Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Nesting

My Favorite Subject

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On busy days, we often look through the photos on our phones to see if we can piece together a blog post worth sharing. As I was doing this today, it became apparent that I have a fondness for a certain subject.

The photos are all slight variations on the same theme: Negra, nesting atop the greenhouse climbing structure under a mountain of blankets. Throughout the spring, summer, and fall, when I arrive for work and walk through the chimp house to say good morning, this is where I know I will find her. And it seems I am compelled to snap a photo each time. How could I resist?

Becoming Friends with Jamie

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Being friends with Jamie is a wonderful gift, but one that certainly must be earned! As one of the newest caregivers here, I have been enjoying getting the privilege to know Jamie, and wanted to share with you all about some of the joys of Jamie.

Jamie can be a complicated friend to have. Much like how we are not always in the best of moods, she too has some days where she is feeling more social than others. But the quiet moments of just being with Jamie are more than worth enduring anything that she might (quite literally) throw your way! She is an individual who knows exactly what she wants and will go to great lengths to communicate that to you if you can be of assistance. Her happy food grunts when she is eating one of her favorite foods are one of my new favorite sounds (she was really enjoying her red peppers with dinner tonight!). I hope you all enjoy today’s video to see how Jamie and I’s friendship is progressing so far. I look forward to getting to know so much more about her!

Chimp Lesson #8: Take Some Time for Yourself

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Continuing the series of lessons the chimps have taught us, today we have Dora to thank for teaching us to take some time for ourselves even when our days are busy, don’t skip the self care. Whether it be a vacation, yoga class or building a fine nest for a nap on a chilly day, make sure you take some time for yourself.

 

We also would like to thank all our supporters for the magazine donations made throughout the year! The response to our request for magazines has been amazing but Cy has a lot of gossip, travel and food magazines to get through right now, so we would like to put our magazine donation request on hold until he has time to catch up. We will be sure to let you all know when he has caught up on all his reading material and is ready to receive more.

Creative Nest-Building with Honey B

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This morning, I caught Honey B in the Mezzanine nesting. She managed to use every enrichment item she had access to in her process, which cracked me up. My personal favorite part of this video (featured above) is when she grabs the green sweatband and stretches it for no reason, before she places it beside her. Honey B is a funny gal, that’s for sure.

And…

Today is Honey Cow’s 16th Birthday! The cattle will all be receiving some special treats today for Honey’s day! 

Rainy Days With Neggie

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Personally, I am in deep denial about summer being over. Negra, on the other hand, seems to be enjoying the weather change. Today was a cool, overcast day that turned into a light misty rain from time to time. Negra has perfected rainy day comfort. She finds a cozy nest in the green house, finds a blanket to cover over her whole body including her head, and if she needs to get up- say, for breakfast- she grabs what she needs and goes back up to enjoy breakfast in bed. However, blanket must come back up over head.

Please enjoy this photo series of Negra on a rainy day, as much as she did :).

Snoozy Negra:

Breakfast in bed:

Mornings

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One of the best spots to build a morning nest is the upper platform in Greenhouse 1. From there the chimps can watch the sun rise over the trees above Young’s Hill as they wait for the staff and volunteers to bring them breakfast. Foxie’s nests aren’t really nests, per se, as she doesn’t like to lay on blankets or anything soft, nor does she like anything that even hints of being natural, like leaves or straw. It’s all bare floors and benches for this girl—but she is always sure to have a favorite doll tucked in close to her chest.

Negra, on the other hand, likes her nests well-padded. While her evening nests can be works of art, these morning nests are often hastily arranged. No matter, she barely awake anyway and it won’t take much for her to drift back to sleep.

If you climb to the ridge above Young’s Hill, you will find another pasture with a large spring-fed pond. This is where our small cattle herd spends much of their summer, often choosing to sleep under the stars instead of returning to their barn at night. This year I purchased some portable fences, which can be set up on a temporary basis to manage how the cattle graze the pastures. Early one morning I set some up to rotate the cattle through an ungrazed section of this upper pond pasture. It’s always a joy to see the cows run through a new pasture, especially one that still grows some green grass during these dry Central Washington summers.

Betsy:

Meredith:

Holy Sheet!

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We recently asked for a few new sheets on the Wish List. As some of you might know, Rayne and Honey B seem to really like sheets, whether they are used for nesting, fashion, or playing! So overall bedding sheets are a great form of enrichment! The chimps can only have the flat sheets due to the elastic on the bottom sheets, however once we received and checked that they were chimp approved we put the sheets out on Rayne’s side. It was the first thing Rayne grabbed as you will see in the video! Honey B likes to think outside of the box, so she decided to use her sheets a little differently! If anyone has new/gently used top sheets they would like to donate for the chimps, we would be happy to take them off your hands!

Rayne with new sheets:

Just pictures of Rayne:

Jamie also likes to use them for nesting:

Now for the bonus photos!

Jamie scored big today on the forage, she only wanted corn apparently:

Negra was happy with her one ear of corn:

Jamie grooming Negra while Missy grooms Jamie:

**Reminders corner** Don’t forget we have lots of stuff still on the Wish List for Gordo’s birthday! Yesterday, we started selling tickets for HOOT!, you can join us in-person on September 9th or virtually! We can’t wait to celebrate with everyone, don’t miss out on the early bird pricing happening right now!