Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Lisa Buckley has sponsored today in honor of Pickles the pit bull. Pickles was Lisa’s Aunt Conny’s beloved dog, who passed away recently at the age of 14. Lisa says that Pickles was so sweet and loveable that she should have been a “spokesdog” for pit bulls everywhere! In honor of Pickles, we put out all of the chimpanzees’ dog-themed toys today. 🙂
Thanks, Lisa, for honoring such a sweet soul.
J.B. took a really good photo of Negra in profile yesterday and turned the photo into a silhouette. Last night I dreamed of creating the image below. I could try to make this an educational or thought-provoking post about evolution and facial features, but the truth is I just like the image. It looks especially good on a black background. Maybe this should be our next t-shirt…
Missy tends to speed up in the winter. I think she knows she won’t be able to stay outside as long so she has to cram all of her activities into ten-minute bursts.
Yesterday, she ran outside and immediately started to climb all of the structures.
Then she jumped off of them.
While climbing a structure at the top of the hill, she noticed something.
Ice is somewhat of a delicacy for chimps and Missy is good at finding it.
Of course, wherever there’s a Missy, there’s an Annie close behind, trying to catch up.
It’s been another cold, yet sunny day today and a few minutes ago, six out of seven chimps were out roaming on the hill (can you guess who was inside?). As I rounded the corner of the greenhouse to see what was happening out there, I saw Missy just standing in the bamboo with a big playface:
Annie came running out of the raceway towards her, full speed ahead!
Her playful charge was pretty anti-climatic at first…
But it wasn’t very long before Missy engaged Annie, and a wild foot grabbing, tickling, and laughing chase game ensued.
Sometimes, play is serious business.
Since Eyes on Apes has broadened its focus to include all great apes, I thought I would share some information about gorillas. There are four different sub species of gorilla: the Mountain gorilla, the Western Lowland gorilla, the Eastern Lowland gorilla (also known as the Grauer’s gorilla), and the Cross River gorilla. All sub species are endangered, but the Cross River and Mountain gorillas have the smallest populations, with numbers in just the hundreds. The Mountain gorillas are the sub species that were studied by the famed primatologist Dian Fossey, who observed gorillas in the Virunga Mountains before her tragic murder in 1985. Fossey was the Jane Goodall of the gorilla world. Recently, some good news came out of the protected areas surrounding the Mountain gorillas’ habitat: their population is rising! New census numbers reveal that populations have increased by nearly 100 gorillas since the last census, bringing the total number of Mountain gorillas to 880. This shows that the protection surrounding the forest and conservation efforts are working!
Though this is good news for one sub species of gorilla, the other three in the more lowland areas are in greater danger of human encroachment. As I mentioned in a post about the plight free-living chimpanzees, humans have logged for expensive woods in the middle of the African rainforest, creating logging roads that make it easier for hunters to kill the apes and sell their meat on the black market for the bushmeat trade. Coltan mining is another huge threat to gorilla habitat (coltan is the material used in LCD screens). The easiest way to take action for the gorillas in these areas besides donating to a conservation organization is to be a conscious consumer. Just like I mentioned with the plight of free-living orangutans, be aware of where your products you are purchasing are coming from. Recycle products with an LCD screen when you upgrade to a new device, or even if is broken – the parts can still be recycled. CSNW can even help you recycle your old cell phones!
Photo courtesy of the International Gorilla Conservation Programme’s Facebook page
Yesterday, longtime friends of the Cle Elum Seven Margaret and Karen got married in Seattle. Margaret and Karen are truly beloved by anyone who meets them. They are bright and warm and kind. They have possibly the biggest hearts of anyone you’ll ever meet.
We wanted to celebrate their joy, so today we put out the happiest, most colorful enrichment we could find. The chimpanzees spent quite some time taking inventory.
Foxie:
Annie:
Jamie:
Appropriately enough, the weather at the sanctuary is gorgeous and sunny today and the chimpanzees have been feeling pretty carefree. Annie and Missy enjoyed a lazy game of chase in the greenhouse this afternoon.
We’re so happy for you, Margaret and Karen. Lots of love from CSNW!
I love Jamie. I love how smart and inquisitive she is. I love that sometimes she gets a glint in her eye and I just have to wonder what exactly she’s up to. I love that she likes to use tools, even to groom her caregivers or hunt snakes. I love that she makes quiet moaning sounds when she is doing something she really enjoys (here’s a really old video that demonstrates that). I love how she watches us not-so-clever humans set out food puzzles or after dinner treats, and as soon as we open the door to let the chimps in, she approaches the task like a well-rehearsed football play, usually getting the most treats while the other chimps randomly move through the area looking for goodies. I love that she sometimes chooses the complicated course of action. Like today – instead of mundanely walking across the playroom, she climbed up on the white industrial food container and used the caging of the windows and doors to pull herself around the perimeter of the room.
I love her intense love of boots. On Wednesday, I gave a presentation about the chimps to the Rotary Club of Yakima Sunrise. I dressed up more than I normally do and wore some boots that I don’t wear very often. When I returned home, I thought I should go up and see Jamie to show her my boots. She was thrilled. Even though I was wearing pants that covered them up, as soon as I walked in the building Jamie ran down the stairs to get a closer look. I pulled up my pant leg to show her the whole boot and she ran to the greenhouse, and then she ran onto Young’s Hill, even though it was pretty chilly outside. I ran all the way around Young’s Hill twice, with her cheating a little bit on her side by bypassing the top of the hill, but meeting me at the bottom again. And she closely inspected the boots when I was back in the human area of the greenhouse.
In yesterday’s blog post, J.B. revealed that Jamie knows a thing or two about throwing poop. And we’ve mentioned in the past about how Jamie is a pretty insecure leader.
I told J.B. today that I was thinking about writing a post about how complicated Jamie is, and he said, “do you mean moody?” I said, yes, but I was going to call it complicated.
Even though it’s not fun to have poop thrown at me, I do love that I never quite know what to expect from Jamie. She might be in a goofy stand on her head mood, or a play all day with Foxie mood, or a no one else is allowed to play mood, or an artistic mood, or a destroy something mood, or a cunning tool-using mood, or a grumpy put you in your place poop throwing mood (sorry, no previous blog post to link to for that one).
She’s not one-dimensional, that’s for sure.
If you love Jamie too, consider supporting Team Jamie!
