Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

rescue

Making the “chimp cam”

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We’re so excited to finally be able to share the “chimp cam” videos with everyone and we’re grateful to King 5 News for introducing the chimps to some new people.

Many of you had questions about the new camera, so we put together this video (with some new footage of the chimps!) to show you how it was made. We were able to purchase the camera thanks to a fundraising drive launched by our wonderful blog readers, and volunteers Jakob, Jessy, Rachel, Adrienne, and Janna helped us install the cameras on Young’s Hill.

Unfortunately, the camera won’t allow us to stream live video on the internet. We are still limited by our poor internet connection (that’s life in the country) and, with the size of our enclosures, you wouldn’t see the chimps very often unless we had a lot of cameras (unlike the popular bird’s nest cameras). But we’re always looking for new ways to share the chimps’ lives with you, so we hope to have some more surprises in the future.

King 5 link to broadcast

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Here’s the link to the King 5 story that just aired about Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest: http://ow.ly/aGS3M

Thanks Gary and Ken for making the trek out to Cle Elum and for sharing the GoPro footage! And thanks to GoPro camera donors who helped us purchase the camera earlier this year and the special group of volunteers who helped install the camera mounts on Young’s hill (more on that later).

Chimpanzees’ choice: enrichment or food?

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Today is GORGEOUS! So gorgeous that we set out a party on Young’s Hill complete with new gifts from special friends and fun food. It was an early celebration of Love a Chimpanzee Day (April 23rd), a holiday invented by supporter Monica Best and a day that she sponsors each year.

Jamie passed the food and went right for her new red boots brought by Monica’s friend Sophy. After securing her new red boots, Jamie did manage to get a huge armful of bok choy (not pictured).

Jamie with new red boots

Jamie stand with new red boots

 

Guess what Burrito chose? That’s right – food! Here he is eating cabbage by the treat rock:

Burrito eating cabbage

 

Jody first went for the food (she’s eating watermelon in the photo below):

Jody eating on climbing structure

 

But later she grabbed some clown glasses and a new doll. The photo below is a little blurry because Jody was on the move!

jody with enrichment

 

There were three new Dora dolls on the hill, thanks to caregiver Jackie’s thrift store shopping. Foxie quickly gathered them all up:

Foxie with dora dolls

Foxie with dora dolls 2

 

And later spent some quality time with them:

Foxie in greenhouse with dora dolls

All in all, it was a delightful early celebration of Love a Chimpanzee Day. Thank you, Monica! And thank you to all supporters who sponsor days and otherwise support the sanctuary.

 

Today was a special day for me too! Jim, Audrey and Brian worked on the outreach & events stuff shed. Isn’t it beautiful?? I want to move in.

shed glistening in the sun

 

Playfaces and acrobatics

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Missy got Jody to play with her on the hill today.

After chasing each other and wrestling for a bit, they casually walked up to the tall bamboo grove.

While I was snapping some photos of Jody, Missy suddenly climbed one of the bamboo culms. By the time I could turn the camera on her, she had ridden it back down to the ground. She really seemed to enjoy letting it go and watching it snap back into form.

New troll

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Foxie has hundreds of troll dolls, but she still loves getting new ones.

When she gets a new one, she usually cuddles it or holds it to her belly.

Sometimes she will take the troll for a stroll, putting it on her back the way a chimp mother might carry her child (that’s Jody on the left).

When she’s really excited about a new troll, she will play games with it, like balancing it on the rung of a ladder until it falls onto her belly.

This troll got to tour most of Young’s Hill today.