Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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Sanctuary

The Chimp Whisperer

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If there’s one chimpanzee who plays the role of peacemaker in the group, it’s Foxie. It seems to be her personal ambition to make sure everyone is getting along. During conflicts, she often runs around and tries to calm everyone down. You could say she’s a bit of a chimp whisperer.

So it’s not surprising that she’s a preferred play partner for a lot of the chimps. If Jamie or Burrito are looking for some fun, it’s almost always Foxie who they’ll seek out. (Burrito has the problem of being a little intimidated by almost everyone else in the group, and Jamie has the problem of almost everyone else in the group being a little intimidated by her.)

Diana got some footage of Foxie working her magic with Burrito and Negra (who doesn’t play very much with anyone due to being somewhat of an old lady) this weekend while the chimps were waiting for the humans to finish cleaning the playroom.

On an unrelated note, thanks so much to everyone who came out for Sippin’ for the Seven last night. You can see photos from the event here. And bidding for our online auction is open until Tuesday, so be sure to check out the items and get your bids in!

The Great Piñata Heist

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The chimpanzees had some special guests today! Friend of the chimpanzees (and the humans!) Adrienne Armstrong, along and her family and friends, Ollie, Jessy, and Jamie, paid a visit to the sanctuary to volunteer in the chimp house. And they brought the chimpanzees piñatas! And you’ll never guess who made a haul of all the loot…Annie!

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As you may recall from a previous post, as the least dominant of the chimpanzees, this is quite a bold move for Annie and an undertaking not without some risk involved. As the boss of the sanctuary, Jamie typically makes a quick claim to enrichment like piñatas, leaving the other chimps to wait for an opportunity to see if anything was missed when she casts them aside. But today Jamie was distracted by a new pair of boots being “chimp approved” in the kitchen so Annie decided to make her move.

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Jamie was briefly torn between seeing Annie with the piñatas, and staff with the new boots, but after screaming at Annie once and throwing a blanket at her from the loft, the prospective new boots won Jamie’s attention. And Annie seized not only her opportunity, but all, yes ALL, of the piñatas!

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Annie wasn’t even swayed by her best (and more dominant) friend, Missy, who continually approached her while peering at her and moderately suggesting she hand the loot over. Annie just calmly picked up the piñatas and moved her spoils elsewhere. Gotta love this girl.

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Thank you so much, Adrienne, Ollie, Jessy and Jamie, for all that you do for the chimpanzees and for making their day (especially Annie’s!!) special!

Enriching Jamie

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Caregiver Debbie recently ordered a new food puzzle for the chimpanzees. She just got one of them for now so we could make sure it was chimp-proof (safe and sturdy) and up to Jamie’s standards. Since Jamie’s mind is always three steps ahead, she’s hard to keep enriched. One of our daily priorities is finding projects and puzzles that challenge or entertain her. If something keeps her occupied for a few minutes, we consider it a success!

The new food puzzle was a success, as you’ll see in this video.

The simple things

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This afternoon I went out to see who might be in the greenhouse and I found this good looking guy (Burrito, if you are new the the blog!) just hanging out:

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Burrito often becomes shy when the camera comes out but he remained pretty calm and nonchalant, until…

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I pointed out a lone potato that had been left over from lunch. The look on his face is as if to say, “WHAT?! A potato?!” (Notice that precision focus):

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After a quick scan of the greenhouse to make sure no one was watching, he silently swung down, grabbed the potato, and took it back to the top platform to gaze at adoringly and enjoy:

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The simple things in life. I am always thankful to the chimpanzees for reminding me to appreciate the little things.

Chimp ID: Negra

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Today we conclude our series of blog posts on chimpanzee identification with Negra. (If you missed the posts about Annie, Burrito, Foxie, Jamie, Jody, or Missy, click on their names.)

Negra is the oldest of the chimps at the sanctuary, and because of her wise and regal air, we call her our Queen. Negra has a mostly dark face with white freckles on her chin and in her ears:

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She is missing the top half of her left ear:

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She has more bottom lip than she knows what to do with:

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She’s a big lady with an ample belly:

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Here you can see how her girth compares with Jody’s:

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She loves to relax with a blanket draped over her head:

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And she worships the sun:

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Digging

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Jamie loves to dig.

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We sometimes find evidence that the chimps have been digging into the nests of ground squirrels on Young’s Hill. They seem to want to figure out where those squirrels disappear to when they dive into those little holes in the ground, but they never dig down far enough to find them.

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Some of the chimps use tools to dig into the hard clay soil. A plastic shovel or trowel works best, but in a pinch, anything pointy will do. A tool also keeps a chimp’s hand away from the sharp teeth of an angry squirrel – the same reason why Jamie uses hardcover books or pasta spoons to chop at garter snakes instead of her bare hands. I would bet that, by now, Jamie knows that garter snakes are not going to hurt her, but she still seems to act as if they are dangerous, or at least “icky.” I’m sure a lot of humans can relate.

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When Jamie is not going after squirrels, she likes to keep herself busy with projects. A few weeks ago, I found her digging in the entrance to Young’s Hill with a plastic trowel.