Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary for primates.

Jamie

Favorite Foods

by 12 Comments

We all have preferences for food. Our likes and dislikes. The chimps are no different. I can’t tell you how many times Foxie has poked away something green and looked offended that I would even offer kale. Or how many times Honey B has politely given back pieces of food she does not want. I thought you might all want to know what foods the chimps think are the most delicious and the worst! Let’s start with what collectively everyone loves; cabbage and lettuce! So simple and plain, but the chimp house will erupt in excitement when they see a head of lettuce or slices of cabbage.

Now, let’s get into personal preferences. 🙂

Negra, as we all might know is all about chow and peanuts. Negra is a carbs girl so of course for our special holidays she gets the most excited for dinner rolls, well, maybe besides Burrito. They might be in a tie for that one.

Jamie will never say no to any type of pear. She really loves onions in any form, green onions, leeks, raw onion, baked onions! Jamie loves them all.

Missy might be the easiest to guess. She eats, sleeps, and breathes tomatoes. Missy also really like lettuce, sweet potatoes, and ice! For her birthday, we do tomato parties!

Foxie can be a bit picky. Do not give her green foods! Foxie mostly lives for smoothies and fruits! She also likes sweet potatoes (especially baked), tomatoes, and ohhhh she loves avocados! Foxie for her birthday gets watermelon bowls, which are one of her favorites.

Jody is a forager. She loves going on the Hill and finding prickly lettuce, dandelions, cattails, flowers, and whatever else she can find. Jody really likes bananas and carrots. There are many amazing things about Jody, but the best is when she is really content or happy Jody makes the dinosaur groan of satisfaction. That is how we know she is really enjoying something good.

Annie is easy to please. She really likes everything, except for mangoes. She is allergic to mangoes! Annie loves grass, flowers, green onion, and kale.

Burrito LOVES food! Obviously, his favorite is pasta, but he only gets it on special occasions! Burrito is also pretty easy to please. He really like all potatoes, regular or sweet!

*** Willy B, Mave, and Honey B are hesitant to try new foods. Often, they just stare at you when you try to serve them something new and delicious, like you are trying to poison them. For example, for Negra’s brunch we served waffles to everyone. The three just stared at us like we were crazy for offering! Eventually they tried the waffles and enjoyed them. ***

Willy B loves cabbage. He also really likes carrots and sweet potatoes. Willy thinks cucumbers are disgusting. He does not like tea or any other beverage that might look like a suspicious drink. However, Willy B is a fun individual to watch eat. For example, when Willy B eats a carrot or cabbage he eats it like Bugs Bunny!

Mave is a California girl! She loves a really good avocado and fresh pineapple! Mave was hesitant about baked goods, but now she loves baked onions, pumpkin, and sweet potatoes! Mave is always the first one up for breakfast, it might be her favorite meal. Mave will only eat a cucumber if there is nothing else, it is her last choice.

Honey B LOVES lettuce and smoothies! She also likes carrots, popcorn, and brussel sprouts. Something you all should know about Honey B, if you don’t already is that she is the world’s slowest eater! Honey B also rarely eats a cucumber.

When Honey B is eating, she likes to stare deeply into your eyes. We joke that her actually food is our souls. If looks deep enough she will steal it :). I believe this photo embodies that.

Mave eating is pure bliss.

Mave’s facial expression feels almost looks like a taunt. Like, you hungry? Or, you want some of this?

I managed to get an action shot of Willy B eating his cabbage like Bugs Bunny!

Don’t forget to check up on our Wish List! Thanksgiving may be tomorrow, but Christmas is just around the corner and we are slowly adding items on their list!

Foot Box or Head box?

by 7 Comments

This is Jamie.

As many may know, Jamie tends to be a more serious chimp and is incredibly intelligent. You can always see the wheels turning in her head. Jamie knows what she likes and isn’t afraid to ask for or demand what she needs. Often when she is gesturing for one of us to put boots on she has a specific boot in mind and we won’t go on a walk until she has the one she wants. She is never scared to ask for what she needs! It might be the trait I admire about her the most. Jamie is a busy body, she will build an amazing nest to settle in for a nice nap and the next moment she is gone grabbing an enrichment item to try to break the howdy door open to see her neighbors. As a disclaimer, it is usually a wooden toy or object that will not break the lock. But, you can’t blame her for having a hard time relaxing when there are so many people to manage. As I have mentioned before, Jamie has a good sense of humor too. When she wants to, she can get downright silly.

In the mornings while we are cleaning the playroom Jamie will often find the caregiver of her choice, have them put on the boot of her choice (Diana’s Xtratuf boots with the blue), walk or run around the Hill, and then settle into a nest or observe us cleaning from the window in the green house. Yesterday, Jamie decided that I should not clean, but instead play… I had given Jamie her new boot catalog which she seemed very pleased about. Jamie took her book and began to build a nest and skimming through the book. At some point, we were playing a game where she would put her hand in the foot box and I would knock on the box. Then Jamie put her head in the box! I would gently knock the box, she did this a few times. Afterward, we played a bit of chase and then she burst into a sprint with her new book in her mouth. I apologized to Chad and took off running to catch up with Jamie on the Hill.

Bonus!

Last Wednesday as we were closing up the chimp house for the night. I found Jody working on some night time enrichment. I have never seen Jody go to such great lengths for night time enrichment before!

A Picture Blog

by 7 Comments

Wednesdays are very busy because of our staff meeting and if you combined that with very slow internet, you get a frantic blog writer. I had hoped to make a wonderful video for you all, but the internet gods have said not today. We shall keep our fingers crossed until next week! What I would like to present to you all today is a picture blog, a virtual photo book I suppose. Please enjoy!

I don’t know if winter is fully here yet. However, it is starting to get very cold and snowy.

But, still very beautiful!

Though the chimps enjoy eating the snow. I wouldn’t say they love walking through it that much. But, if we know Jamie no weather will stop her from a walk, but maybe not today… Jamie was busy building nests with her favorite books, boots, and watching J.B. do some maintenance around the chimp house.

Did I mention it was cold this morning? Annie looked out through the raceway, debating if she should go out and grab some snow. Instead she decided her caregiver should just hand it to her.

The dreamboat himself, Willy B. Willy B has been grabbing the biggest coziest blankets he can find lately!

Cold + snow + any day really= Negra in an amazing nest! I almost couldn’t find her!

Missy is a hard chimp to capture a photos of. She is always on the move. I did manage to catch her eating a mid-afternoon snow snack!

I love seeing the cattle with their winter coats!

There are rules

by 17 Comments

Jamie has rules. These rules are created for the humans and as such we are expected to follow them, without question, no shortcuts. These rules are created by Jamie and are subject to change without notice. We’re just along for the ride. 🙂

The past couple of days the chimpanzees cannot get enough of Young’s Hill! Reminiscent of summers past, Jamie has been taking near constant spins around the hill, accompanied by her human caregivers and delightfully, many of the other chimpanzees. The daytime temperatures have been hovering in the low to mid 30’s and somehow this has completely invigorated them all. Perhaps they know what’s on the horizon, literally, as at this point snow is due to start tonight and stick around off and on for the next week at least. But I digress. Back to the rules.

As many of you may know, Jamie often asks us to fetch the utility Gator to race with her around the hill. She used to like the humans to ride in the Gator while wearing her boots. But with me at least, this rule has changed a bit into wanting to have one human drive the Gator AND one human run with her ahead of the Gator. Though it’s always been the obvious rule that the Gator never wins these races, she’s adjusted the rule more recently to seemingly want to run away from the Gator, well ahead of it reaching her and her human companion. Now here’s a specific scenario where she gets very specific with her rules:

Jamie and Burrito will be racing up the hill with two caregivers. Half way up the hill Jamie will decide one of the humans needs to return to the barn and fetch the Gator. She indicates this by walking back down the hill, looking toward the barn and shaking her fist. Jamie speak for “Go get the Gator!” “Now!” She will rarely be deterred from this. Next rule is the absolute.very.second one human leaves to fetch said Gator, Jamie looks at the other human as if to say, “Ruuuunnn!!!” and you are expected to RUN and get as far ahead of the Gator as possible before it even leaves the barn. (Unfortunately for this human, this is also the uphill part). This reminds me a little bit of those silly old games where you’re trying to see how fast you can unlock your door as you pretend a murderer is after you. You know that game, right? No? Well, anyway…

And what if the humans try to skip the rules? Well, you’re going to have to go back to the beginning and do it right. After several runs up and around the hill, this human tried to take a short cut at one point and hitch a lift on the Gator with Chad, at least for uphill portion. We went a short distance, then Jamie abruptly stopped, turned around and marched us back down the hill to the starting point where she gestured for me to get out of the Gator and then run with her ahead of it! Humans need a lot of supervision. At least this one, I guess.

We never know for sure what’s going on in that brilliant, kaleidoscopic mind of hers, but we couldn’t be more thrilled to get to tag along.

As I revved the Gator (because that’s the most exciting part) and did my best to drive steady, poor Chad was tasked with capturing this wild, blur of a woman from the passenger seat and somehow managed capturing her in all her crazy excited, hair-standing on end, charging across the hill glory:

As Anthony accurately put it today while looking at this photo, Jamie is a hurricane of a chimp woman. Indeed she is. And we love her so. What a privilege to be caught up in her wild winds with her.

The construction guys are working so hard to get the roof on before the snows fly and watched us storming around the hill again and again. I can only imagine what goes through their minds. They asked who ended up winning. Of course, we all know the answer to that. 🙂

Potty Talk!

by 21 Comments

I thought I would answer one of the questions from Diana’s blog post, “Inviting your Questions“. Also, if you have a burning question you have been wanting to ask, post it in Diana’s blog comments and one of us caregivers may make a blog and answer it!

So, let’s have an uncomfortable conversation. The question that everyone wants to know, but may feel too awkward asking. Poop, everybody does it. But, where do the chimps do it? I will be addressing this topic because it’s a fair question and one we get asked a lot. We do our best to not have poop in the videos or pictures, but the truth is it’s there.

In the wild chimps will use the bathroom and then keep traveling. Chimps in captivity unfortunately do not have that luxury of leaving it behind them. The chimps mostly poop or pee off of ledges. We see that chimps in the wild poop out of their nests in trees too. This could be why captive chimps are often using ledges. Kind of cool! Some chimps have specific spots, most others do not. There are some enclosures where they do tend to pick spots to go use the restroom. For example, the chimps often use the bathroom in the corner of the Greenhouse off the platform. It seems to be a good spot, out of the way where individuals won’t step in it. Though that might not be the pattern for everyone. In the playroom, they often go off the loft, or a barrel, or the cement steps near the drain. In the front rooms, they may use the restroom off the platform, a cement step near the drain, or again a piece of enrichment like a chair. In phase one, it seems the 3 also prefer to use a ledge. However, Willy B will pee anywhere… We clean each enclosure every day and spot clean at night. Sometimes after we are done cleaning and invite the chimps back into their space they use the bathroom right away and that is their choice. It is their home. Which is why we will spot clean before we leave for the night, because we want them to have a clean house, no one likes stepping in poop, so we do our best, but regardless there are 10 chimps and they have to use the bathroom.

Have you ever heard of fear poop? I don’t think it is a real term, but we use it. From time to time the chimps may have an altercation. When fights happen the bowel movement may let go, so to speak. Often after a fight it is a bit messy. In these cases, poop or pee could be anywhere.

Now one question you might also be wondering. Do chimps toot? Does it smell? The answer to both is yes. They have a diet of fruits, veggies, and nuts so I would say of course farts are going to smell, but not always. Just like us humans. For the chimps, there is no stigma for flatulence. They don’t laugh at each other or think it is gross, because well everyone does it! Even us, don’t lie :). Missy often lets one go when running! I mean do you see how fast she runs, there is no way anyone could hold one in going that speed!

Okay, here is a fun fact! Their pee does smell after they eat asparagus!

See that wasn’t so bad, right? Now I have some photos. We would never post photos of them using the restroom, because, well that is rude. Wouldn’t it be horrifying if someone took a photo of you and posted it. But, I have some photos to show as examples of the ledges they may use.

 

Ahh, yes, that is a nice ledge. It’s a little out of the way where no one is walking!

This photo is in the playroom. Look at all those options!

This platform is great for sleeping and also going to the bathroom over the ledge!

Another fun fact! Front room 4 is known as the portrait room because it has such great lighting. However, front room 4 is also know to be the potty room from time to time. It could be because this is a get ledge to do it!

These are the cement steps I am referring to. It’s the perfect place to stop and take a quick number 1 or 2!

The front rooms in phase 1 also have great platforms for pooping.

The mezzanine can kind of be a free for all. There are ledges and so many chairs to choose from.

See, Missy runs the toots right out of her.

Let’s not forget Young’s Hill. Because it is such a large outdoor enclosure, it is hard to find all the poop. For this area, we let nature do its thing.

Now, let’s stop thinking about poop and just look at some chimps. 🙂

Negra in a pile of blankets.

Mave looking into her own reflection.

Willy B grabbing his favorite blanket while trying to listen in on the neighbors.

Willy B being groomed by Mave.

Don’t worry, it is just a scab on Mave’s head that someone just freshly groomed.

Burrito climbing the Twister!

Jamie waiting for Burrito at the bottom.

Foxie.

Foxie exploring the Hill with her dolls. Construction is really coming along!

Honey B <3

Okay, one more of Burrito!

 

Gratitude

by

I know I say this every time, but I am always in awe of our supporter’s kindness. The chimps are truly lucky to have friends like you. Giving Day for Apes was such a success. We made over our goal! After a big fundraiser like HOOT! or Giving Day for Apes, I always find myself reflecting on how amazing this sanctuary is. We have ten marvelous chimpanzees, the most dedicated care team, unbelievable volunteers, and incredible supporters. Everyone’s generosity this year feels even more special. We know that times are weird and uncertain, so thank you for your donations. These times have been uncertain for us too, but because of your help, we are still on track for our expansion, which means more chimps get to call Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest home! One way to show our gratitude is this video, without your support these three chimps would not be here having this amazing play session this morning. Thank you.

Of course bonus photos!

The handsome Willy B.

Mave relaxing.

Honey B peering into your soul.

Jamie stuffing a troll doll into this sash.

Negra living her best life in this mega nest.

With this last imagine of Negra, we wish you a good night and sweet dreams. 🙂