Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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pumpkin

Pumpkin Season

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Pumpkin season is finally here! As a Fall-lovin’ girl, this is my favorite time of year. I love watching the PNW trees change color, the air gradually getting colder, and having to unpack my sweatshirts from storage bags. It’s the best!

Today, despite it being in the 60’s, it was a beautiful day for a forage on Young’s Hill and The Bray. Along with vegetables, the chimps enjoyed pineapple as well as mini pumpkins! We don’t usually have pumpkins ahead of Jamieween, so they were extra amped to see them on the menu. Even Queen Negra left her warm cozy nest to venture out to score one of the pumpkins, food squeaks and all.

I’d also like to give a special shout out to Caregiver Chad for snapping these photos for me! I knew he’d be my best bet to get some quality shots of the chimps grabbing the pumpkins. Enjoy!

Annie foraging:

Burrito:

Foxie pant hooting:

Jamie (left) and Burrito (right):

Jamie:

Missy:

Neggie:

Jamieween 2023

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Happy Jamieween, everybody! The time has finally come for us to celebrate our boss, Jamie Chimpanzee! Today, Jamie turns 46 years young! We celebrated today with some of her favorite things: pomegranates, leeks, bell peppers, pear cider, and new boots and books!

We also included two new items! Inside the cups of pear cider were ice skulls with “brains”(raspberries)!

The second item was “Chow for Brains”! A gracious donor purchased silicone brain molds from our Amazon Wish List to help us make brains out chow dust, banana, pomegranate juice, and apple sauce! With so much commotion and excitement from today, I completely forgot to take photos of them. You can catch a small glimpse of Terry eating one here:

For us caregivers, this Jamieween was bittersweet. It is the first Jamieween we celebrated without our celebrated Great Pumpkin Thief: Jody. But with Dia De Los Muertos beginning tomorrow, we decided to honor our beloved Jody by decorating her burial site and to offer her some of her favorite forage foods, this included big leafy greens! You can watch the video to see the set up and who stopped by to visit. Interestingly enough, everybody left that pumpkin where it was. This is probably just a huge coincidence, but I am choosing to believe they left it there for her.

We hope you all have a happy and safe Jamieween!

Here are some photos from today!

Missy

Burrito

Terry

And Annie (leaving Jody’s site)

Mora excited for today’s menu

Stay Spooky

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Though October has passed and we have begun November, it doesn’t mean we can’t still be in the Spooky Season! Yesterday you saw how Jamie and friends celebrated her 45th birthday. As promised in yesterday’s blog, here is how Lucky’s group celebrated Jamieween!

Willy B and a plate full of pomegranates!

Gordo enjoying his pomegranates!

And a pumpkin top!

Honey B munching on a hazelnut!

Mave taking a sip of sparkling cider!

Cy snacking on one of the pumpkins!

Lucky taking her turn snacking!

Cy and Lucky enjoying their goodies from the party!

Yesterday, when Jody was plotting her heist of the Jamieween pumpkin with a wadge full of pomegranate!

Can you spot Nutmeg’s spy?

Stay Spooky, everybody!

Jamieween 2022

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This year’s iteration of Jamieween was a joyful success!

With the help of our amazing supporters, we caregivers prepared a feast and party to celebrate The Boss’s honorary birthday. The staff collected some video clips and photographs of the event to share with you all. Please be aware that we also recorded the highlights of the other group’s party but haven’t had time to sort through all the files yet. We hope to share additional content from today’s event very soon!

Some of the plentiful treats and toys we served and delivered to the chimps today:

Burrito:

Jamie:

Jody (with the prized pumpkin):

Jamie turned 45 years old this year, but the decades haven’t slowed her down one bit. Yesterday, for the first time in her life, she courageously shimmied her way up into the canopy of a real, living tree. This chimpanzee’s confidence, intelligence and curiosity truly know no bounds, and we’re honored to care for her in her sanctuary home.

Here are some of my favorite photos of Jamie from the past year:

A Jamieween Tale of Two Scarecrows

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Today was Jamieween, a day unlike any other.

Today we celebrated Jamie Chimpanzee’s birthday and Halloween. And boy did we celebrate.

All of the humans truly outdid themselves this year. Enrichment Coordinator Chad has been thinking about and planning some special surprises for Jamie’s 43rd, and there was a lot of improvised fun sprinkled on top. Caregivers came in on their day off to help and share in the celebration.

I’ll start with Jamie. She had a particularly fantastic day. It was chilly early this morning, but as soon as I opened the hill for the chimps, Jamie bolted out and I joined her on the first walk of the day. The morning light choosing spots to illuminate on the hill was so beautiful (the photo below doesn’t quite capture it, but I posted a short video clip on Instagram), and I was glad she invited me along to enjoy it.

There were many gifts for Jamie throughout the day (thanks to those who purchased items from our wish list for Jamie!). These gifts were left for her in different areas for her to find. Katelyn noticed that Jamie had a particular interest in mummies a while back – she was carrying around a national geographic and paying special attention to some photos about mummies. So of course mummy books were a part of her celebration.

Kelsi and Anna created a “haunted box fort” for her in the playroom so she could enjoy some of her new books.

Later, after a refreshment…

…she checked out another one of the mummy books in the greenhouse:

Yesterday the winds were howling, but today was still and crisp and even warm, so of course we had to set up some Halloween food forages outside. The chimpanzees got to enjoy their very first pomegranates of the season – whole pomegranates! Jamie was quite pleased.

If you have seen past Jamieween celebrations, by now you might be wondering about the pumpkin and Jody…

This year, Chad had the idea of making scarecrows for the chimps with edible heads, so the pumpkin stood in as the head of the scarecrow on Young’s Hill.

Behold:

Due to her actions in past years, Jody has been bestowed the title of Great Pumpkin Thief. It wasn’t certain that she would be holding that honorific this year, however, because while Jody was off collecting pomegranates, Annie took an interest in the jack-o’-lantern (minus the lantern):

 

Annie also un-stuffed the scarecrow a bit and founds some hidden nuts.

But in the end, Annie left the pumpkin in place for Jody, the true thief, to strike again.

There was no obstacle, including one Burrito Chimpanzee, that would stand in her way:

Just look at that determination:

Everyone, as in years past, eventually got to enjoy the fruit of Jody’s labor by partaking in some of the pumpkin. Queen Negra nibbled on some from her bed, sharing with Missy:

For the other group of chimpanzees, we decided to use a head of cabbage for the scarecrow noggin. Chad added the jack-o’-lantern touch and Anna secured the scarecrow to a post:

I can’t look at that and not laugh. On the other hand, I can also imagine a horror movie with that character.

Willy B may have thought the same. He did not want to interact with the scarecrow, but made a quick job of devouring the cabbage:

Mave and Honey B were enjoying a lettuce forage in the chute while Willy B had his personal Jamieween treat, and later all three had a little party in the mezzanine with sparkling cider and popcorn:

Mave hoots while Honey B eats popcorn

Then for lunch they too got whole pomegranates. These, however, were extra special as they had had a visit from carver Chad. I’m sorry I did not get any photos of Willy B putting a whole pomegranate in his mouth and attempting to chew.

For dinner, Willy B, Mave, and Honey B got their own taste of pumpkin, which they devoured. Here’s Honey B:

Jamie ended her day by grabbing one of her new boot books and collecting some corn cobs in a box to enjoy in the front rooms, emitting low, contented moans as she ate.

All of the chimpanzees had a day of non-stop partying and are now sleeping soundly. There were many other photos as well as videos of the day, but I see that it’s dark and late and I should get home to my own haunted home.

I hope you all had a fun treat-filled day like the chimpanzees and that it continues into the night!

Video: the drama of Jamieween!

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The video below shows just some of the highlights of Jamieween (turn up the volume if you want the addition of music to add to the drama).

 

 

In addition to the fun adventures in the video, Jamie received not one, not two, not even three, but four pairs of new cowboy boots from her fan club of supporters.

One of Jamie’s top favorite foods is pears, so I decided to hide a whole pear in one of her new boots – sort of both a trick and a treat.

She immediately took that pair of boots, inspected, and nested with them:

Jamie inspecting new boot

Jamie nesting

 

She even tried one on:

Jamie trying on boot

 

But, apparently it wasn’t the one with the pear, because the pear was still in the boot when I went into the playroom later that day to spot clean. I was shocked!

It took another couple of hours, but Jamie did finally find her birthday treat.

 

Jamie eating pear

Thank you to everyone who made this a special day for boss Jamie and us humans who had the privilege of celebrating with her!