Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Gordo

Gordo’s 36th Birthday!

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Today is Gordo’s 36th Birthday!

We celebrated by having a lunch forage of his favorite foods, including a fan favorite that we save for special events, mangoes! Along with the forage, we included small, individual smoothie cups because they’re one of Gordo’s favorite things. Caregiver Ellen also made an oatmeal based “cupcake” for the chimps (you’ll see them in the video) consisting of oatmeal, banana, peanut butter, chow dust, sugar-free vanilla pudding as frosting, with a raspberry on top! The chimps absolutely loved them.

Gordo is a special guy and we hope he had the best day! If you’re new to our blog, I wrote a blog back in February about Gordo’s personality and all of his unique quirks. I will link it here!

Gordo probably thought it was Christmas today with his party and all the boxes we gave him! Since July is a month full of celebrations, we are inviting you to celebrate by emptying our wish lists for Christmas in July!
We are excited to introduce two new wish lists to choose from. First, we have partnered with Jerrol’s, a family-owned shop that has been in nearby Ellensburg since 1947. Rolf and Jessical at Jerrol’s have helped us create a custom wish list that we will be adding more items to as we discover what we can source from them instead of Amazon, and they will deliver gifts right to our door at the sanctuary – how great is that?!
We were also just approved to have a Chewy wish list! We will be able to get some supplements and toys for the chimpanzees and cows directly from Chewy now.
We aren’t getting rid of our Amazon wish list entirely just yet, and we’ve added more items to that list too. Thank you to alert blog readers who have already purchased fun items from Amazon for Christmas in July. You all are the best!
Our hope is to empty all of those wish lists by the end of this month so we can stock up on some staples and treat the chimpanzees to new and fun food puzzles and toys. Thank you for being santas and helping us celebrate Christmas in July!

Three Years with the Lucky Six

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Today we celebrate three years since the Lucky Six arrived! I truly can not imagine life without them. Each one of these chimps brings so much life to this sanctuary. When I think about the day that they arrived, the day was so full of excitement. We had done it, we had reached our goal of expanding the building to take in more chimps to provide another chance of security and a life of choice. The Lucky Six have grown so much in their 3 years here. We have watched chimps like Gordo grow confidence and comfortably with things that are unfamiliar. We have watched the group of six become a group of nine, which has provided them with more social opportunity. Watching chimps like Dora become a social butterfly and Rayne being able to use one of her best strengths, her social savvyness, to help her group navigate and build friendships! We watched all of J.B.’s hard work paid off to build the Bray, their 2 acre outdoor habitat. To be able to watch Rayne walk outside like she had done this everyday of her life was certainly one of the many highlights of my career! I could go on and on about how amazing they are, but I think that when it comes down to it we are just so lucky to have them and we are all the better for knowing them!

Cy:

Gordo:

Terry:

Dora:

Rayne:

Lucky:

Fair-Weather Chimps

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As always, I apologize for today’s blog. All staff are arriving at the sanctuary to have our bi-weekly staff meeting. I think I was a little optimistic thinking powering through cleaning to have enough time to grab some photos or video before our meeting. Though we were able to get done with cleaning a little earlier than we usually do, it still wasn’t enough. Especially since it was during the part of day right before lunch, when they are all in the hard to reach spots napping or grooming. I readjusted my plan to get photos during lunch service today. This too was somewhat difficult. On one side, Honey B became a better door than window in my attempts to see/take photos of anyone. On the other side, Burrito just wanted to play, thus souring my attempts with a game of “Poke-the-Camera,” which he finds hilarious.

If you’re wondering why they chimps elected to stay inside instead of venturing out doors today, the answer is weather. There seems to be a little bit of everything in the forecast. It’s cloudy with some sun breakthroughs here and there. Strong gusts of winds are making the panels to the greenhouses rattle. On again and off again drizzles of cold rain are falling from the sky. To top it off, there is some snow that is currently in the forecast for later today. Though realistically (read hopefully) the snow part will change as the day goes on and just turn into rain.

Before the weather started to turn, Negra was demanding to be let onto Young’s Hill first thing in the morning.

Shortly after I opened the door to Young’s Hill, that’s when the weather decided to start. My tall tell sign? Just as fast as she went out, Negra came right back in.

Negra made a beeline straight back to her morning nest.

Negra and her family for the most part stayed in all day. The story next door wasn’t too much different.

Rayne resting next to her cabbage box

But even though outdoor weather wasn’t the most optimal, mealtimes are always exciting. I’m fairly certain I make the same face as Cy and Gordo when my food comes out from the kitchen at a restaurant.

Look how big Cy’s eyes got when the cart was being rolled out

And just as the day started, I will end with Negra in her nest at dinner

Plus Missy and Burrito!

This, That, and the Other

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You have probably read before that caregivers usually have mounds of unused photos and video clips. There are multiple reasons why they don’t make it to the blog: they didn’t quite fit that particular blog so they get lost to the wayside. They are too short to include into a full video. The reasons go on. Here are some clips I found on my phone that have yet to be used. Minus the Rayne clip, which I grabbed from the security cameras today.

Earlier today, you may have read it has been one year since we lost our beloved Jody Chimpanzee. I will be honest, it still is extremely hard for me to talk or even think about that day. This entire 365 days has felt like it was just yesterday, yet at the same time 1,000 years ago. There is literally not a single day that passes in which I don’t think about her.

On Jody’s burial spot, we planted some lilac trees, if you may recall. Right after planting the trees, they lost their leaves and seemed to be dead. We hoped that wasn’t the case and that Fall was just doing its thing. As the months passed and no sign of life, we began to lose hope that they survived. Well, I am happy to say, they in fact did not! On the contrary, they are thriving in this early Spring. When I noticed it as I was doing my morning run around Young’s Hill with Burrito, my eyes immediately went from dry to emitting a salty watery discharge.

Jody’s Lilac Tree with a smaller one in the foreground

Since noticing it, my entire day was filled with thoughts and memories of Jody. All the thoughts of our Joji gave me the idea to do something she loved: foraging. But I didn’t want to just do a normal forage as usual and call it a day. No. I decided to spice things up a little bit. I hid several “jackpots” around Young’s Hill. The more difficult to get to, the better the jackpot. Most of the jackpots were whole carrots and potatoes. But there was one jackpot that took a keen eye to spot and some athletic agility! (<– BIG foreshadowing of who got it.)

The prize?

A whole opal apple in one of the trees at the top of the hill! I will spare you the details of how I got it up there and got it to stay.

One person came to mind of who would reach it first. To no surprise, that person knew I was up to something at the top of the hill and it was worth skipping the bigger forage at large and see what was up there.

Missy!!!

Initially, she found one of the easier to reach whole carrots. When she looked up though, she dropped everything and raced up the tree. I wasn’t able to get photos of it on account that I am not as fast as Missy and couldn’t make it up the hill in time.

Mmmmmm… The sweet taste of victory

I did, however, follow Missy the rest of the forage. During that time, Missy when to every single structure to see if any more big prizes were to be had. (Unfortunately for her, there wasn’t since some of the places she looked, I wouldn’t have been able to reach.)

Missy climbing down from the very top platform of the Twister structure
She did end up going back to reclaim the carrot she dropped
She found another one of the jackpot carrots on top of Negra’s Cabin

It was well worth climbing to some pretty hard to reach areas to watch Missy seemingly having a forage that was designed for her, unintentionally.

Good job, Missy!

Here are some bonus photos from today!

Burrito

Scooping a pile of chow biscuits into his mouth
During our morning run today with Jody’s lilac tree in the back ground.
Annie even joined

Missy

Nothing like pre-breakfast grass to start the day

Gordo

Gordo seems to agree about the pre-breakfast grass. So far, he is the only one in his group we have seen collecting grass to eat.
Don’t forget you keys!

Rayne

Taking in the morning sun in some solitude on the Bray
Rayne found all the jackpots during her group’s forage

Jamie

She took a slight detour during today’s morning patrol through the logs

Negra

Hiding behind some logs watching the neighbors

Foxie

That blur in the background is Missy making her way to the top of Young’s Hill

Terry

Teeny Tiny Terry not looking so teeny tiny during lunch

Unlike most, Terry is very delicate with his nightbags to pick out his favorites first

Love a Chimpanzee Day 2024

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Earlier today, Diana posted about the history of Love A Chimpanzee Day and how it came to be. With the day marked on the calendars, it was time to start planning. Luckily enough, Monica already had an idea in mind. With the theme chosen, caregiver Ellen began planning an prepping.

Today’s theme was a flashback to the 80s! With that theme in mind, Ellen thought of the idea to have the party influenced by the ever so popular rollerskating rink! And first task was to think of the menu. Today’s menu was based on foods you can find at a roller rink. There were boxes of popcorn and plates of “nachos.” The nacho chips were made from the crumbs of the chimpanzees’ chow biscuits, topped with “nacho cheese sauce” made from roasted bell peppers and tomatoes, with a side of guacamole!

Be sure to watch the video to see how the chimps thought of the festivities!

Also, today is the first day for to be able to support us during the GiveBIG campaign!  Though you can begin donating for our nonprofit in GiveBIG, the main event, so to speak, is May 7-8! There are two pages in which you can support us! The first is the sanctuary’s GiveBIG page, which can be found here! You can also support Monica Best’s and Diana’s campaign page for the sanctuary! Monica and Diana created their own campaign to support Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest for their birthdays. So mark you calendars to donate to our campaign page before May 8th! Or you can donate to Monica and Diana’s page in honor of their birthdays! (Just make sure you leave them a birthday message! Monica’s is today and Diana’s is one week from today’s) Help us reach our goal this year to continue to provide the best care that we can to these amazing residents of ours!

And, as always, here are some bonus photos from today’s festivities!

Gordo

Jamie

Rayne

Terry

Burrito

Gordo, the PRT Superstar!

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Gordo has a routine physical exam in his future, as he has not yet had a physical exam in his time at CSNW and it doing so will allow us to have a better understanding of both his heart health and overall health. Because Gordo has not experienced an exam here before, we have made it a priority to prepare him as best as possible using Positive Reinforcement Training (PRT) so that his stress throughout the process can be as minimal as possible. In order for his exam to occur, he will first have to be separated from his group, and then sedated to allow for him to be safely removed from his room and evaluated by Dr. Erin and a team of other professionals that she will assemble. When we last checked in on Gordo’s training progress in March, he had been doing well presenting different parts of his body when asked, and was learning to come to his station marker.

Gordo being perfectly Gordo!

I am happy to report that Gordo has exceeded all of our expectations and progressed rather quickly through his training for allowing an injection (to allow for him to be sedated for his exam), as well as for being separated from his group! We started by simply asking him to participate in PRT in whatever way he felt most comfortable, which ended up being during meal times where the rest of the group was otherwise occupied and he was already used to coming up to us for his meals. We placed a station marker (which for us is a frisbee with a handle on one side and 2 hooks on the other so it can hang on the caging) on the caging wherever he chose to come up for his meal, and rewarded him for staying there throughout the meal, as well as for touching it when asked. Throughout the meal we would also ask him to present other body parts, especially focusing on his arms and legs as these would be ideal locations for him to eventually receive an injection. We also practice “target” regularly, where he is asked to touch the end of a pvc tube, as this can also be a good way to communicate with him when we want him to move somewhere else (by holding the target at the goal location and asking him to move to it by saying “target”). We use a clicker to communicate to him when he has done something correctly, and follow the click up with a reinforcer of some kind (his favorites are peanuts and fruit). Once Gordo seemed to have a good understanding of stationing, we started to ask him to station in different places to be sure he knew the same rules applied with his station in various locations. He caught on to this quickly, and we were soon able to start asking him to move from his usual mealtime spot in the Oakwood Greenhouse (or the chute/the Bray, depending on the day!) to the front rooms, where we will eventually ask him to separate from his group to allow his exam to take place.

During these daily training sessions, he has progressed from presenting his arms and legs while at his station, to letting his trainer poke him gently with a chopstick, then a capped needle, then blunt needle, and after many sessions together (and as of this week!), a real needle. He has allowed the “injection site” to be cleaned with an alcohol wipe, which can be quite an unusual experience when you don’t know what to expect. He has also allowed Dr. Erin to come along for some of our sessions, and has allowed for her to poke him with a blunt needle as well which is a very big deal as seeing your veterinarian with a needle in hand can be a very scary thing! We did, on the first session where Dr. Erin held the needle, first show him Dr. Erin poking me with the blunt needle so that he knew there was nothing to be scared of. He did seem anxious initially, but calmed down and allowed her to touch him gently with the blunt needle, then quickly inspected his leg after the brief touch, and finally slurped down his beloved surprise smoothie (a jackpot for a job VERY well done!). This has been such a rewarding process to see him succeed at every little step, and to see his confidence grow, seemingly both in doing PRT as well as in his group in general.

Gordo relaxed, eating his lunch at his station marker. You can see in the back left corner of the photo that the shift door to this room is closed, as he is being briefly separated from his group as part of his training to lessen his stress when he must be isolated for his upcoming physical exam. This was the first time we closed the door!

A lovely bonus of training with Gordo multiple times a day has been getting to spend extra quality time with him and getting to watch him savor his favorite foods. He is such a fun and unique person to get to know, and I am thankful for this extra time and trust-building we have been able to have together.

Gordo enjoys some green onions during breakfast

Our next steps will be to continue training together as often as we can, mostly working with a blunt needle for the injection training portion, and only intermittently using a real needle as we do not want to poke him often with a real needle. Dr. Erin will continue to come along when she can and practice injection training with Gordo as well. We will continue to practice separating him from the group in the front rooms for several minutes at a time a couple times a week during meals, so that when the time comes for him to be separated for his exam, he will hopefully feel less stressed than if we had not practiced and trained for this. I am so proud of all that Gordo has accomplished in his training already, and hope that all of his hard work pays off when the time comes for his exam! He really is a superstar of PRT (and of our hearts!).