Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

northwest

Make more friends for the chimps – today!

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The sanctuary is less than 300 fans away from reaching 5,000 “likes” on our Facebook page, so I thought we should try to reach 5,000 today, and we can throw a Cinco (Mil) de Mayo party for the chimps tomorrow!

It’s an ambitious goal for one day, so we really need everyone’s help to spread the word. Tell all of your friends on Facebook to like the CSNW page, and, even if you’re not on Facebook, send an email out to your friends who are and let them know we want them to like our page today. You can send them a link to the full “chimp cam” video that King 5 previewed yesterday to win them over: http://youtu.be/u4i0HhwWKls.

As a bonus, J.B. is going to be posting a video on the Facebook page that he caught on his phone just now of Negra sneaking onto the hill and getting grass, so if you’re a fan of the Cle Elum Seven and not a fan on Facebook, today is your day to rectify that situation!

 

Here’s what our Facebook cover currently looks like – Jody peacefully sleeping in the sandbox:

 

facebook page screenshot Jody sleeping

King 5 link to broadcast

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Here’s the link to the King 5 story that just aired about Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest: http://ow.ly/aGS3M

Thanks Gary and Ken for making the trek out to Cle Elum and for sharing the GoPro footage! And thanks to GoPro camera donors who helped us purchase the camera earlier this year and the special group of volunteers who helped install the camera mounts on Young’s hill (more on that later).

Cle Elum Seven Chimps on King 5 tonight at 5pm

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The chimpanzees had a visit from reporter Gary Chittim and videographer Ken Jones of King 5 today! At least two of the girls were smitten – Jamie checked out their boots and Jody shyly spied on them from the greenhouse.

They will be airing the visit and some unique video footage of the chimpanzees on Seattle’s NBC station tonight at 5pm. I won’t give too much away, but you’ve never seen this perspective of the chimps before.

King5 will have the story on their website after it airs, and we’ll update you with a link as soon as we have it. Post your comments here, on the Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest Facebook page and on King 5’s Facebook page as the story airs!

burrito face in camera

sweet eats and sweet annie

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Hey! Tomorrow is the last day of the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale (what a cool concept, right?)  You can help Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest by heading to the Tacoma bake sale located at King’s Books, 218 St Helens Ave, Tacoma, WA 98402. Find out more on the Facebook event page, which includes photos of some of the yummy baked goods you can buy. If you want to bake something as well as purchasing baked goods, feel free to drop in with your goodies at the book store tomorrow (Sunday) at noon. In addition to the baked goods, 35 copies of the vegan baked goods recipe book is up for sale. All proceeds support the sanctuary, so indulge!

Tacoma vegan bake sale flyer

 

Speaking of sweetness, if you saw our April e-news last week, you learned a little bit more about beautiful Annie. However, if you’re somewhat new to the sanctuary and the blog, you might not be aware that Annie has a habit of making bird noises (check out the video in the “Annie-isms” blog post from 2010 to hear her chirps). She has a particular technique for producing these sounds that involves holding both hands over her face. She was relaxing in the greenhouse this afternoon making her bird sounds and I snapped a few photos.

 

Annie involved her feet in the chirping today:

Annie hand over mouth bird noises

 

She may have just been having fun with her lips in this photo:

Annie hand over face bird noises

 

I think she’s generally quite pleased with herself after a good bird call (chimpanzees don’t smile the same way that humans do, but Annie often looks like she has a grin on her face from our human perspective):

Annie pleased

Chimpanzees’ choice: enrichment or food?

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Today is GORGEOUS! So gorgeous that we set out a party on Young’s Hill complete with new gifts from special friends and fun food. It was an early celebration of Love a Chimpanzee Day (April 23rd), a holiday invented by supporter Monica Best and a day that she sponsors each year.

Jamie passed the food and went right for her new red boots brought by Monica’s friend Sophy. After securing her new red boots, Jamie did manage to get a huge armful of bok choy (not pictured).

Jamie with new red boots

Jamie stand with new red boots

 

Guess what Burrito chose? That’s right – food! Here he is eating cabbage by the treat rock:

Burrito eating cabbage

 

Jody first went for the food (she’s eating watermelon in the photo below):

Jody eating on climbing structure

 

But later she grabbed some clown glasses and a new doll. The photo below is a little blurry because Jody was on the move!

jody with enrichment

 

There were three new Dora dolls on the hill, thanks to caregiver Jackie’s thrift store shopping. Foxie quickly gathered them all up:

Foxie with dora dolls

Foxie with dora dolls 2

 

And later spent some quality time with them:

Foxie in greenhouse with dora dolls

All in all, it was a delightful early celebration of Love a Chimpanzee Day. Thank you, Monica! And thank you to all supporters who sponsor days and otherwise support the sanctuary.

 

Today was a special day for me too! Jim, Audrey and Brian worked on the outreach & events stuff shed. Isn’t it beautiful?? I want to move in.

shed glistening in the sun

 

Foxie’s expanding troll doll collection

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Foxie has received a lot of new troll dolls in the past few days. She’s also been even more playful than her baseline playfulness, which is off the charts. Coincidence?

She was sitting in the window ledge watching Connie and me set up the playroom after cleaning today, so I decided to set her troll dolls out so she could take a look before coming back in the room. Annie joined her for a moment and I saw Annie with one of the troll dolls in her nest tonight.

Please excuse all of the mooning in the photo below

Foxie and Annie in window, troll dolls on bench