Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Jamie

Caregiving

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One of the more fantastic things that has happened in the last year is that the chimpanzees have new caregivers – staff and volunteer. Jackie is our newest staff person, and she is just finishing up chimpanzee care training. It is so fun to see the chimps react and interact with new friends. Today I spied on Jamie and Foxie playing with Jackie through the barn doors. Jamie had a stretchy hose-like thing that she was using to play tug-of-war. Being Jamie, she naturally wore a bikini top draped around her neck (complete with trolls tied to the strings).

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In addition to playing with the chimps, which is a very important job, Jackie’s been hard at work caring for the chimps’ garden beds. Check them out!

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Adventures in a Tutu

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Yahoo!! We are officially over the $7000 mark! Yay for Candace and her very generous donation today! Thanks so much to everyone who helped us reach our goal. And thanks to all our readers for supporting the CSNW family. We couldn’t take care of our seven wonderful friends without you!

So, as promised, here’s the video of Jamie exploring the outdoor area in a tutu. Thanks to Laura for the tutu manufacturing and donation! You’ll see Jamie climbing, brachiating, rolling the culvert, and lastly – trying to poke the camera. A good adventure, right?

Exciting Foxie stories

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On Saturday, the night of the Cle Elum Seven’s one year anniversary, Jackie and I were hanging out with the chimps after dinner and we witnessed two amazing things. I do not have photographic evidence of these events, but I was so glad that Jackie was there to also see them.

First, long after the other chimpanzees had finished eating, Jamie was still hanging onto a bit of cantaloupe. Jamie seemed content to delay finishing her fruit as she carefully inspected Jackie’s boot. After several minutes, Foxie came over. There were probably a dozen troll dolls that were part of the party enrichment, and Foxie had three of them with her, one that still had on a wedding dress. Foxie put this troll doll in Jamie’s free hand, while looking away. Foxie continued to hold onto the troll doll until Jamie’s fingers closed around the doll. Then Foxie pulled her hand away and very slowly and carefully took the cantaloupe that was sitting by Jamie. If you’re a regular blog reader, you know that Jamie is pretty possessive of her food, and she is the highest ranking chimpanzee. This means that other chimps, as a rule, generally do not take food from Jamie. But this really appeared to be a trade. Apparently troll dolls served as a version of currency between these two!

The second equally amazing thing that occurred also involved Foxie. Jackie and I were handing out blankets in the front rooms, and Foxie took one through the fencing. This in itself is a bit unusual, but not unheard of – sometimes she’ll playfully take blankets or clothes, and then drop them. Every once in a while she’ll play a quick game of tug of war. But Foxie took this blanket (a very big fleece one) and eventually climbed up to the bed in Room Four and began to nest!! The blanket was long and hanging off of the bed, and Jamie immediately came into the room and began to pull on the end hanging down. Foxie’s played for a bit, at one point trying to still nest by wrapping the blanket around her, while Jamie continued to pull on the blanket. After a while Foxie dropped the blanket and Jamie left. Then Foxie got up and walked into Room 2, passing several blankets along the way, and picked up a pink one. She carried the pink blanket back to the far room, went back to the bed, laid the blanket down, and laid down on top of it.

It was a beautiful sight to see, and so special that it happened one year to the day after she arrived at the sanctuary. I’m so excited for what year two will bring!!

Busy, busy Jamie

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As you may know, Jamie is always busy. It is difficult to imagine how she kept her sharp mind occupied while stuck in a barren lab cage for so many years. Here is a montage of several video clips of Jamie from the last few days. In the video, Jamie makes a paper nest, cleans her sunglasses, files her nails, and brachiates outside.

Brachiating and swinging

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Just a short video of chimps being chimps. Foxie and Missy take turns brachiating across the roof of the enclosure. Then Jamie and Missy play with one of the new fire hose swings around the recently donated culvert. 

My favorite part of the video: When Diana (and the camera) get hit with a flying troll. It’s an occupational hazard here at CSNW!

Interspecies grooming

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In addition to grooming one another, the chimpanzees sometimes enjoy grooming their caregivers. To keep everyone safe, our fingers never penetrate the caging, but the chimps can extend their fingers through the caging and make contact with the backs of our hands (or the bottom of our shoes, as you will see in this video).