Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Enrichment

Currant Events

by

In today’s blog, we will do something a little different. Sprinkled within the blog will be some exciting announcements we have! Be sure to find out what they are as you read along!

This morning as I was driving in, there was a mother deer and her fawns in the sanctuary driveway.

Just a sign summer is really here! Another sign is the currant bush is full of berries. If you didn’t know, Jamie is a BIG fan of currants. It has been well documented that Jamie will always gesture for caregivers to give her some when they walk by the bush. She even has eagle eyes to spot a single berry hidden in the grass.

As a part of our browse program, today we decided to bring parts of the bush to her. Parts of the currant branches were placed in the braided firehose feeder and some berries were put into pools of water for them to fish out.

Burrito

Jamie

Before I continue onto the next event from today, we want to announce some exciting news! HOOT! 2023 early bird tickets are now on sale! We have re-imagined our annual fundraising event to be more mission-focused (and appetizer forward). You can join us in-person in Seattle on September 9th or you can participate remotely from the comfort of your own home. We can’t wait to see you in September to celebrate all things sanctuary! Read more about the event and get your tickets with early bird pricing here: https://onecau.se/chimp .

After lunch, the chimpanzees were given a treat! In honor of today’s date (7-11), the chimpanzees were given icy treats with blueberries for Slurpee® Day!
Terry
Burrito
Jamie
Honey B
Negra
For today’s second announcement, we are about a week away from Gordo’s 35th Birthday! Some new items were added to our Amazon Wish List to try to make it very special! I’m not going to spoil the theme for anybody, but you can kind of get a hint of where it’s going by seeing the items! We, especially Gordo, would greatly appreciate it!
As a bonus, here are some other photos taken from around the sanctuary!
Cy inspecting his hands
Foxie watching caregivers clean her playroom
This might as well be a sign that says “Missy was here!”
For some context, Missy is a highly intelligent chimp! To figure out the best way to extract some peanuts from her food puzzle, she did a trial and error session. She started of with the stick. After realizing the stick was much too big, she set off to find another tool. She found one of Burrito’s toy hammers. It did the job! All Missy left behind was evidence of her work!
Burrito wondering why I’m taking photos and not playing
Speaking of birthdays, next week is also this lovely young lady’s 16th birthday! Betsy!

This, That, and The Other

by

Throughout the day, I had several ideas for things I wanted to share on the blog. They were all just small things that happened. Everything doesn’t always go as planned, as you may know. Every single time the idea would pop into my head, by the time I got the camera out (either the DLSR camera or my phone camera) the thing I was going to write about vanished. I was, however, still able to get snippets of each thing.

First, I randomly took a photo of a toy school bus inside Jamie’s greenhouse after we got done cleaning it.

I didn’t know that a short time after I took this photo, Jamie would utilize it.

During lunch, she was putting portions of her meal into it and bring it along with her. This is the only photo she allowed me to take from this far away.

Second, as we were cleaning her greenhouse, I was scrubbing the walls when a little friend gave me a startle.

This little frog was just hanging out watching me clean. Nobody seemed to notice them after we gave them access back to the greenhouse. They were more interested in the spread of lilacs we had placed in there for them. Jamie even sat directly above the frog without a single notice.

Speaking of lunch things, one item everyone was served was a romaine heart. You wouldn’t expect anyone to be excited for romaine hearts, however, the chimps LOVE them and were very excited for them.

Rayne took hers and found a secluded spot in the Riverview Greenhouse, away from the commotion of the food peering that was happening inside the playrooms.

After lunch, her group went out onto The Bray. As some were going out, others were going in. As you might suspect, there was a little bit of a traffic jam on the boardwalk. Three of the biggest boys were the cause of this jam. From left to right: Willy B, Terry, Cy

Lastly, there was one final patrol on Young’s Hill before dinner was going to be served. Here are Missy and Burrito returning from the great outdoors.

The Great Hose Heist

by

What a day!

One of the enrichment items we pass out for the chimps in the evening before caregivers leave are treat buckets. For treat buckets, we fill buckets with a variety of soft enrichment items (socks, scarves, etc.) and put seeds, nuts, or fruit slices in the bottom. We place these on the outside of the caging and give the chimps bamboo sticks so they can get the goodies out of the buckets. Straight forward concept, right? Pretty fool proof, right? That’s what we thought, too.

We were wrong.

We came in this morning and discovered that there was some sneaky heist action last night after the caregivers went home! Check out the blog video to see who was involved and what happened.

Teaser Photo:

Dora! Dora! Dora!

by

My apologies for today’s blog! Two Tuesdays a month, after cleaning is done, we have a staff meeting to discuss various topics about the sanctuary. Today’s meeting ran a little long. In fact, it lasted right up to the time it was to serve the chimps’ dinner, kind of putting me into a bind in terms of getting photos for the blog.

I was, however, able to get some last minute photos of darling Dora enjoying her evening popsicles. On days their daily food puzzle is scheduled to be given out during the day instead of the evening, we give out popsicles made of either Gatorade or water flavoring with some berries before they begin to nest in for the night. Dora is not one to ever pass up her evening enrichment, especially her popsicles.

Bonus Photos!

Honey B enjoying her avocado at dinner.

And Mave taking it easy earlier today!

Sounds of Sanctuary 2023

by

Last year, I posted a video with sounds from around the sanctuary. As I have previously stated, these are the sounds you can hear on any given day and the sounds I miss on the days I am not in the Chimp House.

So please enjoy the Sounds of Sanctuary 2023!

Bonus Photo of beautiful Honey B with an evening glare!

Lastly, you can now pre-order a brand new Cy’s Book Club t-shirt and/or tote bag based on this photo!

Be sure to act fast as these items are limited edition and to help Cy celebrate his birthday next month! Don’t hesitate! Join Cy’s Book Club now!

A Plum Day

by

Today started off as any other. Caregivers arrived, served breakfast, and began their tasks of cleaning of the day prior. When the door leading to Young’s Hill opened, the members of Jody’s group were eager to set off on their morning adventures.

Burrito, of course, wanted to take his morning run. Cold doesn’t seem to bother him one bit when it comes to his morning exercise. Between his sprints, he would take a break and seem to just take it all in.

As we were nearing the top, I caught something out of place in my peripheral vision. Something that stood out like a sore thumb amongst the brown and yellow foliage of winter.

This purple-haired figure on top of a moving black mass could only be one thing…

It’s Plum Pudding hitching a ride on Foxie!

After reaching the top of the hill, Foxie and Plum Pudding headed back to the Chimp House…

But not before a little thrilling adventure!

Plum Pudding ended up in a perilous predicament!

And only Foxie could save her!

This rescue was so dramatic, Jamie had to be a bystander to witness it all unfold!

But nonetheless, Foxie would not give up on her Puddin’! She was able to rescue her and whisk her back to safety!

Bonus Photo of Cy during a game of chase!

Dreaming of Summer

by

As I was cleaning today, I randomly thought to myself how sad I was that Annie had skipped her summer fashion for 2022. Then lo and behold, as if her ears were burning, Annie walked in wearing a hot pink headband around her waist!

It’s hard to tell if the fashion season has come early this year, or if Annie is making up for missing the 2022 season. Either way, Annie looks fabulous!

Bonus Photos:

Dora and Mave grooming this morning

Bonus Side Story:

Yesterday, as I was cleaning the Oakwood Greenhouse, I saw Dora grab a piece of paper and sit on the Lupine Playroom stairs. She sat there for a few minutes staring at it and kind of caressing it. When she got up and left, I was able to see what she found so intriguing.

It’s the Mave spread of the 2023 Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest Calendar! (Which is coincidentally on sale right now!) I thought it was a little funny because she was acting like she hadn’t seen Mave in weeks. In reality, Mave was just across the room eating what was remaining of her breakfast.

Sometimes, I just can’t with the Mora relationship!

Bonus Bonus Photos:

I passed through the two greenhouses and saw Mave like this. How could I not share them?