Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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Negra’s son Noah

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CSNW supporter Jennifer Douglas and her husband James are sponsoring the migration of Noah on behalf of his mother Negra. Check out the photo of Noah below – he looks so much like his mom!!

Noah (STC) [Bubba's Family]

Noah currently lives at the Save the Chimps facility in New Mexico which was formerly owned by the Coulston Foundation – a notoriously horrid research facility that closed down when Save the Chimps stepped in to rescue the chimpanzees. Like all of the chimpanzees at the former Coulston Foundation laboratory, Noah will be making the journey to Florida where he will live on an island with a large group of chimpanzees. We’re so pleased that Jennifer and James and so many of you are reaching out to help the relatives of the Cle Elum Seven in other sanctuaries.

Thanks to Candy Crannell for alerting us that Noah is now on the Save the Chimps website, and for sponsoring the migration of Foxie’s daughter Angie (who also looks remarkably like her mother).  Also check out Negra’s daughter Angel from this previous post. Many of the sons and daughters of the Cle Elum Seven are now at Save the Chimps, so more on relatives soon!

Greenhouse Update

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We’re getting closer! Volunteer Jim Spencer has been coming all the way from Whidbey Island to help with construction, and together we’ve nearly completed the framing.

1-12-10 greenhouse from pasture IMG_5299

1-12-10 greenhouse north and east IMG_5280

1-12-10 greenhouse south and east IMG_5295

The greenhouse won’t be heated, but the polycarbonate panels should trap enough solar heat to make it comfortable on a sunny day. This morning, Annie spent a little time outside, despite the temperature being in the 30’s. With the greenhouse, she should be able to hang out in the outdoor area a lot more often.

1-12-10 annie_MG_5293

Also, while the chimps love to eat snow, they don’t like to walk in it. Foxie will appreciate not having to tip toe through the cold snow to get to where she wants to go.

1-12-10 foxie 1_MG_5309

1-12-10 foxie 2_MG_5313

Phantom Nesting

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Although we have never witnessed Burrito build his own nest with blankets, as we have mentioned in other blog posts, he will often sleep in someone elses’ nest. Today, I caught Burrito engaging a behavior we, at CSNW, call Phantom Nesting. This is a behavior both he and Foxie occasionally do, which involves clapping and running their clasped hands along the fence, the wall, and/or the floor. Interestingly, this is not a behavior that is seen in the wild, and is rarely seen at all. As far as we know, the behavior has only been observed in a few captive individuals, but definitely seems to be related to nesting.

*Editor’s Note (from Diana): we don’t know much about this behavior. We’d love to hear from others who work with chimpanzees both in captivity and in the wild to find out if you’ve observed nesting behavior in the absence of “normal” nesting material and/or if you’ve seen the same clapping and arm movements described above and shown in the video below.

Nesting, Nesting, Nesting…

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Today, Jamie built herself yet another nest using a blanket and a box. This sparked a conversation between Diana and I about the similarities and differences of nesting behavior of captive vs. free-living chimpanzees. We couldn’t find many videos on the internet of free-living chimpanzees nesting, however, Jane Goodall’s Discover Chimpanzees Website has a behavior glossary, complete with video footage of the chimpanzees in Gombe engaging in a variety of behaviors, including this clip of nesting. If you compare the following video clips of Jody, Missy and Jamie (in order of appearance) to the video clip from the Discover Chimpanzees Website, you can see many similarities. Notice how the free-living chimpanzee (named Fifi) pulls the branches into her nest and pushes them down to make her bed more comfortable. It truly is an exact science.

Party!

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Here are a few photos from the party thus far. We really can’t thank you all enough for the gifts and donations you sent to make this day so special for the chimpanzees in Cle Elum. They certainly do love a party. Little does Burrito knows his birthday is just around the corner! Hope you’re having a great day too!