Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
I have pretty much the best job in the world. Thanks to stellar volunteers Jessica and Lynn, I was able to spend some time with Burrito this morning. He was in a particularly silly mood.
It’s easy to forget everything that he’s been through when he’s so playful. Chimpanzees have very good memories, but I think they are better at living in the moment than most humans. And Burrito is definitely better at remaining childlike.
The Halloween / Jamie’s birthday celebration today is perhaps the biggest party we’ve had to date, and the chimpanzees were food grunting and squeaking like they’d happened upon the most exciting food they had ever seen.
Here are a few photos of the festivities:
Jamie looking through a Halloween gift bag. Thanks for all the great new toys, Robbi and Dick!
Jamie (and really everyone) enjoyed the juice in Halloween cups with Halloween straws. Thanks, Stephanie!
Jody decided to spend her time bobbing for apples in the pool we filled with water:
Burrito went around to all of the food buckets and picked out the pomegranates, squeaking the entire time. Thanks for the donation to buy produce for the party, Tamela!
Jamie opened up all of the pinatas, including this boot pinata (thanks, Felicity!), but she left some nuts behind. Here’s Negra getting what was left behind:
Foxie kept going back to this bag and peering inside, but she left it for someone else to open. Jamie finally did and Foxie got the troll doll that was in the bag:
Jamie was really making me and Jackie laugh last night:
Jody and Missy would like to thank everyone who participated in our recent Chimps’ Choice request by sending Boomer Balls.
Here are some shots of the new mural. Thank you all for donating to this project. Though it was several months ago, you remain permanently appreciated!
Artist Kim in front of the mural, just after completing it.
Missy checking it out:
I was commenting the other day about how many stories in the media about chimpanzees use some sort of monkey reference, often the term “monkeying around.”
This generally irritates primatologists, partly because it’s just silly and the stories themselves often are not, but mostly because chimpanzees are NOT monkeys. Chimpanzees are great apes like gorillas, orangutans, bonobos and humans. I might as well add that gibbons are called “lesser apes” and they are not monkeys either. There are a few distinct differences between apes and monkeys, the most notable physical difference is the tail – monkeys have them, apes do not.
When I was watching Foxie, Missy and Jody in the outdoor area today, though, I had to admit that “monkeying around” is pretty much exactly how I would describe what they were doing…
There are so many ways to relax when you have hand-like feet
