Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Missy

Perspective

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It’s hard to get photos of several chimps in one frame out on the hill. Typically they are foraging or exploring on their own or in pairs, but getting four, five, or six chimps in one frame is pretty rare. It seems this morning, JB was able to capture these rare moments when all but Negra were out on the hill checking out a helicopter flying overhead. They had a good perspective from where they were, I think. And since these aren’t close ups of the chimps, it gives you a new perspective as well.

Annie, Missy, Jody, and Foxie:

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Foxie, Jamie, Missy, Annie, Jody, and Burrito:

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I like this series a lot because both Jamie on ground and Missy (just above Jamie) are climbing up posts simultaneously. (Foxie is up top and Annie is on the bridge).

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How does our garden grow?

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The chimpanzees are ready to harvest their garden! The garden, however, is still growing. But try telling that to the chimpanzees. Thanks to the hard work of volunteer caregiver, Denice, it’s really starting to take off!

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And Jamie is keeping a close watch on it. Every single day:

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This is what Jamie has her eye on from atop her barrel at the barn doors:

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Every day Jamie and Missy in particular look out the windows and emphatically gesture toward something they would like to taste. So far we’ve been able to oblige the chimpanzees’ requests with chives, strawberries and today, onions! Jamie takes in the view of the garden, sliding from window to window on top of her barrel by pulling herself along the walls:

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Or if you’re Missy, you balance on a tire while checking out the garden:

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The garden not only helps us supplement the chimps’ diet and adds beauty to their home, but as you can see, it also provides great enrichment for them. It’s a wonderful thing for them to be able to ask for something they see and for us to be able to harvest it for them.

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Much to the chimpanzees’ delight, volunteer caregiver, Erin, was able to serve them onions from the garden today at lunch. You should have heard the never-ending happy foot grunts from Jamie:

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Jody was so excited she was a little pilo (hair standing on end) and reaching out to get Erin’s attention for more:

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Having a more dominant position in the hierarchy, Jody thought she would also help herself to Negra’s onion. You can see Negra (left) with a fear grimace reaching out in a submissive manner to touch Jody, asking permission to keep her onion. While this is a normal part of chimpanzee society, it’s actually pretty rare that anyone decides to take anything from Negra. She seems to fall outside the hierarchy and maintains a level of respect from the other chimps overall. It must be her role as queen! But the garden onions elicited quite a bit of excitement and Jody was unswayed by Negra’s royal status.

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But of course, there was enough to go around and Negra was able to enjoy some onions along with everyone else:

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After all that excitement, Annie cuddled up with a blanket for a peaceful afternoon nap in the warm breeze:

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Missy Makes a Nest

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Nestmaking is one of my favorite chimpanzee behaviors to watch. Although each chimp has his or her own style, the basics are the same. A chimp will add one blanket at a time to the nest, arranging it so that it’s perfectly placed before continuing. Precision and focus are the name of the game.

Typically, the purpose of building a nest is to have a comfortable place to rest. But sometimes, it seems that the object is the process rather than the result. Missy spent several minutes building this nest in the greenhouse this afternoon, and just a moment after she had placed the last blanket, she leaped out of it and ran off to her next adventure.

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Happy Birthday, George!

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Today’s day of sanctuary was sponsored by George Halliwell! Today also happens to be George’s birthday! George shared that he wants to celebrate by including the chimpanzees in this special day and that knowing he is helping them brings him great joy.

George, what an incredibly kind, generous and compassionate thing to do, especially on your birthday! The chimpanzees have the best friends! It’s such an honor to be able to witness so many amazing people open their lives to share with the chimpanzees with the desire to improve the chimps’ lives.

Thank you and Happy Birthday, George!! May your day be filled with pant hoots, food grunts, and all good things!

Annie and Missy:

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Streamer day

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Every day we like to provide the chimpanzees with different enrichment themes to make their day interesting. We also love to throw parties for any occasion! We even have a storage bin of extra party supplies, which has collected a lot of surplus streamer rolls lately. So today we decided to call “Streamer Day,” and Elizabeth, volunteer Sandra, and I made an intricate maze of streamers in the greenhouse this morning.

You may recall this video of Burrito really enjoying the streamers for our Seahawks party—so we were hoping today’s theme would be a big hit.

I think that our streamer maze was a success overall! Missy built a pretty great nest with some of the streamers:

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and even Foxie (who doesn’t usually build nests) started to make a streamer nest, too!

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Some of the chimpanzees really like to wadge the streamers. I personally am not an expert on streamer taste, but perhaps each color is different—Jody was interested in tasting each flavor of this Neapolitan-esque streamer:

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Jody also un-characteristically swung on a firehose up to one of the windows in the greenhouse (she’s not usually that agile).

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This isn’t a great photo of Annie, but really shows how awesome our streamer maze was:

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Foxie is still hanging on to French Dora, who now has also lost her shirt in addition to the pants and beret she lost yesterday.

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