Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Enrichment

Funny faces

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Foxie loves mirrors and tends to immediately make funny faces at herself whenever she sees her reflection (one of my favorite videos of Foxie in a mirror is this one from 2009– check it out). She’s been particularly interested in mirrors lately because she has an injury on her forehead that she has been inspecting, so today I put out a few extra mirrors so she could check herself out if she wanted to. Not to my surprise, she did just that – only she wasn’t as interested in looking at her wound as she was making funny faces at herself.

Foxie with a mirror

Foxie with a mirror

Foxie with a mirror

Foxie with a mirror

Foxie with a mirror

Foxie

Negra in her cabin!

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I took some photos last night and had a whole blog post about night bags ruminating in my head, but then, today, this happened…

negra sit in cabinNegra finally spent some time in Negra’s Cabin!

The thinking behind the cabin that you helped us build through our 4th anniversary fundraising, was that the chimps, particularly fair-weather-loving Negra, needed a spot on the hill where they would be protected from the wind and rain, which we had both of today.

Here’s the full story of Negra’s big venture to her cabin –

Now that the snow is gone and we’ve had some warmer days, Negra has been spending a bit of her time on the hill, especially when we spread food around for the chimps to find. Below is a photo from last night of Negra heading back towards the greenhouse after gathering some sweet potato:

Negra sweet potato in mouth

Generally, Negra’s been going out long enough to gather food, then coming back inside, but today was a little different.

The weather has been weird today. One minute sunny and warm, the next windy and overcast, and the next sleeting. There was a window of good weather around the chimps’ lunchtime, so we decided to set up a forage on the hill. We’re defrosting the freezer today, so J.B. took a hammer to some frozen watermelon that had been in the freezer for who knows how long and we included that in the lunch forage.

Jody went for the frozen watermelon in the cabin, and took her stash away as Negra approached:

Negra approaching cabin

Negra approaching Jody in cabin

Negra displacing Jody in cabin

Once in the cabin, Negra actually just sat for a while. I think and hope that she was realizing how great it is in there!

Negra in cabin 1

Negra in cabin profile

negra sit in cabin

Jody got all of the watermelon from the cabin, but there was still some other food that Negra found:

Negra reaching for food in cabin

Negra eating tomato in cabin

Hopefully this is the first day of many that Negra will enjoy the warmth and protection of her cabin.

 

How well do you know the seven?

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Today’s enrichment theme was “pre-made nests”, meaning the caregivers built nests based on the things each of the chimps typically incorporate into their nests, including the items in the nest, types of blankets, blanket placement and nest location. It was a lot of fun to set up! While the chimps love to build their own nests, it’s fun to mix things up a little bit every once in a while and do something kooky. All of the chimps went to their “correct” nest, which was very satisfying to us goofy humans! I would love to give you all the details, but we thought it might be fun to see how well YOU know the chimps instead. Can you guess who’s nest is who’s? While some are trickier to guess than others, there is a solid hint in each photo.

pre-made nest

pre-made nest

pre-made nest

pre-made nest

pre-made nest

pre-made nest

pre-made nest

Jamie’s artistic side

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About a month ago we updated our Amazon wishlist and added bright colored pens for Jamie. Several people have sent some (thanks so much!!) and she has been so excited about them!! The other day, she was asking for a pen and I went and got her a couple of the colored ones and a canvas. She was literally jumping up and down when she saw what I had for her and drew a pretty elaborate drawing (albeit on the back of the canvas 🙂 ) She’s not always interested in drawing, though when she is, she’s very meticulous about it. Everything has to be in the right place – not just the lines she draws, but the paper and pens, as well.

Here’s a piece we recovered from the Playroom the other day. Like in the story above, I brought her a piece of canvas to draw on but she found what she thought was a much better medium for her masterpiece. It was a sign I had put on the enrichment to remind the morning crew to put all the troll dolls in piles.

web Jamie art trolls in piles pr IMG_1981

Thanks so much to all who have re-inspired Jamie’s artistic side!

Some good news + cute Foxie

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If you aren’t subscribed to the Take Action newsletter through Eyes on Apes, you may not have seen yet that we’ve had a victory! Two days ago I sent out an action alert regarding a Great Clips commercial with a chimpanzee, and just a day later Great Clips made a statement to pledge not to use apes in future advertising, and said they were working on pulling the ad. This is all thanks to letters from you guys, so congrats! Please forward this victory on to friends and get them to join you in speaking up for apes in need.

As if that good news wasn’t enough happiness for the day, I thought I’d share some pictures of Foxie eating some snow with juice added to it. She’s pretty cute. I think she can put a smile on anyone’s face.

web Foxie snow in mouth playroom PR IMG_1974

web Foxie snow in mouth playroom PR IMG_1973

web Foxie snow in mouth playroom PR IMG_1966

Jamie’s choice

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We’ve mentioned it 1000 times I’m sure but Jamie is one of the most intelligent people we know. I cannot even begin to imagine how difficult and frustrating it must be for her to be stuck behind bars. Captivity would be difficult for anyone, but Jamie has a tendency to get very bored, antsy, and even demanding sometimes – especially during the cold, cabin-fever months. It’s completely understandable (check out this fantastic post from Diana from a couple of years ago reflecting on Jamie’s personality, both prior to CSNW and after her arrival here). We caregivers are completely dedicated to provide a stimulating environment for her and all of the Cle Elum Seven. Each day we do all that we can to give them interesting things to do and exciting enrichment they love, which in Jamie’s case always includes boots.

Jamie has a huge boot collection:
web boots jamie display enrichment front room frIMG_1225

But nothing gets her more excited than a new (to her) pair of boots. Who can blame her? Don’t we all get excited when we get a new pair of shoes? But, she tends to ‘love them to death’, so to speak, so they often don’t last very long. We’ve had to throw several pairs away lately and I noticed yesterday that our supply is dwindling. It occurred to me that this might be the perfect time to seek some help from you Jamie-lovers. Maybe you got a new pair of boots for Christmas and have an older pair you would like to get rid of? Or maybe you’ve been finding yourself at thrift stores lately trying to catch good deals and just hadn’t thought to be on the lookout for Jamie’s favorite thing? We certainly don’t want anyone to spend a ton of money on boots (see statement above about ‘loving them to death’) but if you happen to have an old pair or come across one, you really would make Jamie’s day.

resized FB web Jamie nest boots enrichment lay on back yoga cute playroom DSC_0127

web Jamie hold inspect new boots from Becca Hines greenhouse GH IMG_0835

web jamie nest boots blankets cover enrichment pr IMG_1641

web Jamie walk new red boots enrichment monica best vist yh forage IMG_1880

Twas the Day Before…

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The chimpanzees are currently busy snacking on a giant tub full of snow in the greenhouse.

Burrito:

Burrito reaching for snow

Burrito eating snow

Foxie:

Foxie eating snow

Foxie eating snow

 

Meanwhile, volunteer caregivers Denice and Seana are busy preparing today’s lunch plus cooking up a storm for the feast tomorrow and wrapping presents delivered by the Ellensburg Santa.

volunteers denice and seana preparing

Tomorrow is going to be a great party at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest! Thank you again for all who have contributed to the chimps’ happiness this week and for the last four and a half years!