Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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Just because she can

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Jamie is someone to be admired for a few different reasons. She has, in many ways, overcome her terrible past, and she has established herself as the leader of the Cle Elum Seven chimpanzees. She is strong and knows what she wants. She seems to have a pretty good grasp of both chimpanzee and human behavior and uses this knowledge to her advantage whenever she can. And she doesn’t back down from a challenge, whether it comes from outside or it’s a personal challenge of her own inspiration.

Today, for example, Jamie had one of her favorite boots in the world, given to her practically off of his own feet by the Gallagher Fence representative. She carried the boot with her all day, even when she went out for her adventures on Young’s Hill. At one point, she spotted a piece of kale harvested from the garden (she’s been loving this kale!) that we had put on the treat rock. She got the piece of kale, but decided she wanted to climb the treat rock while holding the kale and her boot. A challenge!

She started on the south side of the rock

Jamie climbing treat rock

Jamie climbing treat rock 2

That proved difficult, so she scaled the rock from the front

Jamie climbing treat rock with boot in hand

She made it to the top and ate her kale

Then went right back down again

Jamie climb down treat rock

 

 

Calling for backup

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Yesterday, Jamie was sitting in the greenhouse when she saw a squirrel running across the hill. The squirrel made it back safely to its den before Jamie could catch up, but unfortunately for the squirrel, Jamie now knows the location of its den. So of course she went to work trying to flush him out with a couple of bamboo canes. Here’s what we found when we went into the enclosure today:

This afternoon, Missy was returning from a trip she made to collect grass from the hill when she heard a strange noise coming from the same area. In this video, you can see her calling Jamie for backup. When the noise ceased, Missy and Jamie gave up and returned to eat their grass in the greenhouse.

 

Back to the basics

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As exciting as all these posts are about the hill, since not everyone is going out on the hill all the time, it’s resulted in some blog posting-neglect of certain folks. So here’s a photo I took of adorable Burrito this afternoon hanging out in the greenhouse, just like “the old days”. He and Negra are definitely creatures of habit.

Motivation

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I have no idea what was going through Foxie’s mind as she walked around the entire perimeter of Young’s Hill on that first day out, but since then, she has been extremely reluctant to go back out. Everyday she tries, but as soon as she gets about 20 feet from the doorway she freezes in her tracks. Obviously the whole experience of being outdoors is overwhelming to her.

Her friends have been encouraging her to go out and to remain out once she is there. But they know that she is scared and they don’t try to push her beyond her comfort zone.

The other day I saw something amazing. Missy came out of the tunnel with a troll in her mouth, and Foxie was trailing behind her. Missy doesn’t care for trolls, so I thought that perhaps Missy was using the troll as a lure to try to help Foxie get outside. And in a way, she was..but it was Foxie that initiated it! Since then, I’ve seen Foxie go through this routine three times with Missy. Foxie begins by stomping around the greenhouse, which is an invitation for someone to go out to the hill with her. When Missy joins her, they both pause and Foxie delicately hands over her troll. She then waits for Missy and the troll to lead the way up the hill.

Online Auction Ends Tonight

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We would love to follow the success of the Seattle Out of the Box 2011 event by reaching our $20,000 goal for the online auction. We have $3,826 to go in just six hours and 30 minutes. So far we have $1,192 toward the on-site medical clinic through the online auction. This is the best way to give back to the chimps – you can donate in any amount. Do it for Negra!

Although several were snatched up fast, there are still plenty of items available to bid, including a five-night stay at the Ihilani Resort  in O’ahu, a private tour of the sanctuary that includes dinner with the staff and an overnight stay, limited edition signed prints of the Philip Herman illustration The Chimps on Young’s Hill (only four left in the auction), a week-long stay on Grand Cayman Island, an opportunity to be a virtual caregiver to the Cle Elum Seven for a whole day, a two-day pass to the Northwest Yoga Conference, and copies of Troll Mania, A Comfy Home and Present Moment, Perfect Moment with photos of the chimpanzees at the sanctuary. On the auction site are the last remaining copies of these books in hardback – no more hardback versions will be printed, so get them now!

Relax at this private pool on the Cayman Islands:

Get the very last available hardback copy of Troll Mania: