Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Today was pretty low key. The chimps seemed to be recovering from all the festivities, I think we can all relate to that! Please enjoy a few photos of the chimps having a nice lazy day.
Jamie on the barrel:
Jamie holding Foxie’s doll and her bonobo book:
Honey B eating Brussels Sprouts:
Lucky:
Rayne soooo sleepy in a nest:
Cy:
Gordo grooming Terry (Cy and Mave grooming in the background)
Gordo is so handsome:
Yesterday, Mave and Gordo were having a very sweet grooming session, but as Mave’s BFF, Dora was obviously not far. I found myself having a hard time capturing the moment between Mave and Gordo because a delightful little chimp (Dora) with sweet, big eyes kept distracting me and causing me to put the camera back to her, but I mean, can you blame me? If you were not already in love with Dora, I think this video will help.
We would like to give a very special thank you to Marjorie C. for purchasing Naomi the Narwhal Squishmallow for the chimps!
Oh! Before you go, a few bonus photos!
Sweet, sweet Terry:
Rayne enjoying one of her sheets! She looks a lot like her sister Tatu in the photo:
The theme of the day: a little bit of play and a WHOLE lot of grooming! Since the weather wasn’t very nice out (mostly rain), what better way to spend the day than grooming and playing with your friends? It was fun to see all the different pairings branching off to groom today. This afternoon, I found Cy and Gordo grooming, which is not a common occurrence in comparison to Cy and Willy B, or Cy and Terry.
Bonus photos!
Rayne:
Terry series:
Gordo series:
‘Twas the night before Thanksgiving, when all through the [chimp] house
Not a chimp was stirring, not even a Honey (B);
The chimps were in bed, tucked into nests
in hopes that sweet rolls would soon be at Chimp Sanctuary Northwest.
Today has been rather low-key, whether the chimps realize it or not, they are resting up for the big Thanksgiving celebration. I personally can’t wait to hear Negra food squeak for Hawaiian rolls – it’s something I wait all year for! I thought I would share a collection of photos taken from today.
Negra staring out the window this morning:
Terry playing chase with one of his caregivers:
Missy eating tomatoes at lunch:
Cy <3:
Burrito spying on the neighbors:
Jamie laying on a barrel:
Jamie off-duty:
Honey B during a lunch forage:
Gordo, isn’t he so handsome?:
Sweet little Dora:
Before we begin the blog, let’s play a game!
Can you spot the fierce predator stalking this herd of deer?
Answer will be at the end!
Now onto the blog!
As much as we try and would love to be everywhere to capture the chimpanzees throughout the day, we can’t. It really is unfortunate because outside of what gets published in the blog, there are hundreds of moments during the day that are amazing. Though we can’t be there to get photos or footage, every now and again we are lucky enough to glance over to the security cameras and see what some of their day consists of.
Here are some bonus photos from today!
Rayne seemingly really enjoying her mountain rose apples at breakfast
Negra went out onto Young’s Hill this morning to check out the new climbing structures J.B. and Jake are building
On her way back inside, she ran into a potential snack. Literally!
But alas the young pine was not willing to be uprooted for her
Gambit Gordo
Missy and Annie enjoying the morning on Young’s Hill
Burrito and Jamie returning from a patrol
Terry showing and grooming his own foot
And this guy!
Were you able to find the fierce hunter earlier?
It’s Barn Kitty!
Barn Kitty (aka BK) is such a fierce individual. He doesn’t seem to be intimidated by size. I once watched him hide behind some tall grass and stalk J.B. as he was driving the tractor up hill. If he had the chance, I 100% believe he was weighing his options of pouncing; tractor or no tractor!
Picking and choosing which photos we include in the blog can be a daunting task. I can’t speak for my fellow caregivers, but there’s always some kind of embellishment that makes the photo unusable in my eyes. Whether it be bad lighting, a piece of poop center stage in the photo, a wound, caging getting in the way, a slow shutter speed which makes the photo blurry, etc. There is just always that one tiny thing that makes me call the photo bad, delete it, and move on.
Today is no exception. Between cleaning the enclosures to training new staff members, it has been a busy day here. When I finally got some time to go around and take some photos, I will admit I rushed it a bit. Mostly because though cleaning is over, training still continues into the afternoon as well as other Chimp House chores. I knew right off the bat that most of the photos I took were unusable (in my eyes at least) but I had some confidence there was at least a few decent ones in there some where.
Wrong! The vast majority I wasn’t a fan of. In fact, there wasn’t a single one I’m particularly attached to. There were, however, several that had potential to be great if it wasn’t for one thing or another I saw wrong in them. You might be wondering, “Why don’t you just Photoshop them?” Though Photoshop or any photo editing software is a great tool, we don’t use it in order to maintain our transparency to you all. Other than some basic color correcting, we don’t edit something out or in. Back in a former life as a photojournalist, our rule was simple as it relates to photo editing software. If you can’t do it in a dark room, then you shouldn’t do it in the software. We more or less follow that same basic rule.
That being said, here are some photos from today that had the potential of being great. Enjoy photos that would have been deleted on any other day.
Mave in mid-chew
Honey B during a lunch forage
Gordo during the forage
Gordo again foraging
Gordo again!
Also, I did spend some time trying correct that last one but it didn’t turn out like I had hoped for
Willy B and Honey B during the forage
Honey B munching on some green onions
Burrito during breakfast with his apples
Dora and Lucky head-to-head
Cy perusing through a magazine after lunch
Rayne watching me yesterday as I was cleaning the mezzanine
Terry’s foot hanging off the platform in the one of his greenhouses after lunch
Speaking of Terry, have you seen the Teeny Tiny Terry book in the Comfort & Joy auction? It truly is amazing and one of a kind! The auction is up and running through November 18th! Be sure to register and bid high and bid often!Good luck to everyone!
Like Kelsi wrote in yesterday’s blog, there is no such thing as a dull moment here at CSNW. Sometimes I think the phrase “keeps you on your toes” was coined by / for chimpanzee caregivers.
This morning, we got to work and it was a brisk 34 degrees. Kelsi and I hopped in the side-by-side to do our perimeter check so we could let the chimps into their respective outdoor enclosures. The two sides of the chimp house operate simultaneously, so we have two shifters during morning cleaning. The lead caregiver for the day shifts doors in the original building and the second shifter shifts the new building, so we buddy system the perimeter check.
When I opened the door to Young’s Hill, I didn’t expect anyone to go rushing outside since it was so chilly. I was proved wrong, though, when Jamie went right out and around we went for an early morning patrol.
By the time we got around the top, we had been joined by Missy and Burrito. The early morning walk with Jamie turned into some cardio when Burrito took over and we raced down the hill. Because who doesn’t love cardio in the morning, am I right?
As you all know, one of the best holidays of the year is coming up in a few short days. The countdown to Jamie-ween is officially in single digits! I grew up in a family that loves Halloween and I always look forward to pumpkin carving, dressing up, and lots (and lots) of candy. And, because I’m a mature adult, I’ve been really wanting to purchase one of those big blow up T-Rex costumes that are pretty popular online for a while. Amazon Prime day got the best of me this year and, you guessed it, a few days later a giant inflatable T-Rex showed up at my door.
Best day ever? Maybe.
And over time, we’ve learned that some of the chimps think that masks are pretty funny. Gordo especially loves a troll mask we have that was donated a while back! So I wanted to bring the costume to work and share it with my friends.
With a little help from my human coworkers I was able to show it to both groups of chimps! First I went back to Cy’s group and made sure all the chimps were around while I put it on, so that they knew it was me inside it. Gordo and Dora both seemed really interested in it! The people in Jamie’s group were more unsure, so I didn’t spend much time on that side of the chimp house. Jamie, Negra, & Burrito saw it acted like it was just another Wednesday. Annie, Foxie, and Missy weren’t into it- which is totally okay! The fun part about random enrichment things like this is that it’s okay if some people don’t want to engage. Some people though, like Gordo, enjoyed the short T. Rex intermission. 🙂
If you’re looking forward to Jamie-ween like we are, be sure to get your tickets to an exclusive Behind-The-Scenes of Jamie-ween virtual sanctuary visit on 10/31/23 at 12:00pm PT. If you want to attend, but have to work or have other responsibilities, still consider registering, because we’ll send out a link to the recording to everyone who registered so you can watch it at your leisure. 🙂
We’re super excited to share some of Jamie-ween with all of you, since it’s such a special holiday to all of us here. It’s also the perfect kick-off to our Comfort & Joy auction, which will be going live on the 31st and will run until November 18th. To celebrate all things Comfort & Joy, we are also offering a Comfort & Joy Virtual Gathering event on November 12th! This will be a great opportunity to learn more about the sanctuary, connect with us via chat, and just enjoy an evening full of comfort, chimps, & joy. What could be better? 🙂
See y’all soon!
P.S. Thanks so much to everyone who submitted a review in Great Nonprofits for us yesterday evening! We won a spot on the 2023 Top-Rated Non-Profit list, which is awesome. 🙂 Thank you!
