Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
It’s that time of year again! The snap peas were nearing the end of their season in the chimpanzees’ garden, so this morning we pulled up the vines and gave the entire plants to the chimpanzees for browse. The chimps like to suck all of the juices out of the tougher vegetation and spit out the fibrous parts. I’m expecting to find a great deal of wadged pea tendrils when we clean tomorrow.
Negra:
Missy collected armloads of vines:
Annie:
Jody:
Burrito:
If today’s lunch forage were a contest, Missy definitely took first prize!
The other night I watched Negra eat dandelions as the sun began to set over Young’s Hill. I wish it could be spring forever.
Negra wasn’t the only one trying something new yesterday.
As I stood near the top of Young’s Hill, I saw Burrito walking towards me with a sense of purpose. When he reached the top, he turned and went straight for the Twister climbing structure. Without hesitation, he climbed straight up. As far as we can remember, this was the first time he had made it to the very top.
The chimps have been spending a lot of time outdoors lately. Our wet, snowy winter is finally repaying us in the form of impossibly green grass.
Along with the green grass there’s been a bounty of dandelions, and that means that the chimps can step outside and have a snack whenever they want. If the chimps only knew how hard people try to rid their lawns of dandelions…
The chimps would like to wish an early happy birthday to a not-so-secret admirer. Dr. Elliott Sumers has a birthday coming up in a couple of days and his wife Anne made a generous donation in his honor.
We’ll have an “official” celebration on Sunday, but wanted to start by sharing some photos of the chimps enjoying lunch in the greenhouse from today. We had a bit of a break from the winter weather and the sun was strong midday. The chimpanzees, as you can see, definitely appreciated it.
Negra:
Annie:
Jody:
Missy:
Guess who?:
Jamie:
Burrito:
Each and every day, the chimpanzees are given various enrichment objects, including dolls, boots, hard plastic and wooden toys, blankets, paper and a slew of other items for them to use at their own will. Each of the chimps prefer different items, say for instance, Foxie loves her dolls, Jamie loves her boots and Negra and Jody love their blankets. But, for Burrito, food tends to be the best enrichment of all!
Check out Anna’s great blog post for more about how we use food in different forms as enrichment for the chimps.
Burrito
And here’s a bonus picture of Annie that I couldn’t resist adding to the blog.
Today we celebrate Beautiful Annie’s birthday. For the breakfast party in the greenhouse, we chose to have a bird theme because of the bird noises that she, uniquely, makes when she is relaxing.
The theme turned tropical with coconut, watermelon (that’s tropical, right?), pineapple, and fruit smoothie. Plus some primate chow, which Annie is fond of:
Also included were headbands (on the decorative slinky below) because of Annie’s sense of fashion.
Her friend Francoise even sent a book from Canada for us to interact with Annie (I did, later in the day, but didn’t get any photos – we’ll continue to have fun with this book, I can tell – Foxie and Jamie were very interested in it too!)
Later in the day, for the lunch forage, we had some of Annie’s favorite foods: green onions, leeks, cattails, and romaine lettuce. And we included some roses from the garden, mini-peppers, and more primate chow.
Let’s get down to the chimp pics. You decide if Annie enjoyed our efforts:
Of course the other chimpanzees appreciated Annie’s celebration too.
Burrito on a mission to find more food:
The coconut was a special treat:
Foxie:
Missy:
Negra:
Jody:
But there were plenty of other treats to enjoy throughout the day:
Negra foraging:
Jody with leeks:
Missy with a mouthful of chow:
Jamie’s hand getting the plate of food from under the tub:
Jamie with a leek and cattail:
The day ended with more treats – baked sweet potatoes and beets:
Annie thanks everyone for making her 42nd birthday a day of celebrating her favorite things and honoring how much we love her!
