Jamie

Happy Birthday, Lisa!

April 4, 2014 by Katelyn

Today’s day of sanctuary was sponsored by Richard Stuverud in honor of his wife, Lisa’s, birthday! Richard shared this beautiful message:

“I want you to know that the ongoing life adventures of “the seven” has touched my wife deeply and over the years she has become attached to and moved by these beautiful chimpanzees. The labor of love that is so much a part of your lives has, in its own way, become a part of hers. Her life has truly been enriched by observing the incredible effort, dedication and love shown by all of you in support of CSNW…therefore I want to honor her birthday by sponsoring a day.”

Your Pal, Jamie:

Richard and Lisa, we are so touched by your lovely words and full of gratitude for all you do to make the chimpanzees’ lives better. Lisa, all of us here at CSNW hope your day is as wonderful as the many days of celebration and love you’ve provided for the chimpanzees (and full of lots of pant hoots and food squeaks!). Happy Birthday!!

April Fool’s Day at the chimp house

April 1, 2014 by Debbie

We are always trying to come up with fun and interesting ideas to enrich the chimpanzees at CSNW. Since today is April Fool’s Day, I was coming up with ways to mix things up for the chimps. We tried to serve lunch at breakfast, which didn’t seem to go over as well as I had thought—the chimps were expecting fruit smoothie! So we made up for that faux pas by doing a smoothie forage.

While Elizabeth and I were setting up the smoothie cups, we were trying to come up with “jokes” to play with the enrichment. We decided to put all their toys for the day inside an old trash can, and “leave behind” some things we normally don’t let the chimps have. We left a disinfectant container (with tea instead of disinfectant of course) and a gum container with just a couple pieces of gum in it, plus some kitchen utensils and other chimp-safe things we could find. This part of the day’s enrichment went much better than the first April Fool’s joke we played on the chimps! They loved it.

Jamie was the first to open the trash can of enrichment, and Annie was very interested, too.

Foxie:

Missy:

Jody found the “disinfectant” tea first:

And Jamie also took an interest:

It’s Good to Be the Queen

March 27, 2014 by Elizabeth

People are often surprised to learn that Negra is kind of a powerhouse of personality. Yes, she’s the grandma of the group, and yes, she has an endearingly sweet face, but Negra is a force to be reckoned with. She knows what she wants, and she sees no reason why she should have to wait. Negra is not the leader of the Cle Elum Seven (Jamie would be horrified to hear me even suggest such a thing), but she has her own kind of power. Perhaps because she’s the oldest, or maybe just because of her supreme confidence, Negra is universally respected. There’s a good reason we call her the Queen!

When Negra wants to be groomed, she will walk up to one of the other chimpanzees and plant herself down unceremoniously in front of them. The message is always received; I can’t think of a single time this strategy hasn’t worked for her. If Negra wants to be groomed, Negra will be groomed. Even boss Jamie can’t say no.

Paper, it’s fun and practical!

March 24, 2014 by Lisa

As JB mentioned in his blog post last month about power, mornings at the sanctuary can often be determined by the luck of the draw. Today I should have played the lottery because I was blessed with good weather, good moods, and good enrichment.

If you’re a long time reader of the blog you’ll be familiar with the concept of enrichment and how central it is to engaging the chimpanzees actively in their environment. If you’re new here I encourage you to explore to find older entries we’ve written about it, like this one. We try to provide new and engaging activities and items for the chimpanzees on a regular basis to help mitigate the boredom that can result from captivity. To that end, we have an enrichment calendar to schedule themes for creating the daily enrichment that the chimpanzees are given; it helps us stay creative.

Today’s theme was lots of paper, and yes, it’s been done before, but the reprise was just as good as the original, if you ask these chimpanzees. Of course, you don’t have to take my word for it, you can see it for yourself in the video below!

Social Awkwardness

March 23, 2014 by Elizabeth

Burrito and Foxie had a nice, peaceful grooming session in the greenhouse this afternoon.

Soon Jamie approached and joined them. Burrito is pretty intimidated by Jamie, and on another day he might have bowed out when she approached, but today his strategy was to pretend she wasn’t there.

The last day of winter!

March 19, 2014 by Katelyn

Finally, the official end to winter is upon us and the first day of spring arrives tomorrow! The chimpanzees have been very quiet today and have spent most of the day lounging in the warm greenhouse and playroom, in between “sun showers” and brief runs on Young’s Hill. There has been a lot of grooming with each other and their caregivers, stretching out lazily in cozy nests, and just gazing out the windows. Jamie, of course, has still managed to get several walks around the hill in with her caregivers. In between projects of her own making she has also successfully managed to keep track of everyone else and what we are all doing. It’s hard work being the boss. But her ability to pull it all off as only Jamie can is never questioned.

I can’t wait to see what another spring in sanctuary brings for the chimpanzees and their lives. Something tells me it’s going to bring even more forms of growth and renewal for them.

St. Patrick’s Day Party – in brief verse

March 17, 2014 by Lisa

There were seven chimps of Cle Elum
Who were ready for breakfasts of melon.
The party was set
In the greenhouse the fete.
At foraging they were excelling!

And, yes, I apologize in advance for my less then ideal rhymes, it’s very difficult to come up with words that rhyme with Cle Elum. Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all!!

Annie forages for nuts in a sock: