Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Annie is the most anxious member of the Cle Elum Seven, but you wouldn’t know it from the photos we take. She always looks so serene:
Missy rivals Foxie for “most playful member of the group”. Here’s Missy in the middle of a game of tug-of-war with me today. She always looks like she’s up to no good:
Burrito and Missy spent some time grooming each other this morning while we were cleaning the playroom.
For today’s afternoon enrichment, we filled bowls with tea, soy milk, soy yogurt, peanut butter, and ketchup, and placed the bowls on the outside of the chimps’ enclosure. Then we gave them tools to fish for the food.
Its fascinating to watch the different personalities in action. Burrito has no patience, and he’s not a very adept tool user either. Negra will use someone else’s straw once they’ve fished it into the bowl, but she won’t do it herself. Missy, Annie, Jody, and Foxie are all very patient and skillful. But Jamie is by far the best. I didn’t catch this on camera, but Jamie found a clever way to get the last bit out of her bowl. After she had gotten all of the yogurt that she could, she went to the water fountain to get a mouthful of water. She spit the water through the caging and into the bowl, diluting the remaining yogurt. Then she fished her straw through and drank the liquid.
Jackie threw whole heads of lettuce on top of the enclosure tonight as part of dinner. If you know Negra, you probably know two things: first, she is not exactly the ‘athletic’ type. Second, she LOVES lettuce. So, we were very impressed when we saw her climb up and dangle from the tippy-top of the enclosure to get her head of lettuce! In the second part of this video you’ll see Missy doing the same thing, but with a bigger payoff. At the end it looks like she doesn’t quite know how to drop down to the platform without dropping her haul!
Thank you, Barbara Lauterbach for being a play face sponsor for the Oct. 2nd Celebrate the Seven auction and helping to put these faces on Foxie and Missy! We need more sponsors – please consider becoming one yourself or having your business sponsor. Check out the benefits here.
After Jackie’s great video post yesterday of Missy and her socks, I wanted to be sure to let everyone know that we’ll be celebrating Missy’s birthday on August 23rd – less than a week from today! Cle Elum Seven friend Robbi will be delivering some special gift packages, and of course we’ll be giving Missy all of the things she loves (like lots of socks!!) on Sunday. It will be her first birthday celebration at the sanctuary. We do not know her exact day of birth, so, with the help of friends, we chose a day for her celebration. We can’t wait to share her day with you!
