Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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Fall in Love with Mave

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Today, we present the Fall in Love with Mave video (link above)! As you know by now, becoming a Pal to one the of the chimpanzees or bovines at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest is one of the best ways to support their ongoing care. In the spirit of the day, we hope there are a few people out there who’d like to be Mave’s valentine by signing up to be her Pal.

Speaking of Valentine’s Day, the chimpanzee celebrated the day as they do most holidays – by stuffing themselves with delicious food. Today began with a special breakfast prepared by volunteer Patti, consisting of healthy waffles topped with peanut butter. Negra, as you can imagine, was thrilled. The new guys, on the other hand, weren’t sure what to make of this unusual Valentine’s day tradition. Honey B even returned her waffles to the waitstaff by pushing them back through the caging, but after trying them she excitedly asked us to pick them all up and hand them back to her. It’s a good reminder to always taste your food before sending it back to the kitchen.

Later in the day we set out forages of fresh fruits and veggies along with shots of fruit smoothie.

Negra (with Jody in the background):

Jody:

Foxie:

Missy:

Burrito:

 

Honey B:

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Happy Valentine’s Day, Matt!

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This lovely day of sanctuary was sponsored by Sharon Langone for her husband, Matt Langone!

“Happy Valentine’s Day to my husband, Matt! We both love the work the team does at the sanctuary on Valentine’s Day and all year round- so it seemed fitting!”

Sharon and Matt, thank you so much for your support of the chimpanzees and cattle who call Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest home! We so appreciate your love for them and all of us here wish you a beautiful day filled with all, and who, you most love.

Chimpanzees “hug” and “kiss” all the time. And while it’s nearly impossible for us humans not to equate these gestures with our own human equivalents, in chimp lingo they are typically gestures of greeting and reassurance. But I don’t believe there is any less heart behind them. Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! (Naturally, be sure to tune in later for the chimps’ party 🙂 ).

Annie and Missy:

Jody and Missy:

Jody and Missy:

An oldie, but goodie of Foxie and her troll doll:

Burrito:

Fall in Love with Willy B

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Happy Valentine’s Eve!

On Saturday, we shared the Fall in Love with Honey B video, so you’ve probably been anticipating this one!

For a little background in case you missed Saturday’s post: a few years ago we made ‘Fall in Love with” videos for all of the chimpanzees. Like right now, these videos were part of a February fundraiser highlighting the Chimpanzee Pal program. The videos are at the bottom of each of the chimpanzees‘ webpages.

I now present to you: Fall in Love with Willy B (see video above).

I anticipated a lot of slinky footage for Willy B’s video, and I knew I would enjoy putting it all together, but it was even more delightful a process than I had anticipated.

One thing you may have noticed from Willy B and Honey B’s videos is the lack of images and footage of them outside. That’s because they are still wary of the electric fence and are choosing not to go into their “courtyard” even when given the opportunity. This hopefully will change with time, and it makes our continued expansion even more important so that they can enjoy a large playroom and indoor-outdoor greenhouse space too!

Tomorrow is the first Valentine’s Day that Honey B, Willy B, and Mave will be celebrating at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest.

Help us celebrate this special occasion by signing up to be a pal to one of the new three (Mave’s video is in the works) or to any of the chimpanzees at the sanctuary.

For a smaller donation, you can even be a Bovine Buddy to one of the three rescued cows or steer Nutmeg at the sanctuary (video to come before the end of the month)!  Pal and Buddy sponsorships help pay for the care of these unique and charming non-humans.

Thanks to everyone who already contributes to the sanctuary in a myriad ways, including through the Chimpanzee Pal and Bovine Buddy programs. Your donations are very much needed and appreciated!

The One with all the Sun

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You guys! I don’t want to jinx anything… But the sun is out, you can feel the warmth, and there were some really happy chimps! Fingers crossed this means spring is coming early. Please enjoy all these photos of the chimps basking in the sun.

Neggie took a small stroll:

Missy and Annie were sprinting all around the Hill, all day:

Burrito really enjoyed walking around with all the ladies:

I was able to capture a group action shot of almost everyone scattering onto the Hill in the morning when it first opened:

Jamie building her nest:

And modifying her blankets:

Mave grooming herself:

Honey B :

If your heart wasn’t melting before, it will be:

Honey B was just being so silly and funny. So funny that I would actually laugh out loud. She would be eating breakfast than suddenly roll around on a barrel and burst into a full sprint out into the Chute! She put her fanny pack on and press it up to the enclosure to have you look at it. She than would take it off and offer for her caregivers to wear it. Honey B just seemed to be in a really good mood. I thought I might share 🙂

 

 

A day in the sun

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I once had the great privilege of watching a mama coyote step out into the cool morning air of the forest, stop and look at me, and then look over her shoulder where I saw her very young pups exit their den and come tumbling after her, rolling and wrestling with each other, feeling perfectly safe and at ease and full of joy in the early morning light. It’s remained one of my most cherished memories actually, and I think of it often. When I opened the door to Young’s Hill for the seven this morning, that memory lit up in my mind’s eye again as I watched them literally spill out of the door and onto the hill together, Jamie in the lead, Missy and Jody wrestling and grabbing one another’s feet all the way up the hill behind Jamie, followed by Annie and Foxie chasing each other as they took their joy-filled procession around the perimeter.

As I followed the girls I caught sight of Burrito, hesitantly bringing up the rear. He has been accompanying them around the hill, but sometimes appears unsure about having to catch up on his own or being able to keep up with their speed. Burrito is healing so well, but understandably, he’s still working on gaining his full strength and stamina back. Once he saw that I was waiting for him he immediately did his patented hop and skip (I don’t think we’ve caught this on video yet, but it’s an adorable little springy-bouncey-kick-of-the-back-legs thing only B does) which my heart did in turn at the sight of him, and we were off. We occasionally stopped along the way so he could rest and take in the sights and I just followed at his pace.

This one melts my heart a little. Whenever I’d slow down, he would give a little jump and make sure I was still coming:

Annie sat silently for the longest time, just taking in the view and the sunshine:

It was just one of those lucky days when all ten of the chimpanzees concurred with my plans for shifting and cleaning today so that right after breakfast everyone was able to scoot outside, where they remained for the majority of the day! It’s been possibly the warmest, sunniest day we’ve this winter and everyone was basking in all the light. **A sidenote for those who may be wondering: Mave, Honey B and Willy B continue to have frequent opportunities to access their own private courtyard along Young’s Hill, but they haven’t been ready to leave the comfort and familiarity of the chute yet and that’s okay. They’ll get there, or not, in their own time and way. In the meantime, they seem to thoroughly enjoy hanging out in the chute, watching the other chimps, hooting and hollering, taking in the sights and the sun. And to be honest, they still tend to spend the majority of their time inside even when they have access to the chute. But it’s always their choice, just as it should be.

It didn’t take long for Jody and Foxie to realize that Mave, Willy B, and Honey B had chute access and could be spied upon from their spot on Young’s Hill:

I looked up to see Negra multi-tasking from her favorite spot in the playroom: baking in the sun, taking in the view and keeping an eye on the neighbors while blowing an occasional kiss to caregivers:

These were from a couple days ago when there was still a dusting of snow on the ground. It’s just so heart-lifting to see everyone enjoying these sunny, crisp midwinter days outside, or indoors from a variety of sun puddles.

Foxie and Strawberry Shortcake:

Missy:

Jody searching for an ice treat:

I’ll end with a quick story from this morning. If you’ve been following the blog awhile you are probably aware of Burrito’s complete and utter obsession with eating snow this season. He’s always loved it, but this year is a whole other level of snow snack love. Before we’re even fully in the chimp house in the morning, he makes sure we know the first order of business is to get him a snow snack immediately. And I do mean immediately. He’s madly blowing raspberries, kicking the caging and pointing out the window and will NOT be ignored (not that we would ignore him 😉 ). We’re only to happy to oblige, but with these spring-like days the snow is all but gone. But yesterday, I found one remaining pile down the driveway and along the shady side of the barn. So staff caregiver Chad was sent on a mission this morning and returned a bit later with a hammer, frozen fingers and two buckets of snow, much to B’s delight. Now Burrito’s latest thing is to finish up the day by having a final snow snack before bed as well! We are going to have to buy bags of ice and fire up the snow-cone machine before long to keep him in snow snacks year-round I guess.

The Best Volunteers

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To say we lean on our volunteers (and interns) when times get tough is an understatement.

There is so much to do and the days feel so short right now. To appreciate how critical the volunteers are, it may help you to understand how our team operates.

Each day, one of our staff members has the role of Lead Caregiver and is primarily responsible for opening and closing the facility, operating and unlocking doors, responding to safety issues, and synchronizing all of the day’s personnel. Think of them, as Chad nicely puts it, as “air traffic control.” A second staff member is tasked with completing daily chores, preparing meals and enrichment, distributing medications, and approving all of the Lead’s door operations. In short, two caregivers manage the Chimp House as partners for the day. Their typical itinerary looks something like this:

Open, check, serve, shift, check, clean, check, shift, check, clean, check, shift, serve, organize, tidy, blog, check, shift, clean, serve, check, close. Somehow find time to answer emails. Repeat all of it the next day.

A third staff member may be asked to help them, but that still only leaves just enough time to complete the bare essentials, with no time left for administrative work, sanctuary upkeep, or other miscellaneous projects. It’s safe to say that we need extra help, and we’re fortunate enough to have a full corps of capable and eager volunteers who support our staff every day.

Volunteering is a big commitment. Just to even be on site, applicants must go through rigorous training. This process includes a preliminary application and a safety orientation followed by months of interactive learning. Even for volunteers and interns who come in weekly, it takes months of hard work to become proficient at basic tasks. While becoming familiar with all the essential duties, most volunteers also learn to distinguish the individual chimpanzees and conduct the necessary checks before unlocking enclosures for cleaning. This is not a task to be taken lightly. At the highest level of responsibility, some volunteers are even trained to have protected contact with the chimpanzees through the steel caging. With this specialized skill set comes the ability to directly serve meals to the chimps.

Because volunteers “lend a hand” with many time-consuming tasks, caregivers sometimes have the flexibility to work on other endeavors (such as writing long-winded blog posts with accompanying videos). The volunteers also advocate for chimps via outreach events, work to inspire donations, devise and build new enrichment items, and assist with monitoring chimpanzee health and behavior. They’re an integral part of our team.

Most importantly, the individuals who volunteer here are great people who love the chimpanzees. In addition to making the workplace more interesting for our staff, they certainly help the chimpanzees to have a good time. Volunteers will often be seen dutifully putting on cowboy boots for Jamie, running around the Hill with Missy, playing tug-of-war with Burrito, stomping around with Willy B, and pretending to be excited when Honey B gifts them random items through the caging (today’s most notable gift was an elastic headband). We appreciate the extra hands, but the chimps may appreciate them even more.

Of course, the volunteers get unique experiences and acquire new skills in exchange for their efforts. Some volunteers are enrolled in internships for academic credits through our partnership with Central Washington University, and dozens have utilized this pathway to earn graduate degrees or professional certificates and advance their careers. Many of the sanctuary’s alumni have progressed to serving at other reputable sanctuaries, working as zookeepers in accredited zoos, studying nonhuman primate behavior in academic contexts, advocating for animal welfare and conservation via science communications, and caring for nonhuman animals in veterinary settings. A few former volunteers have even found themselves employed at CSNW as caregivers (I wonder if you can guess who I am referring to). Still, other volunteers have unrelated professions but equally contribute to the chimps’ well-being in impactful ways.

It truly is a diverse, talented, and diligent group of people. I can’t say that any one of them is the best volunteer, but I like to brag that we really do have the best volunteers.

Also, I would like to specially thank the Sunday Squad for letting me awkwardly film them as they worked in the Chimp House. You’re all rock stars.

In memory of Susan

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This lovely day of sanctuary is sponsored annually by Jen Douglas in memory of her beloved friend, Susan von Beck Turner, on her birthday. Jen shared this message about her gift:

“Susan was a tireless animal advocate. She was unable to find a boarding facility that was suitable for her big Newfie mix, Cardiff, so she decided to build her own. She bought a piece of land, cleared it herself and built ‘Cardiff’s Lodge’ catering for bigger dogs, where the dogs could be outside playing and walked on hiking trails instead of being cooped up in a kennel all day. It was a dream vacation for dogs. Sadly, Susan passed away on October 16, 2014 and the world is a worse place without her.”

Jen, thank you so much for helping to ensure Susan’s legacy lives on and for including the chimpanzees’ and cattle in celebration of the wonderful person she was. We so appreciate all you, James, and your family have brought to the lives of the chimpanzees.

Burrito:

Willy B: