I guess yesterday’s Jamie-ween party was just so exhausting, Foxie couldn’t help but take a big yawn. Here she is holding the Dora doll donated by Bailey as mentioned in yesterday’s blog.
primate protection
Negra approaches her cabin
As J.B. mentioned in yesterday’s blog, Jackie and I caught Negra approaching her new cabin. Unfortunately I didn’t have our camera on me and didn’t want to miss the shot—so this was taken on my phone. I apologize that it is not the best quality and the chimps are pretty small. But, it is super awesome to see Negra sizing up her cabin and getting reassurance from Foxie and Jody. At one point all seven chimps were in the shot. I thought that was also super awesome so I took a screen shot and labeled all the chimps so you can see them all at once.
I can’t wait until Negra makes it all the way inside the cabin!
Take Action Tuesday: How orangutans are affected by the food and personal care products we buy
Last week we discussed issues that face free-living chimpanzees (and also the other two African apes, gorillas and bonobos). Today I want to take action on a hot topic: palm oil. Free-living orangutan populations are only found on the small islands of Borneo and Sumatra. Since that climate is also really great for palm plantations, which produce palm oil, much of the orangutan habitat has been ripped apart for these plantations. Palm oil is found in almost everything these days—a lot of our food is full of it as well as bath and body products. If the average American opened their cupboards I would guess the majority of the products they have contain palm oil. Watch this great episode of NBC’s Rock Center that discusses the issue in depth.
What can we do? It’s pretty hard to avoid palm oil, but read the labels and choose products that don’t have palm oil over others that do. As the Rock Center article and video mention, the one section of forest known as Tripa has had one company’s permit revoked after an investigation began about the illegal slash and burn agriculture. However, there are still other companies operating in Tripa. Sign this petition to put pressure on the Indonesian government to Save Tripa and the orangutans that live there!
And, since we all really love our vegan butter (which usually contains palm oil), Diana and JB looked up some alternate butter recipes so we could start reducing the amount of palm oil we buy. After doing a small taste test, this is the one that staff decided we liked the best, however we used guar gum instead of xantham powder, and added extra salt.
photo courtesy of The Orangutan Project’s Facebook page
“Oh no!” Laundry basket keep away
Normally we don’t give the chimps laundry baskets, not because they are unsafe (because they aren’t) but because we need them to do all the laundry, to dry all the washed toys, and to have a spot for the day’s enrichment. So, we reserve them for human use only, and the chimps understand that. If they ever get their hands on something they “aren’t supposed to have,” they think it’s pretty funny. Especially Foxie:
Advocacy Program Logo Design Contest
CSNW’s advocacy program, Primate Patrol, mainly focuses on raising public awareness about issues that chimpanzees and other primates face in the entertainment industry. We are starting to broaden our efforts and provide tools for people to help apes in need for a wider range of issues. You may have seen our regular advocacy posts called “Take Action Tuesday,” where we have posted information on how to take action for exploited apes. (Most recently we posted about this petition—sign it now if you haven’t already!)
As part of our plans to broaden the program we are looking for a new logo and design. We want to see what talented folks are out there, so we are having a logo design contest, open to anyone! Visit this page to find out contest details. The new program will be called Eyes on Apes. Click on the contest link to read the mission statement and help inspire your creative design! We’re hoping contestants can come up with a tagline, too. If you have art or graphic design skills, feel free to send us your mock ups to [email protected] and please share the contest page with your graphic design friends and family!
As a prize for the logo we love the most, we are awarding a beautiful 8×10 matted print of Jamie, as well as a $100 gift certificate to the CSNW store. Jamie was exploited by the entertainment industry and pet trade and then used in invasive biomedical testing before being rescued by CSNW just over 4 years ago. She is one of the smartest primates I’ve ever known and it is so sad to think of how miserable she must have been in her previous life. Captivity is never an ideal place for chimpanzees, but we hope through our advocacy efforts that individuals like Jamie will get to a sanctuary, too. So, in recognition of Jamie, the contest will go up until October 31 (her honorary birthday).
Take Action Tuesday: Sign our petition! Retire all 110 NIH chimps
As we discussed last week, the National Institute of Health (NIH) recently announced that they are “retiring” 110 chimps from the New Iberia Research Center (NIRC) in Louisiana. Ten of those chimpanzees are going to Chimp Haven, a sanctuary not far from NIRC. The other 100? They are going to Texas Biomedical Research Institute in San Antonio. Though they say they won’t be used in any more invasive testing, this isn’t a true “retirement.” The chimpanzees should be going to a sanctuary like Chimp Haven or the other six members of the North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance (NAPSA).
Please sign our petition to the NIH and help give these 100 chimps a retirement in a true sanctuary. Then spread the petition by sending it to your contacts via email and posting on Facebook, Twitter and other social media. Show the NIH that the public cares about chimpanzees and that we insist former biomedical chimpanzees go to true sanctuaries.
Autumn on Young’s Hill
I’m not sure when it happened, but autumn is here. The green summer grass on Young’s Hill has turned yellow and the temperatures have cooled a little. It’s hard to believe we’re approaching our second winter on the hill. As of now, though, the days are still warm, so the chimpanzees are enjoying lots of time outside. This morning we scattered chow (protein biscuits) on the hill to encourage some outdoor activity.
Annie:
Foxie brought a couple of troll dolls with her, including a blue-haired one that volunteer caregiver Katelyn gave her yesterday:
Missy:
Jody:
It really doesn’t get old seeing the chimps explore Young’s Hill as a group. For the most part, they seem comfortable enough out there now to split up, but occasionally they travel together. Here’s Jamie in the foreground, and Foxie and Burrito in the background approaching each other for a greeting:
In this photo Jamie is kissing Foxie’s back in greeting. This is a common greeting for Jamie and is often accompanied by a pant grunt vocalization. (Jamie often greets Burrito this way, much to Burrito’s horror – he’s still pretty intimidated by her.)
But he doesn’t let that get in the way of having a good time:
