Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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Missy

Annie’s 40th

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We celebrated Annie’s 40th birthday today! Her exact birthday is unknown since she was captured in the wild, but her records indicate that she was born sometime in 1974, and today is the day we picked to celebrate it. Annie certainly doesn’t act 40 at all! She’s still very young at heart—she shows her playful side daily when wrestling with Missy or running around Young’s Hill.

We wanted to celebrate her special day with some of her favorites—green grass, beets, green onions, piñatas, buckets of water, shovels, and chow! Thanks to some supplies Lisa Stuverud brought us we had a fun colorful party with new enrichment, too. We set up a breakfast forage first, and then volunteer Becca served Annie’s favorite veggies at lunch.

Here’s the party setup:
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I love this photo — you can see the juice from the tangerine spraying to the side! Good shot by Elizabeth.
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Annie with a mouthful of chow (she loves to wadge chow!)
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Annie loves green grass, so we picked some for her and included bunches of it in their breakfast forage:
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Some of her favorite veggies are green onions and beets:
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The other chimps enjoyed the party too! Burrito the charmer practically posed during the forage for this photo:
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Everyone loved the fruit! Here’s Jamie:
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Jody:
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Foxie:
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Missy loved the green grass:
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And Jody ended up getting the piñatas (there was a Dora the Explorer piñata too, but that was torn up before we could snap a photo!)
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Foxie got a new troll and some knuckle rubs from Diana, which made her laugh:
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And Negra spent a lot of time in hard-to-see spots during the day, but I did get this picture of her beautiful relaxed face:
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Happy 40th Birthday, Annie!

Cowboy Party

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What’s one way to make seven chimpanzees awfully happy? Throw a spontaneous party. Supporter Lisa Stuverud sent us a box of decorations and enrichment for a cowboy party (and of course we already had dozens of cowboy boots thanks to Jamie’s obsession), so we had everything we needed for a good time.

Jamie was the first into the greenhouse, and she was throwing back her first drink before most of the others even made it out the door.

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She checked high and low for hidden treats. Here she’s getting ready to use a fire hose to swing up into one of the windowsills where we often hide food:

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Foxie sampling the pomegranate juice:

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Annie:

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Negra went through several of these boot bags filled with shredded paper searching for sunflower seeds.

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Jody:

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Missy:

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Burrito’s strategy was simple: to find as many pieces of chow as one man could hold.

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Thanks, Lisa, for making the chimps’ day!

Good old summertime days

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Missy and Annie are usually found on the go. Running, leaping, laughing, wrestling, and more running every chance they get. But with the first sudden hints of autumn in the air, I caught them both taking advantage of the lingering end-of-summer days and the warmth of the greenhouse.

Missy, just being her cool self:

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And right next to Missy, her best friend, Annie, of course. Relaxing in classic Annie style:

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These feet!!

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Unbelievably, we will be celebrating this beautiful chimpanzee woman’s 40th birthday on September 10th! Maybe she is resting up for the big party.

Beautiful chimps

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I’m not sure if you’ve ever noticed, but the Cle Elum Seven are really attractive chimpanzees. Just look at these beautiful faces:

Negra:
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Jody:
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Missy:
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Annie:
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Chimpanzee Photography Experience & Online Auction Opening Soon

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I mentioned the other day that some 2013 HOOT! auction bidders had cashed in their photography experience at the sanctuary that they won at the gala.

Right now, we are gearing up for our Summer Biddin’ online auction. While we don’t have a photography session, we do have a really amazing and unique experience to bid on: a Backstage Pass to the Sanctuary!

Bidding for all items opens Thursday morning, and items are still being added, but you can and should (right now) check out how you can help us throw a spectacular Summer Lovin’ Party for the chimpanzees and get some perks for yourself in the process.

Back to Saturday. Martha and Susie were the first winning bidders for the photography session. They had a great time at the sanctuary learning some new photography skills from photographers Karen Ducey and Dean Rutz. They set up photography camp on the observation deck and learned the ropes of the professional equipment that Karen and Dean generously loaned.

Martha and Susie taking aim

Martha and Susie practicing

Martha and Susie happy

And they got some really amazing photos!! Below are just a few.

Annie:

Annie on young's hill

Foxie:

Foxie pull up

Foxie on platform

 

And birthday-girl Missy, looking like her athletic self:

Missy on fire hose

 

Not only was it Missy’s birthday on the day they visited, it was also Martha’s! Karen was kind enough to bring a birthday cake, which of course we adorned with some CSNW style:

Martha's bday cake

 

Martha and Susie also took a walk with J.B. around the hill with Jamie of course following on the inside of the fence. Ellie the elk was hanging around the property and joined them too:

Ellie, J.B., Martha, Susie

 

You just never know what adventures await at the sanctuary, especially on a party day, which is why you should get ready to bid on the unique Backstage Pass experience and help us throw a great end-of-summer party! You don’t have to wait until Thursday to make your Summer Lovin’ party donation – do it today!

Missy Chimpanzee’s 39th Birthday

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Today was Missy-centered. The theme was tomatoes, slinky toys, tomatoes, socks, tomatoes, cattails, tomatoes, socks, and kongs with peanuts in them – all favs of Missy.

At our HOOT! gala in May, one of the more interesting items we auctioned off during the live auction was a photography session at the sanctuary with professional photographers Dean Rutz and Karen Ducey. There were two lucky winning bidders, and one of the winners cashed in their session this morning – we can’t wait to share a few of their photos with you!

In the meantime, here are some that the staff took today of the birthday girl, a flashback to one of my favorite videos of Missy, and a few photos of the other chimpanzees enjoying Missy’s birthday.

Missy spent the day, as usual, in action and elusive to the camera.

In the photo below, Missy is climbing one of the tallest structures on the hill during the breakfast forage, which included a lot of – you guessed it – tomatoes!

Missy climbing

 

Here she is at the top with a mouthful:

Missy behind post

 

Later, we handed out cattails. Missy decided to take hers inside:

MIssy biting cattail

 

Missy escaping the watchful eye of the camera, climbing to the bridge in the playroom to enjoy her cattail:

Missy climbing stairs

 

Missy in a nest playing with a slinky on the catwalk of the playroom:

Missy with a slinky

 

MIssy removing a kong from a sock:

Missy sit window kong sock

Missy sit window with kong

 

We put the kongs in socks for the nighttime enrichment in homage to Missy’s own invention, and one of my favorite videos of Missy, taken in 2010 (see below):

 

The other chimpanzees also had a great time with all of the birthday festivities today.

Jamie explored some new enrichment in the greenhouse:

Jamie with recorder

 

Jamie cleaning some plastic glasses with a sock:

Jamie with glasses

 

Negra foraged on the hill for breakfast:

Negra forage on the hill

Negra with a strawberry

Negra with chow

 

And Annie, proudly, got the tomato piñata during the playroom forage:

Annie with pinata

 

I posted a little video on Facebook of Missy playing what looks a lot like a thumb war with Negra while they lay next to each other on the catwalk. All in all, it was a pretty great 39th birthday for one of the most athletic, full-of-life chimpanzee people that I’ve ever met. We love you, Missy!

Missy's birthday portrait

August Birthdays

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A couple of weeks ago we celebrated Foxie’s 38th birthday, and One Green Planet shared the birthday video on their site today. Check it out and please share!

Speaking of birthdays, we have another August birthday coming up—Missy is turning 39 this Saturday! We have big plans underway already, including all of Missy’s favorites: socks, slinkies, kongs, and tomatoes!

Here’s some recent photos of the upcoming birthday girl:

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Missy and Annie (this picture was posted to our Instagram the other day for the 100 Happy Days challenge)

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If you want to contribute toward the birthday festivities, make a donation today in Missy’s name, or become one of her pals!