Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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Missy and Jody

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Missy and Annie have been playing on the hill a lot lately, but this morning Missy found a new partner to play with. She always looks so surprised and overjoyed to be playing with someone else.

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The chimps had only eaten part of their breakfast at this point, and Jody was determined to make it back to the greenhouse to get her chow bags, so she continued to play with Missy as she walked backwards down the hill.

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As they approached the greenhouse, Jody spun Missy around and then proceeded to push her backwards like a shopping cart through the door and into the greenhouse. Missy thought that was hilarious.

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Young at Heart

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Missy does everything with a little extra flair. This morning, instead of walking across the bridge, she walked the tightrope.

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And while Jamie and I took a stroll around the hill, Missy spun herself in circles on the rope swing.

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When she finally decided to catch up to us, she launched herself forward on the swing. Because walking is boring.

web Missy swing fire hose YH 1 IMG_1544

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Later, she tried to act her age, but she wasn’t fooling anyone.

web Missy sit on shaky bridge YH IMG_1440

The greatest staff meeting ever

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Today at the end of our staff meeting, Jamie started stomping in the playroom loft. As we’ve figured out, this seems to mean “please put on one of my boots and chase me around the hill.” We thought it would be fun if we ALL played this game with her. As we all started walking out there, Jamie’s hair stood straight on end and she ran so fast out to meet us—she was so excited! It was a lot of fun, and probably the best staff meeting we’ve ever had. I think Jamie would agree.

At last…

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This has been a long, snowy couple of months. But at last, the sun is out and the snow is gone…at least for now. The chimps have been celebrating this week by running, spinning, leaping, and climbing all over Young’s Hill.

OK, not everyone ran. Jody walked. But it was a brisk walk.

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Foxie brought along a troll. Dora had to wait inside.

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Burrito was all over the place, which is still so exciting to see. He soaked in some sun in Negra’s Cabin.

web Burrito in Negras cabin YH IMG_2482

And climbed from platform to platform.

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Negra even spent some time outside in the sun this morning but you’ll have to take my word for it. We don’t often get photos of Negra when she’s out because she doesn’t seem to tolerate the paparazzi the way the others do.

Missy and Annie chased each other over every inch of the hill, smiling the entire time.

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web Missy grab annie foot play chase YH stump IMG_2640

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I don’t know why Jamie doesn’t engage in this kind of rambunctious play outside. For whatever reason, she prefers to have the staff and volunteers chase her around the hill when she wants to blow off some steam. Volunteer Seana was happy to oblige, but she ended up with more a workout than she was expecting. Jamie first chased her clockwise around the 2-acre enclosure.

web Jamie Seana caregiver volunteer chase YH IMG_2538

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Then when they got back to the bottom, Jamie turned around and ran the whole thing in reverse. This pattern continued until Seana and Jamie were exhausted.

web Jamiwe chase Seana uphill YH caregiver volunteer IMG_2638

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Keeping your friends company

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One of my favorite things about the Cle Elum Seven is how almost everyone is really good friends. We tend to focus on BFF’s Annie and Missy a lot because they are pretty much inseparable, but there are lots of other people that seem to be pretty close, based on the amount of time they play with one another, groom, or have other interactions. If I had to guess based on my observations, I would say (aside from the Annie/Missy duo), Missy is good friends with Negra, Foxie and Burrito; Burrito is good friends with Foxie, Negra, and Missy; Negra is good friends with Foxie, Missy, and Burrito; Jamie is good friends with Foxie; and Jody is good friends with Foxie and Negra (I’ve seen a lot of play between Negra and Jody lately!). Annie’s world still revolves around Missy, but she does occasionally play with Foxie and Negra, so I think she would probably call them good friends too. If you haven’t noticed, Ms. Foxie is a popular lady!

Today I caught Foxie being super goofy all by herself (which is really not all that uncommon) but it wasn’t long before someone had to join in.

Letting loose

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As we were finishing up cleaning the playroom this morning, we caught two unusual suspects — Annie and Negra — in a pretty wacky game.  For those of you just tuning in, Annie is the least dominant chimpanzee at CSNW.  She is gentle and shy, and when she arrived here in 2008 she didn’t have the confidence to play with anyone except for her best friend Missy.  And Negra is the oldest of the Cle Elum Seven, and prefers to spend the vast majority of her time under a blanket.  So it was pretty special to see these two ladies letting loose this morning.