuaries either as a member of board of directors or as consultant on behavior and welfare.

Frans was the author of many books on the topic of intelligence and empathy. Some of those aren’t all centered around primates but go through a whole spectrum of species. I could list all the books I recommend to read, but it would be a just a majority of his works. I will though say if you haven’t read his most influential book “Chimpanzee Politics,” that would be the best place to start. “Chimpanzee Politics” is the book that actually set me down the path to where I am now. At the time, I was well down the rabbit hole of majoring in political science and only a minor in anthropology, one of the many umbrellas the field of primatology falls under, which I was unaware of at the time. That book allowed me to realize I could marry up my political science and anthropology studies together.

“Chimpanzee Politics” was so influential to me, I was able to get Frans to sign my copy when he was passing through Seattle and giving a talk about animal emotions in conjunction with the release of his book “Mama’s Last Hug,” which I also recommend. “Mama’s Last Hug,” was written after the viral video of Mama recognized one of her oldest researchers, Jan van Hooff, visited her as she was in her final days. Not only can you read all about Mama in the book, but you can also read about her in “Chimpanzee Politics.” She plays a HUGE role in that monumental book.

The world of primatology has taken two big hits recently. Other than Frans, influential researcher Christophe Boesch passed away in January. Christophe also contributed a lot to the field with his research on social cognition, tool use, and cooperation of the chimpanzees in the Taï National Forest of Côte d’Ivoire.

With that, I will leave you all with links to Frans’ TED Talks about “morality” and “alpha males.” The are both really great.

To not leave everybody totally down, here are some happy photos!

Rayne