Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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eating snow

How to Entertain a Chimpanzee

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First up, here is your Honey B update! Despite our best attempts to keep her attention away from her healing eyelid and occupy her time with other activities, she did open up her incision slightly yesterday. Dr. Erin assessed her and for now, we are waiting to see how it continues to heal and consulting with other experts to be sure we have the best plan in place for her. We continue to provide her with extra enrichment, and today one of her enrichment devices doubled as enrichment for the humans who created it.

We have had a large cardboard tube in the Chimp House for the past several weeks without a use for it. Today it found its purpose! We drilled some holes in the tube, added chain through the tube, and clipped it to the caging of Honey B’s room. We added some of her favorite things to the inside of the tube (popcorn, shelled peanuts, raisins) and raspberries to some of the holes to peak her interest. We gave her a bamboo stick as a tool and sat back to see what she did with it.

The idea was that the small snacks would fall through the drilled holes when the tube rolled around the chain, and Honey B would use her bamboo stick to pull the snacks to her. Well…that’s not exactly what happened. To no one’s surprise, Honey B outsmarted our plan! She was able to tap and tip the tube in such a way that the majority of the snacks fell out of either end, so it did not take as long as I had thought it would to finish the puzzle. I would like to create a reusable version of this for everyone with PVC one day, and Honey B has helped me to identify some flaws in my plan! Thank you for the design assistance, BeeBee!

It was a very good day around the sanctuary today. It is warmer here today (not warm…but warmer!). Negra enjoyed a nap in her nest in the greenhouse which was quite cozy with the heater going. Her group enjoyed eating some of the remaining snow, which is now a perfect snow cone texture. Burrito loved looking at himself on my phone and was especially fascinated by his own tongue.

I feel so fortunate to be able to share in these moments with the chimps, and to get to share them with you all. I hope your Saturday has been just as good as ours!

 

Honey B’s World

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…. We’re just livin’ in it!

Honey B is a complex, intelligent gal. She is very much like Jamie, in the sense that she does what she want when she wants. Her group has learned to accept that about her. She is not the most dominant member in their hierarchy, but she does control a lot of situations. She is very sensitive and does not let anyone mess with her! Sometimes, Honey B prefers her alone time and decides to not shift with her group. We shift the chimpanzees throughout the morning so we can clean each area. However, Honey B sometimes chooses to stay put. Which is fine by us! She just stays in one of the front rooms (her favorite place to be) and we clean the other spaces, minus the room she is in. Once we are done cleaning, we will shift again so Honey can go back with her group, and then we can clean that last room she was in.

In today’s video, it was a Honey B-not-shifting day! We gave her Front Room 7 to hang out in and she had the time of her life. Enjoy! It may be one of the most fun videos I’ve put together!

Random photos from today!

Lucky:

Snow and Unicorn Blankets

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What a day! We just want to say goodnight from a very busy chimp house. Again, I can’t wait to write up a blog about Jamie I have in my head, but alas it will have to wait another week. I thought I would share a sweet moment with Honey B. Most nights when we close up the chimp house on phase 1 Honey B, Willy B, and Mave will already be nestled into bed. They usually like to go to bed early, whereas I am not sure Jamie even sleeps. But the past few nights as I am about to lock up the 3’s side, Honey B has been up and it almost looks like she was waiting for something. So, I have been offering her a few extra blankets before I turn the lights off. Once she has the blanket she throws it on her back or quickly drapes it behind her and makes a bed, meanwhile pant hooting goodnight.

If today had a theme, besides being busy, it would be the chimps love snow! Though by late February I think we will all be over it. But eating snow never gets old!

Even Willy B is starting to come around to this snow thing.

There was still snow on the ground, but enough had melted for everyone to go explore outside. Even NEGRA! I suspect she was trying to catch a quick glimpse of the neighbors in the chute or see the construction going on.

Burrito stayed back at first to be the look-out but eventually joined everyone out on the Hill.

Burrito or Sasquatch, I guess I will let you all decide.

Missy zipped around the Hill as per usual!

Little Foxie followed Jody, Missy, and Annie out on the Hill, but it got a little too cold for her so she turned around.

After venturing on Young’s Hill everyone agreed with Foxie and spent some time inside.

Negra wrapped herself up in an early Christmas present and did one of her favorite food puzzles, peanut butter magazines. I mean who doesn’t need a colorful unicorn blanket! I do have to make a confession though. This was my intention of putting the unicorn blanket on the wish list. I wanted to see Negra wrapped in a cozy, soft, and colorful unicorn blanket. There was a VERY good chance Negra was never going to see this blanket and Jody was going to shred it to pieces. But… just look at how comfy Negra looks!

Jamie had a busy day watching us clean and supervising the electricians working around the chimp house. But, that was pretty exhausting so she got cozy in a big nest she built and took a well-deserved nap!

All in all we day a great day, but I think we humans are going to curl up in our nests now. Goodnight!

Winter Beauty

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We’ve had our first real snowstorm this week. Here are some scenery shots:

The bench outside of the greenhouse, used for observing the chimpanzees during summer months when the greenhouse panels are removed:

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Negra’s cabin (the triangular structure) and the bamboo and climbing structures in the background:

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The lexan-enclosed human area of the greenhouse:

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The snow falls off the roof of the greenhouse and creates snow banks that require frequent shoveling:

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This is what I saw Missy doing most of the day:

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For a quick video of Jamie’s snow-eating technique, take a look at our instagram account (@ChimpSanctuary)

 

Don’t fight winter – embrace it like Jamie

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Free-living chimpanzees inhabit countries spanning equatorial Africa, but the chimpanzees at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest are becoming more and more acclimated to central Washington weather. Perhaps these photos of Jamie will inspire you to embrace winter too.

Jamie sit shaky bridge

Jamie look aside shaky bridge

jamie chimpanzee eating snow

Jamie eating snow

jamie chimpanzee thinking about eating snow

Jamie eating snow

Jamie snow face

Missy up close

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Here are a few more photos – all of these of Missy – taken with the combo new camera and “Kathy lens” which produced the photos of Jamie last week. Missy REALLY likes to eat snow, so much so that she will eat it all day long and will sometimes shiver as though she’s lowered her body temperature. She’s pretty active, though, and a game of chase gets her body warmed right up.

missy self groom close up

missy gaze with snow

missy eating snow