rescue

Happy Birthday, Heiwon!

March 29, 2015 by Katelyn

Today’s day of sanctuary was sponsored by Don and Karen Young for their granddaughter, Heiwon Young, who turns 7 years old today! Don and Karen generously helped to make the chimpanzees’ 2-acre outdoor habitat, Young’s Hill, possible and we are grateful for their compassion and support of the chimps every single day. They shared the following sweet message about today:

“Heiwon is the daughter of Rob and Soo Mi Young, the sister of Helton Young, and our precious granddaughter. She is a Princess, loves animals, is a dancer and an extraordinary artist, but more importantly, she is a gentle, lovely, compassionate little girl.”

Don and Karen, thank you for keeping the chimpanzees in your hearts and sharing Heiwon’s special day with them.

Heiwon, how exciting to be turning 7 years old! We hope you have the happiest of days and thank you for sharing your 7th birthday with the Cle Elum 7!

Our beloved resident dancer, Foxie. (And for an oldie, but goodie, check out this video of Foxie dancing to the “Lord of the Dance” video).

Burrito’s big week

March 20, 2015 by J.B.

This has been a pretty big week for Burrito.

Just two days ago, Katelyn wrote about how Burrito has been tagging along when Jamie and her caregivers walk around the hill. It’s a sign of his growing confidence that he’s able to venture further away form the security of the chimp house in the company of other chimps. But yesterday, Burrito decided that he doesn’t even need Jamie’s company anymore. Now he’s the one asking us to go on walks!

All day long, he’s been trying to capture our attention with playful stomps and head bobs. As soon as we approach, he runs up the hill, waiting just long enough for us to catch up before running off again. You can even hear him laughing as he runs.

Nearly seven years after their release from the lab, and three and a half years since their first experience outdoors, we are still witnessing the chimps grow physically and emotionally.

Burrito even played a lead role in a brief patrol today. This afternoon, an unusual bird call could be heard coming from the woods nearby. Jody was the first to check it out, as she often is. Burrito then walked to the top of the hill to join her.

At first, Foxie watched from a distance.

As did Annie.

But soon a group gathered at the top of the hill, and after a brief investigation, they determined that is was nothing to worry about.

So Burrito went right back to his new routine.

I sure hope this continues. I love to see him freely exploring the hill and taking advantage of all of the space that’s available to him. And I’m thrilled that he’s getting so much exercise. But if I’m being honest, there’s one other thing that I’m happy about, for purely selfish reasons:

He doesn’t make us wear cowboy boots.

Reassurance

March 13, 2015 by J.B.

To follow up on Elizabeth’s post yesterday, here’s a good example of Burrito’s other side – the testosterone-filled Tasmanian Devil side that leaves a path of destruction and screaming girls in its wake. This is the side we usually see when we arrive to work in the morning.

As you’ll see in the video, Annie was the victim of one of Burrito’s drive-by displays this morning. Being a chimpanzee is stressful, but they have some pretty good ways of dealing with that stress. Like hugs, for example.

One thing you might notice in the video is that Annie also seeks reassurance from me and I don’t offer it to her. As hard as it may be to resist in these instances, we make a conscious decision to avoid inserting ourselves into their social conflicts. If Annie was startled by a loud noise, we would gladly offer her a touch with the back of a wrist to help comfort her. But when she’s involved in a social conflict, we risk upsetting the delicate balance in the group if we inject ourselves, even if it’s just to offer reassurance. At these times, the chimps aren’t just looking for emotional support – they may also be looking for political allies or even backup for an ensuing retaliatory fight. So we try to limit our involvement to a polite acknowledgement in the hope that they will work things out amongst each other. And they usually do.

Besides, no one can comfort a chimpanzee better than another chimpanzee.

She’s back…….

March 6, 2015 by J.B.

Cle Elum’s favorite elk is on the move again.

Ellie, as we have named her (others in town also know her as “Button”), is a wild elk that was separated from her herd at a young age. She found a safe haven in the pasture of a nearby ranch, where she helped herself to the hay set out for the horses and cattle throughout the winter. She’s free to come as go as she pleases, since elk can easily jump the fences typically used to contain farm animals. In the warmer months, when food is plentiful, she wanders the Bristol Flats canyon and the side of Lookout Mountain, and because spring came early to the Northwest this year, she decided to venture over to the sanctuary this week for a visit.

She likes to stop by the sanctuary office to check up on us and the cats:

She also seems to enjoy teasing our dogs. They’ve never met an animal so unmoved by their barking and growling. But that doesn’t stop them from trying.

She greets all visitors to the sanctuary, including unsuspecting repairmen.

Seeing Ellie is always bittersweet. We’d love to see her rejoin a wild herd, but in the few times they have come back through the canyon, she has either declined to join them or was not accepted. In many ways, she probably has the same kind of identity confusion that we see in cross-fostered chimpanzees (chimps that were raised as if they were human). Perhaps she even sees herself as more cow or horse than elk.

But she certainly enriches the lives of the chimps. When they first saw her two years ago, they tried to scare her away from Young’s Hill. But unlike our dogs, they eventually realized that she wasn’t going anywhere, and now they greet her more with interest than with fear or territoriality.

Sandra, a Level 3 volunteer, was walking around the hill with Jamie yesterday when Ellie decided to make an appearance. She and Debbie put together this video:

Looking for adventure

February 27, 2015 by J.B.

Missy was stuck in high gear today.

She tried joining Jamie on her walks but the walks were too slow, so she ran.

Eventually she gave up on Jamie altogether and just starting running around the hill by herself in the rain.

When the sun came out, all of the other chimps emerged from the greenhouse to spend time on the hill. She tried enticing Foxie to play by stealing one of her dolls, but Foxie wasn’t rambunctious enough.

She tried getting Jody to chase her, but Jody couldn’t keep up.

Missy is like an electron, orbiting around the other chimps as if they were standing still. But once and a while, she comes to a stop and starts looking around…

…looking for something that will give her an adrenaline fix.

And when she finds it, she can hardly contain her excitement.

Look at that smile on her face.

In remembrance of Pat Trotta

February 27, 2015 by J.B.

This day of sanctuary was also sponsored in remembrance of Pat Trotta by a wonderful friend of the Cle Elum Seven, Wanda Trotta, and her family:

“A day in remembrance of Pat Trotta who when we visited the “7” a couple of years ago was also taken by them. He, like Jamie, was a leader – in his field of optics. He leaves an enormous hole in our lives but fills our hearts with a 1/0 of love. Enjoy being whole again, Pat and we’ll see you soon.

We love you 1/0, The Trottas”

We’re so glad that the chimps touched your lives, and honored that you chose to remember Pat in this way. In memory of Pat, here’s Jamie, as she so often does, leading her family on a walk around Young’s Hill:

Jody Harvesting in the Greenhouse

February 21, 2015 by Diana

As Katelyn mentioned in her post the other day, Jody is known as Jody the Harvester.

Though we have been having a very mild winter, there isn’t much new to harvest on Young’s Hill yet. Today, instead, Jody turned her harvesting attentions to the Christmas tree.

We’ve been getting a lot of use out of that Christmas tree – using it to hide goodies during various foraging parties. It’s in a big pot right now in the Greenhouse, and we are hoping to plant it on the hill in the spring, but we weren’t sure if the chimps would allow it to survive until we can plant it.

For the most part, they’ve ignored it, aside from getting treats out of it during parties. Every once in a while, however, Jody decides to take a few samples: