Jody

In memory of Ron and Betty Kreushcher

September 21, 2018 by Katelyn

A day of sanctuary was sponsored by Ronalyn Huenergard who shared this note about her gift:

“This donation is in memory of my parents, Ron and Betty Kreuscher on their wedding anniversary, They were very proud of their 3 children, 8 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.”

Ronalyn, thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to share in your special memories of your parents and for making a difference in the chimpanzees’ lives as you honor Ron and Betty. We so appreciate you thinking of the chimps in this way. We’re wishing you and your family a day filled with joyful and comforting memories.

A Burrito and Jody classic:

How’s your chimp ID?

September 20, 2018 by Elizabeth

One of the first things new chimp house volunteers start learning is how to identify each of the chimpanzees. When you’re meeting a group of chimps for the first time (or the first ten times), they can often look frustratingly similar to one another. Eventually, of course, they start to look like individuals and you wonder how you could ever have mixed them up. But there’s a definite learning curve.

It helps to be able to spend some time just staring at each chimpanzee, so I just made these videos for our volunteers, in which you can see each of the seven chimpanzees from every angle, just being themselves. I thought some of our blog followers might appreciate them also. And if you’re not interested in working on your chimp ID, the videos make seven good excuses just to look at each of these beautiful chimps for several minutes.

(For extra credit, click on each name below to learn some identifying physical characteristics for each individual).

Burrito’s Close-up

September 16, 2018 by Kelsi

Being the only male can be hard…

But who could resist this handsome fellow!

Here are a few extra photos…

Missy eating apples on the Hill this morning:

Missy foraging for corn at lunch:

Jody’s loot today:

Negra was really excited about corn:

Annie did pretty well during the lunch forage:

Foxie:

And then there is Jamie (she has been enjoying her new firehose swing):

Jody’s Family

September 15, 2018 by Diana

It was just three weeks ago that we separated Jody from the group in order to stitch an injury to her eyelid. If you didn’t know it had happened, you probably wouldn’t notice that her left eye looks a little different. I suspect in another three weeks even we won’t be able to tell which eye it was.

(Incidentally, when I saw the photo above, I immediately thought of this photo of Jody’s daughter Andrea who lives at Save the Chimps in Florida. Like mother, like daughter!)

Dr. Erin did a great job of the procedure, no doubt. Plus chimpanzees have this uncanny ability to heal very quickly (thank goodness!).

I keep thinking back to the days after the procedure and how each step was an affirmation of why Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest exists and the role of the humans at the sanctuary.

When the injury happened, Jody was clearly irritated that her eyelid was kind of just hanging there (sorry for that graphic image), though she was not irritated enough that she ignored the rest of her lunch. On the contrary, she went right back to eating when the fighting had stopped.

The humans figured out pretty quickly that we needed to fix her eyelid because it serves such an important function of protecting the eye. After a little while, Jody seemed to agree with us, and she did not protest when we invited her to be separated from the other chimpanzees with the doors closing behind her.

I really believe that she knew she needed our help.

It took her the whole next day after the procedure to completely recover from the anesthesia, and she allowed me to sit with her (on the other side of the caging) and offer her sips of water in between her naps.

The day after that, however, she wanted to be back with the other chimpanzees.

We reunited them the next day, but then separated Jody again when Dr. Erin decided she needed some time away from Dr. Missy and any other overly zealous grooming partners.

Though it wasn’t an issue to separate Jody, she was definitely not as content to spend time by herself this time around. She was constantly watching what the group was doing, vocalizing along with them, and hopeful that she would be back with them each time we operated the doors. After a couple more days of healing, there was another reunion, and this time it lasted.

Here’s what I love about Jody’s reaction to all that happened: She accepted our help and let us pamper her a little, but the second she felt even halfway better, she wanted to be with her people. The humans are not her people. She has a family of chimpanzees – they are her people. She’s not related to any of them, but they are her family.

She wanted to be back with them even after sustaining a pretty intense injury during a fight with these same people.

And that explains the role of the humans at the sanctuary. We are protectors and sometimes fixers, up to a point. We make sure that the chimpanzees have food, medical care, and an interesting and comfortable environment.

But the truth is that they need each more than they need us. They have their own lives to lead.

That is one of the reasons why we are working hard on the Bring Them Home Expansion Campaign in order to bring more chimpanzees to the sanctuary. We don’t know how long these seven chimpanzees will be here, but we know that as long as they are alive, they will need a family of other chimpanzees.

For Giving Day for Apes this year, we are highlighting the expansion campaign. We hope you will join in the donating on September 25th to help expand the family at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest and be a part of providing them with what the really need.

Party cleanup committee

September 11, 2018 by Anna

Yesterday we threw a big party on Young’s Hill for Annie’s 44th birthday! The chimps were filled to the brim with all kinds of delicious foods, so much so, that there were still some leftovers deemed worthy by some adventurous foragers this morning.

Annie found what at first glance looked like a leftover banana leaf:

Upon further examination, it turned out to be the outermost skin of a watermelon rind.

Annie was more than happy to clean up after her own party

Jody found several remaining sunflowers to snack on as well:

Again today, Negra reaped some of the benefits of Jody’s hard work. I snapped this photo of her through the playroom window while we were cleaning this morning.

Annie’s Birthday Bash

September 10, 2018 by Katelyn

What a day of celebrating beautiful, dear, sweet Annie! We decided to have the party on Young’s Hill, the chimps’ 2-acre outdoor habitat and it was complete with a chimp favorite, watermelon bowls filled with lettuce, blueberries, cherry tomatoes, onions, and cabbage, and a new treat of banana leaves filled with roasted sweet potatoes and onions and leftover watermelon, and beautiful organic sunflowers strewn about!

Aren’t these amazing?! They’re bigger than Kelsi! 🙂 We have the best volunteers who found a recipe for wrapping good stuff in squares of the leaves and another who found them in Seattle for us! Something completely new for the chimps!

Here’s the birthday lady opening her banana leaf packet:

Jody was actually first onto the hill and was very excited to make it back with two watermelon bowls! I caught her mid-blink – sorry Jo! – and food squeaking with delight:

Negra’s approach to the forage was to wait for Jody to bring her haul back to the greenhouse and promptly try to take it!:

Jody kindly let her have one. That said, when Jody came back later with another one she wasn’t so willing to give it up which the Queen wasn’t too happy about, though she did get what Jody couldn’t shovel in fast enough. Oh, Neggie:

Burrito found a bowl for himself and started to make his way back to the greenhouse food squeaking all the way. But he stopped short when he saw Jody and Negra near the raceway and decided to try and play it cool so as not to attract their attention (or probably more specifically, Negra’s). You can see how excited he is by his hair standing on end (pilo-erect):

Of course, he couldn’t wait too long before taking some bites:

Jamie’s tactic was to collect everything she wanted and put it in a good place to return to when she was ready:

Missy:

Annie and Jody out for more:

And Foxie! She was way out on one of the structures by herself when she found a watermelon bowl.

Then…Oh. My. Heart! We could hear Foxie food squeaking with excitement when all of a sudden she just couldn’t contain herself! When chimpanzees are overwhelmed with excitement or fear they will often express a facial gesture known as a “fear grimace.” This is what Foxie is doing here, but she was SUPER excited. Usually others chimps are nearby and they reassure one another, but Foxie just kept looking at us from afar as if to say, “Do you see this??!! Watermelon bowls!!! I just can’t…” We love how excited the chimpanzees get over something as seemingly simple as fresh food. It never seems to get old for them and certainly seeing their joy never gets old for us.

Happy 44th, Annie! May all your days and years ahead be filled with more love, joy and adventure than you ever imagined. We love you so very much!

You Better Keep Up

September 2, 2018 by Kelsi

This morning everyone was on the move and cattails were still very much a theme! Jody seemed to have lot of ground to make up for because this morning we could barely keep up with her. In the afternoon the chimps had a delicious lunch forage and spent the rest of the day grooming, walking (Jamie), and playing with human and non-human friends. Overall, the chimps had a nice relaxing Sunday spent with good food, people, and friends.

Negra on the Hill this morning grabbing a few things:

Like I said Jody was on the go all morning. However, I did find a sleepy Jo in the early morning before everyone had access to the Hill, curled up on a pile of hay soaking up some sun: