Sometimes it’s nice to reflect on how things have changed for the Cle Elum Seven.
Jody in the lab in early 2008:
Jody on her first day at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest:
Jody on Young’s Hill:
Did you know that Jody has her own Facebook page?
Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
by J.B.
by J.B.
A few weeks ago, we captured some footage of Burrito foraging on Young’s Hill with the GoPro camera. The GoPro is great because it shows us the world from the chimps’ perspective, without the bars or fencing in the way. But the best part is the sound that it captures – make sure to turn up your volume so you can hear Burrito’s low moans and food squeaks. This is the sound of a happy man.
You might notice that Burrito seems a bit more relaxed outside than he did earlier this year. He’s a little less pilo erect (hair standing on end) and he seeks reassurance less often. But you’ll still see him doing both – he’s come a long way, but he’s still pretty cautious when he’s on the hill. You’ll see in this video is that he avoids taking the apple that is sitting right in front of the camera. Whole fruits are Jamie’s favorite thing, so he was probably wise to avoid it with her standing close by.
At the end of the video is a short clip from earlier this week that I filmed with my phone. Jamie and Burrito decided to follow us as we walked around the enclosure. This gives you a good idea of what the view looks like from the top of the hill. If you look carefully, you can see the chimp building at the bottom of the hill. Imagine how scary it must be for Burrito to travel so far from the place he feels most comfortable. He seems to feel better if he can tag along with someone else, even if it’s the girl that bosses him around.
by J.B.
Earlier this week, Burrito did some more exploring of Young’s Hill with Jody.
Jamie climbed to the top of one of the bouncy bridge posts.
Missy and Jody played chase.
Once Missy picked up the pace, though, Jody couldn’t keep up.
The biggest news of all is that Negra ventured out to check out her cabin yesterday. Luckily Jackie and Debbie captured these photos or I would have had a hard time believing it. She didn’t make it all the way inside the cabin, but it was a big first step for her. You just never know when Negra is going to switch things up and try something new.
We’re not the only ones that get excited when the chimps do something out of their comfort zone – the other chimps get excited too. As Negra sat by the cabin, she was greeted by a parade of her friends who came by to reassure her with hugs and kisses.
by J.B.
Mornings are my favorite time at CSNW. The chimps have had their breakfast and they are all geared up to go out and explore Young’s Hill. Unfortunately it is also the time when we clean the enclosures, so we don’t have much of a chance to sit around and watch them. But it’s amazing how much you can witness in just those first few minutes.
This morning, Foxie took a suitcase full of trolls out to the hill.
She later decided to put the trolls on her back as she walked down the hill, the way a chimp mother would carry her infant. As far as I know, three trolls was a personal record for her.
Missy likes to start the day with some athletic activity, especially this time of year. It’s no secret that January in Cle Elum is not perfect chimp weather, but interestingly enough, the Cle Elum Seven seem to prefer spring and fall to the hot summer months and we are actually seeing them go outdoors more now that the temperatures are in the 60’s.
Today, Missy used the handrail on the shaky bridge as a tightrope. This has become one of her new favorite moves. She’s holding a chow bag in these photos. We still supplement the chimps diet of fresh produce, nuts, seeds, and browse with a small amount of a commercially prepared diet. The manufacturer of the chow that we use recently decided to shrink the bicuits to a quarter of their original size, and now it is too cumbersome to serve them directly to the chimps. So we put them in bags. The chimps actually enjoy this, because they can take their chow out to picnic on the hill more easily. Or walk a tightrope with them.
There was a skirmish in the playroom this morning before breakfast. This is fairly typical, because that is the time of day when Burrito tends to display, and he inevitably gets everyone else so worked up that someone ends up mad a someone else. I didn’t see the conflict between Jody and Missy, but it was clear from their behavior later in the morning that they needed to reconcile.
Jody was coming back down the hill with her leftover lemon from breakfast when she saw Missy on the shaky bridge. (Yes, chimps love raw lemons. Raw onions too. We like to serve the lemons after the onions to freshen up the breath.) Jody immediately became pilo erect (hair standing on end) and approached Missy for reassurance.
The two then touched briefly and then Jody went on her way.
Negra came outside this morning but after a few minutes she decided she’d rather be in the greenhouse under a huge pile of blankets. Negra is not a morning person. She’s not really an afternoon or evening person, either. Really, she would prefer to stay in bed all day if she could. If only the staff would bring her meals to her in bed.
Burrito continues to explore more and more of the hill. He is really getting more comfortable out there. Today he climbed up a structure by himself and sat for a while on the end of a beam, taking it all in.
Here he is sitting on the log bridge, showing off some new scars on his wrist. Chimpanzees, especially male chimpanzees, use the back of their wrists to bang on things when they display, and sometimes to bang on other chimps. This is what primatologists refer to as a “backhand thump.” So many male chimps have thick callouses on the backs of their wrists and often some scabs and scars too.
I didn’t intend for this to be a post about each and every one of the chimps, but now I feel bad leaving Annie and Jamie out. Annie just followed Missy around all morning, as she always does, probably wishing that Missy would just sit still for a minute. But Missy is incapable of sitting still.
And Jamie was kind of a loner this morning. It used to be that Burrito would follow her around the hill. I think she enjoyed that. Not the company so much as getting to be the leader. Now Burrito will follow Jody or even venture off on his own as he did this morning. That left Jamie walking around by herself. But she had fun too. Everyone loves the shaky bridge. Maybe we’ll build some more next summer.
by J.B.
This morning, after a few days of being locked out of Young’s Hill for construction, the chimps were able to go back outside and explore their new structure. All of the chimps made a beeline straight to it – all but Negra, that is. Even though it is designed, built, and named for her, we knew that it would take her some time before she was comfortable enough to check it out.
In the meantime the other chimps are more than happy to take advantage of it. Missy, Annie, Jamie, and Jody seem to really like the little platform at the top.
Our thanks go out again to everyone who donated to our 4th Anniversary fundraising drive this summer, including the National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) and the many individual donors that helped us reach our goal. Because of you, the chimps can now enjoy the hill in almost any weather. Now that construction is complete, we have begun designing the plaque that will adorn the cabin with the names of those who helped make it possible.
Jamie was the last to climb up to the top, but once she did she didn’t seem to want to come back down:
Missy must have climbed up and down at least 10 times:
Burrito just followed the food:
by J.B.
Tracy Headley sponsored yesterday in honor of Bruce Clifton’s birthday. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the sponsorship blog post up in time. So in addition to saying sorry, we’d like to wish Bruce an extra special belated Happy Birthday. We hope you got to enjoy some of your favorite foods, like Missy and Negra:
Thanks so much to you both for your support of the Cle Elum Seven!
by J.B.
PO Box 952
Cle Elum, WA 98922
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509-699-0728
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EIN: 68-0552915
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