Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

northwest

Competition on the hill and Give Five update

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First, thank you for continuing to send the 5-year anniversary video to friends and colleagues. If you haven’t shared the video yet on Facebook, Twitter, by email, or whatever your preferred online network is, please do this weekend! The Give Five donations are still coming in, and we’re now up to $15,525! Every donation helps us to continue to provide quality care for the Cle Elum Seven chimpanzees and to advocate for other great apes in need.

The wildlife on the property are also learning about the sanctuary. In addition to the deer who are quite familiar with our compost, the local crows have learned all about forages. They start swooping in when they see the humans walking around the hill. At first, the chimpanzees chased them off, but that must have grown tiresome. The chimps no longer seem bothered by their corvid neighbors, even as they fly away with a piece of chow or fruit.

crow on young's hill

The chimps just go about their business of foraging. Negra was quite adventurous this morning during the breakfast forage, even climbing up onto the shaky bridge again!

Negra on shaky bridge

Look at this contented face:

Negra stand on hill

 

negra in the grass

Burrito is a first-class forager:

burrito foraging on the hill

and probably most content when he is eating:

Burrito eating grapefruit on the treat rock

I posted a few more photos on some of the chimps’ Facebook pages earlier. I’m sure you’ve liked the sanctuary FB page, but have you liked all of the chimps on Facebook? On FB just type in their name followed by Chimpanzee and you’ll find their pages, or click on their images at the top of this page and you’ll see the link  to their FB page on the right side. Thanks for being their friends!

 

Thank you, Kathleen!

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The celebration continues! Kathleen Kemper also sponsored yesterday in honor of the sanctuary’s five year anniversary!  We are thrilled by the overwhelming support and positive comments that have been flooding in.  Kathleen, thank you so much for your generosity and for helping us to usher in the beginning of the next five years of sanctuary, and beyond, for these amazing beings.

web Burrito sit high on plank post climbing structure look at camera trees in background YH (ek) IMG_9115

Veterinary Clinic Update

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We’re getting closer to completing one of our most important projects to date: the creation of an onsite veterinary clinic. This project was made possible by generous contributions from Karen and Don Young, the National Anti-Vivisection Society, Project V.E.T.S., and the many Fund-a-Need donors at our 2011 and 2013 auctions. And now I’m happy to say that we have a few more people to add to this list.

Kathy Cochran, one of the best friends a chimp could have, connected us with Bud McIrvin and Dan Price of Providence Hospital in Everett, WA, and as a result we now have an incredible anesthesia machine to add to our clinic. Dan was even kind enough to drive out to Cle Elum this morning with his wife, Janet, to give me and Dr. Mensching a tutorial.

Clinic anesthesia machine

Buy photos of the chimpanzees

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The photo of Annie on the blog the other day was so popular I decided to resurrect our SmugMug account where people can purchase photos. I’ve added just a few photos so far. You can get prints, prints on canvas, and select merchandise from the store with the images you choose. Take a look here.

If there are specific photos you’d like to purchase that you’ve seen on the blog or website, send me the link to the photo by email ([email protected]), and I’ll try to make them available too!

Here are a few of the photos on the site now:

Foxie:

web Foxie kiss new troll doll enrichment outdoor area IMG_3409

 

Negra:

5-22-09-negra-grass

Jamie:

ED sm Jamie good_MG_9849 copy

We’re Looking for a Development Manager

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Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest is hiring! We are looking for someone with fundraising experience to fill the brand new position of Manager of Development.

We are so excited to be expanding our staff with this very important role. Get all of the details on our Job Opportunities page or download the position description in pdf format here. If you have questions after looking over that material, email Jennifer.

Please share widely!

Jamie is looking forward to another staff member to boss around:

Jamie close up

 

New bamboo on the hill

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The site that we now call Young’s Hill was once just an empty horse pasture. Here it is in 2010, before we started construction:

YH before IMG_5898

A wide open pasture may be great for horses, but it’s awfully boring for chimps. And growing a forest from scratch takes a long time. Thankfully, we were introduced to Jackie Heinricher of Booshoot Gardens (now Provitro BioSciences) and she found a solution for us: bamboo!

We initially planted two groves on Young’s Hill and just recently planted some in the chimps’ greenhouse. It’s a great source of shade in the summer, and it’s also great for climbing, nesting, and eating.

Yesterday, we planted three new species of bamboo on the hill, including Phyllostachys nigra, which has beautiful black culms. All were generously donated to us by Provitro.

web Black bamboo grove YH IMG_2030

The chimps were really excited, though I admit it may have had a little to do with the corn, leeks, onions, and carrots that we spread around the hill.

web Missy pant hoot jody open mouth black bamboo YH IMG_8289

We’ve never heard the chimps so vocal on the hill before. As they foraged, everyone was pant-hooting with excitement.

web Negra eat corn jamie leeks jody open mouth YH IMG_8300

Foxie is always suspicious of new things, so at first she and Dora kept kept their distance from the new bamboo:

web Foxie suspicious of bamboo dora annie YH IMG_8312

And Jamie wasn’t quite sure what to make of it either:

web Jamie hold and inspect black bamboo YH IMG_8461

But soon everyone took a turn sitting under the new plants:

web Annie eat onion under black bamboo YH IMG_8452

web Jody sit with back to camera new bamboo YH IMG_8391

web Negra eat carrot new bamboo YH IMG_8384

web Jody bite black bamboo YH IMG_8405

Yesterday was a great day for all of us and Negra must have gotten caught up in the excitement because she did something we have never seen her do before: she climbed up onto the shaky bridge!

web Negra climb onto shakey bridge YH IMG_8359

Negra has lost over 10 pounds since coming to the sanctuary, and probably gained a lot of muscle, but she is still not in good enough shape to keep up with the activities of some of the other chimps. If she keeps this up, though, she may soon be giving Missy a run for her money!

web Negra eat carrot on shakey bridge black bamboo YH IMG_8367

We built a few of the structures on Young’s Hill specifically for Negra – they are close to the building and can be accessed without a lot of climbing. Maybe they’ll come in handy when she’s older because for now, Negra has decided that the whole hill is hers.