Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Jody

All Good Things

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This morning when we walked into the chimp house, every chimp was super playful! Gordo was bunny hopping around, Annie was playing chase with Burrito and her caregivers, Missy was chasing Jody, Jamie was playfully foot stomping to her caregivers, Dora and Mave were playing, and chimps on both sides were grooming in the greenhouses. Every day at the sanctuary is a great day because the chimps are safe, secure, and cared for, but that does not mean that every day is sunshine and rainbows. Obviously,the chimpanzees have their own feelings and moods, just like us. Some days we walk in and one group is displaying, while the other group is calm. Other days it’s loud everywhere you go. However, most days you get a balance of some calm with a little bit of displaying from time to time. And then you get a day like today, where both sides of the building are just silly and playful!

While most people wanted to play, Negra wanted to sleep all day:

We are running pretty low on magazines. If you have any laying around, I am sure Cy would love to take them off your hands!

Playing with Missy

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As many of you know Missy is what we call a chimps’ chimp. She will have these amazing long play sessions with her chimp friends. But as for us human friends she will bless us with a play session from time to time. So when you get to play it doesn’t matter how long it lasts, it’s just special that it happened!

Bonus photos!

Jody enjoying some yellow goats beard flowers:

Negra foraging for grass:

Gordo was hanging out in the sunny warm Riverview greenhouse. Look how handsome he is!!

Gordo grooming himself:

 

 

Short Stories From The Chimp House

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It has been a busy day here in the chimp house! After the morning cleaning, it started to rain and since then the chimps have been keeping us busy. Burrito is being his normal playful self (which has involved at least five runs around the hill with the caregivers), Foxie is blowing raspberries to try and get Caregiver Katelyn’s attention, and Jamie is observing all. On the other side of the chimp house Terry is looking for shoes to groom, Willy B would like to see our camera reels, and Lucky is hoping to snag some extra tomatoes. While we work to get our daily tasks done we’ve also been snagging photos – so today’s blog is a montage of short stories from throughout the day. 🙂

This morning, Caregiver Katelyn and I gave Foxie two new Strawberry Shortcake dolls. When Foxie saw them she expressed her excitement with a ceiling punch! She quickly came downstairs to get them and give us some happy grunts. Katelyn snagged this photo of Foxie and her new doll shortly after in the Greenhouse and we just can’t take it!

This morning was overcast and cool – a nice morning, but damp from last night’s rain. I thought that Jamie’s group wouldn’t be waiting for Young’s Hill access, since it was so wet, but when I opened the door everyone proceeded to head straight out! Annie went almost straight for the hammock, where she picked some grass before going for a stroll around the hill. Annie has been disappearing during the mornings lately to enjoy some time by herself on the hill- you can read more about that in Kelsi’s blog here.

Negra also went straight out on the hill… and kept going… and going! Negra will often go onto Young’s Hill and stop a short ways out where she will sit and enjoy the morning, but today she joined the rest of her group and enjoyed the morning out far on the hill. Spring has really sprung!

We weren’t the only ones surprised to see Negra so far onto the hill – Jody also came over to make sure all was well with Negra. Caregiver Chad caught this sweet moment of Negra reassuring Jody that all is well, before they both went back to their respective morning hill activities.

I found Dora in the Oakwood Greenhouse this afternoon. The sound of the rain on the greenhouse panels was peaceful and calming, which matched the sight of Dora and Terry grooming. After Terry left, Dora continued to sit and relax in the greenhouse.

Have a great evening, everyone!

Where in the World is Annie?

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I wanted to share a fun little story from this morning! As I gave Annie’s group Young’s Hill, everyone including Negra rushed out. Once Anna brought breakfast out to the greenhouse all the chimps were heading back in to eat, except Annie. We couldn’t find Annie anywhere. It had been more than 10 minutes of breakfast being served and she was nowhere in sight. Annie does not miss a meal! Sofia came over to help do checks when I said I think Annie is on the Hill, but we can’t see her anywhere. Sofia told us she did this yesterday, but eventually came back for breakfast. We finally got a glimpse of her 15 minutes into breakfast, she was far up on the top of the Hill foraging for what I assume was grass or some kind of foliage. Apparently, that grass was so good she didn’t even come back for breakfast! Breakfast was not a concern for Annie, because when she finally returned and Anna tried to call her over for food, she very contently laid back on the platform in the greenhouse and took a little nap.

Today was a beautiful spring day so we took advantage of the weather and did a Hill forage for lunch!

Don’t worry Annie got plenty of food!

But Missy seemed to score the most!

Negra was quite pleased with her haul! She even worked pretty hard for her food too, look at Neggie on the Esher structure!

Jody with a mouth full of corn and hands full of forage!

Jamie collected her forage and then took all of it to a secluded hammock to eat alone.

Burrito cradling an arm full of onions:

Little Foxie was having a great day roaming around the Hill and hanging out with friends!

Bonus Photos!

Rayne was asleep in a cozy nest up on one of the leaves in the Marmot Room.

And sweet Dora was hangout in the window ledge watching her caregivers cleaned her playroom.

Earth Day, Today and Everyday

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Today is Earth Day- a day to think about our impact on the earth, to learn how to live more sustainably, and to celebrate conservation and preservation of the environment.

Here at the sanctuary we work to be as sustainable as possible, with an active recycling program and food compost station (just to name a few). It’s hard, though, to not think about greater conservation issues when you spend your days working with a species that is currently classified as endangered by the IUCN, with wild populations of chimpanzees decreasing. I often find myself too overwhelmed to think about it, with the issue being so large and complex, but to honor the day it does seem appropriate to think about little things we can do to become more environmentally friendly in our everyday lives. My goal is to prioritize local and seasonal eating, along with learning how to compost our food scraps. What’s yours?

The chimpanzees got to celebrate Earth Day today as well, as it was another perfect day for a forage on Young’s Hill! Everyone seems to be enjoying the sunshine today – and what better way is there to appreciate Mother Earth?

Annie enjoying her forage, a thread:

 

Lucky basking in the sunshine of the Oakwood Greenhouse:

Jody enjoying some after-lunch yoga in the Greenhouse. Happy baby, anyone?

Happy Earth Day!

Big Yawns

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As I walked around the chimp house today I felt really tired. I kept thinking, how could I feel so sleepy? Then I figured it out! I was looking at these cozy lumps all day ;).

Dreamy Cy:

The handsome Terry:

The ever so wonderful Lucky:

And of course the beautiful Jo in the portrait studio:

Let’s Play!

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As I looked through my phone I realized I had so many small clips of the chimps playing. Some were too short to make into a full video, so with the help of some other caregivers we made a montage of the chimps playing over the last couple weeks.

I was also was able to snag a handle full of photos today!

Spring is here because Negra says it is:

The mischievous Miss Honey B:

Dora melting in the warm Oakwood greenhouse:

The handsome freckled-face Terry:

I felt like someone was spying on me while I tried to take photos of Terry. I was right!

It was Lucky spying on me:

Sam took this great photo of Burrito and was kind enough to share it with me. If you are thinking, geez Burrito looks intense you are right! He was ready to play! After he let Sam snap some photos he leaped up and insisted they start playing chase!