Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
By Burrito Chimpanzee
Gather as much of the most prized item as you can, filling your hands so that you must stand bipedally.
Process the food as you go.
Don’t worry about what other people are doing.
Just go for it.
Get the most out of everything you’ve gathered.
Take a rest, but make sure to guard any leftovers.
The chimpanzees’ friend and veterinarian, Dr. Erin Zamzow, arrived at the sanctuary today with two big paper bags overflowing with beautiful greens harvested by her neighbor. The timing of the delivery was perfect as we were getting ready to set up a forage on the hill for the chimps’ lunch.
If you have been following the blog for a bit, you might guess which of the chimpanzees went right for all of the greens she could find. You can see in the photos below how Jody got the nickname Farmer Jo.
We had spread the bounty of greens in different parts of the hill, along with some onions, primate chow, sweet potatoes, and a few bonus cherries (thanks to Darwin’s Natural Pet Products and Charlie’s Produce for the yummy cherries!).
The grass on the hill has taken on a life and personality of it’s own. The blades were moving in unison with the wind likes waves in a sea. We could see Jody’s shape glide through the grass in one direction only to abruptly switch direction as she spotted another stem to add to her collection.
We would catch a glimpse of her surfacing from the tall grass once in a while, her arms and mouth stuffed to their limit:
As is her habit, she returned to the greenhouse with her haul, taking her time to enjoy every delicious bite.
Here are some more photos of the all-you-can-eat lettuce buffet yesterday. Can’t wait to see some of you at tomorrow night’s Hoot! gala.
Jody:
Annie:
Missy:
Negra:
Today, while observing the chimpanzees forage on Young’s Hill, volunteer Patti said she likes how Negra goes about things.
While Missy is running from one structure to another, finding all of the food that was placed or hidden high up on the structures or the treat rock:
And Jody is busy running around collecting as much as she can, mostly from the ground (low hanging fruit, you might say):
Negra wanders about until she finds some food:
And then she plops herself down and simply enjoys what is at hand (in this case, a beet that she seems to have splayed open and a prized pineapple top):
After finishing, she’ll sit for a bit and look around before moving on to the next station:
J.B. described this as a lack of a strategy, but I think it’s still a strategy to have a laid back, “see what happens” way of approaching the forage.
Either way, she looked very happy out there. ❤️
This morning, volunteers Rose, Ray, and Fred set out an early lunch forage for the chimps. Negra spent much of her time on the Escher climbing structure – I don’t know if she has a special fondness for this structure or if she just thinks we put more food up there. Either way, it’s great to see Negra climbing so high and enjoying the sun.
Afterwards she showed that in spring you don’t always have to rely on humans for your food. There’s plenty of wild lettuce out here, thank you very much.
Jamie was deep in dreamland after the forage (no doubt dreaming about boots and books and books filled with boots) when she was awoken by some activity out back.
These people look like they need to be supervised.
The welders had arrived with some of the caging that is being installed next week.
While we are still several weeks away from having the new chimp areas up and running, we have already begun putting the human areas of Phase 1 to use. Here’s a shot of the foyer which houses the computer workstation and break areas. I can’t tell you how exciting it is to have so much space after working for over a decade out of a one-room kitchen/laundry/enrichment/office workspace.
More important than the new foyer is the new clinic, which has twice the square footage of our mobile unit and includes much more storage space.
Once everything is done, we’ll put together a video tour of the whole facility. And then it’s on to Phases 2 and 3!
I don’t know about you guys, but Easter morning in my house was the best! Scouring the inside and outside of the house for Easter eggs before your brother or sister got to them, looking through an Easter basket, and eating those eggs you worked so hard dyeing! So, this morning the first thing the chimps got to do was have an Easter egg hunt! A lot of work goes into our parties for the chimps. We at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest are lucky enough to have so many amazing volunteers. They are SO awesome that, as some of you might have seen on Facebook, one of our volunteers made the chimps’ Easter baskets by hand!
Our volunteers are a major reason why parties go so smoothly. They help prep days before and the day of, and help us clean the day after.
Volunteer Miranda hiding Easter eggs out on Young’s Hill:
Volunteer Alan planting carrots in the ground for the Easter forage:
Before the festivities could start we needed to give out some routine things like vitamins, smoothie, and meds. Volunteer Lizz also got to serve a tasty surprise for the chimps. The chimps got to have hard boiled eggs! The eggs came from staff caregiver Anna’s happy pet chickens . They don’t get them that often, but when they do, they love them!
It was really hard to decide what photos to choose for the blog today. There were so many good ones, I hope you all enjoy our Easter party!
Annie:
Burrito:
Foxie and her doll:
Missy:
Negra:
Jamie:
Searching for eggs:
But Jody really won this Easter egg hunt. She made out with a lot of loot and I never saw Jody without one of those baskets in her hands either!
Chimpanzees love to forage. There’s something very exciting about knowing that a bunch of delicious food is scattered across a wide open space and that you are welcome to as much of it as you can hold. It’s like a treasure hunt with a tasty reward.
This afternoon we took advantage of the sun and blue skies and set up a lunch forage on Young’s Hill. Burrito kept his eyes on the prize:
Today’s winner, though, might have been Missy, who we saw hobbling along with a mouth and both hands full of the good stuff:
