Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Enrichment

Hoppy Easter!

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Today was a full day of mini-parties! First, we had a juice forage in the Playroom (something all the chimps love), then we set up a lunch forage in the greenhouse, followed by an Easter Egg Hunt on Young’s Hill! On the menu for lunch was Easter baskets of cut up fruits and veggies in a bed of lettuce, courtesy of volunteers Stephanie and Katelyn. The chimps were so excited!

Missy:

Foxie got a couple of new trolls, thanks to Katelyn and to Dick and Robbi Brown, who donated tons of new toys for the party:

Jody with her head in the game

Burrito always has his head in the game!

Jamie and her loot:

Negra and Jody enjoying their lunch together

Negra was so happy!

After lunch, the chimps went out on Young’s Hill for an Easter Egg Hunt! We were so excited to be able to see them search 2-acres for plastic Easter eggs filled with peanuts and berries. There were also carrots stuck in the ground, allowing them to “harvest” their own carrots! What a fun day!

Jamie’s current boot friend

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Jamie never tires of boots, but her favorite bounces around (just like most of us shoe-lovers!). Her current favorite in her collection is this red pair, donated by new volunteer Carrie Parker (thanks again, Carrie!). She has several pairs that are relatively new and that are exciting to her, but today these were the only pair that satisfied her. She had me pull out her entire collection until I finally picked up the red pair, and she immediately jumped up and ran towards the food chute so I could give it to her. The girl knows what she wants!

Foxie and troll bellies

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Foxie likes to not only rub her trolls on her own belly (and other dolls like Dora or a stuffed animal with JB’s face on it), but she also likes to gently rub their bellies with her thumb. This is just a picture so you can’t really see the action, but even with the troll upside down she’s still rubbing its belly.

Hiding out

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Negra loves to cover herself in blankets, so as we were wrapping up cleaning today, in thinking of her I was inspired to build more forts in the playroom. We have several bullet-proof glass windows in the playroom but for ventilation purposes, we have left the caging over a few of them. Negra often builds her daytime nest in front of one of the window cages, so I decided to tie blankets up to the caging and let them drape off of the railing, making it a cabana-style fort. I think Negra was pretty pleased.

Though this isn’t a great shot, I love that it shows Negra peaking around the blanket to see what is going on outside of her fort

Burrito liked it a lot too. Here he is enjoying his peanuts in his fort

Dora Rescue

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This morning, Foxie played a little game on the hill in which she put Dora on top of one of the beams of the climbing structures and played like she was going to push her off. But, Dora was safe in Foxie’s hands, as she always had another hand below to catch her if she fell.

New boots for Jamie

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The kind folks at Seattle-based Chocolate Shoebox are high on Jamie’s list these days. They recently donated several pairs of new boots via a donation drive put on by the Seattle Animal Defense League. After having them modeled for her by her caregivers, she was eager to inspect them closely and take them for a test drive.

Thanks to Chocolate Shoebox and Seattle Animal Defense League!

Foxie, the closet nester?

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When Foxie arrived at CSNW almost 4 years ago, she wanted nothing to do with toys and especially blankets. While in the lab, the chimps weren’t given much, if any enrichment so it would make sense that after 30 years of living in barren cages, a toy or a blanket would seem a bit foreign to her. When we discovered her love of troll dolls, her distaste for other toys faded some, but she would still toss aside a blanket that was in her way and preferred to sleep on the concrete floor. It’s only been in the last year that we have witnessed her making rudimentary signs of nesting behavior with blankets. I haven’t seen her nest too much lately, but last night, after locking up the chimp area, Elizabeth and I were on our way out the door when we happened to look up and see Foxie laying in the loft playing and nesting with a small blanket. Perhaps she’s a closet nester?