Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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Sanctuary

Negra’s amazing nest

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This morning when I walked into the chimp area, everyone was super quiet (usually it’s a little noisy first thing in the morning) and I saw Negra sleeping in her favorite spot on the catwalk beside the window. The nest she was lying in was huge—way bigger than any nest I’ve seen before! It made me smile so much, just knowing how comfortable and content Negra looked. I took a short moment while everything was still and greeted Negra by reaching my arm out and nodding my head. She gave me a quick head nod in return and then shifted in her nest a little bit. A couple minutes later, the other chimps started to get up and it became the usual noisy morning, but Negra stayed in bed. This is typically how it goes—while everyone else is eagerly watching the humans prepare breakfast and get ready for the day, Negra sleeps in until we are about to serve. But today especially, her nest was so expansive and comfy looking, I thought she might stay in bed all day! But as soon as she saw the peanuts we were serving as a breakfast appetizer, she quickly jumped out of bed and headed to join the rest of the chimps in the greenhouse. The pictures we got of her nest were a little dark, and I did my best to brighten them up but I apologize for the poor lighting due to the sun in the window! The first picture shows just how big the nest was (24 big, fluffy blankets in all) and the second is a close-up of our Queen’s beautiful face.

Negra simply enjoying her big nest this morning started making me think about how awesome it is that she can do that now, after 30+ years in a lab. I thought about it all during cleaning, and as soon as I had a chance I went to our blog to find an entry from before the chimps ever arrived—one about Negra trying to make a nest with scraps of newspaper in the lab she was in before coming to CSNW. It was written almost exactly 5 months before the Cle Elum Seven arrived at their forever sanctuary home. It’s here if you want to read it, but be prepared to get teary-eyed. As Diana says in the post, “Negra deserves to be forever free from the fear of life as a laboratory subject. She deserves to have choices in her life. She deserves to have room to walk, run and climb. She deserves to have access to the outdoors. She deserves a daily supply of a wide variety of food. And she deserves lots and lots of blankets so she can finally make the bed that will truly make her feel content.”

I am so happy that her new sanctuary life has given her the opportunity to build a bed that Diana thought she might enjoy. It’s days like today that make me realize how amazing and resilient chimps are, after all they’ve been through that they can still find joy and contentment in life. It’s admirable.

We need nightbag mix!

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“Nightbags” are paper sacks of a variety of nuts, dried fruit and seeds that we give the chimps each night after their dinner. All of the chimps really enjoy nightbags, especially Negra- whom I’m pretty sure lives for that moment every day. It is her all time favorite thing in the world and there is nothing quite as special as her facial expression as we pass it to her each night. Her eyes get wide and she blinks with excitement- almost disbelief- that the moment has arrived where she can have her precious nightbag. It is the best feeling in the world to be the one giving her that much joy.

But we are really low on nightbag mix! Like I mentioned, the mix usually consists of nuts (peanuts, pecans, and almonds are among their favorites), sunflower and pumpkin seeds, and any type of dried fruit, though we only give the chimps unsalted and sugar free foods, so if you are shopping around- be sure to look at the ingredients! For nuts, raw and in shell is best.

Nuts.com has pre-selected care packages hand picked for the chimps, where for $25 you can get a variety of in-shell, unsalted mixed nuts, however, we need seeds and dried fruit too, and some variety would be great!

***NOTE: Any sugar-free, natural dried fruit is fine except for mangoes! Annie is allergic.***

Here’s Negra enjoying tonight’s nightbag:

Hugs and kisses

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Burrito was a bit nervous going out on Young’s Hill today- most likely because before Friday, due to the Taylor Bridge Fire, the chimps hadn’t been out there in nearly three weeks. As soon as he got out there, he stood bipedally and his hair was pilo erect (standing on end), both signs that he was a bit worked up or aroused. But Foxie and Missy both reassured him that everything was safe.

Burrito trying to steal a hug from Foxie, who was walking by right after the door to the hill was opened:

who then hugged him back as a way to calm him down. If you look closely at the photo, you can see that Burrito is fear grimacing (aka- showing all of his teeth. This facial expression looks much like a human smile, but is usually a sign of fear or intense excitement).

Still a bit nervous, he approached Missy with a bent wrist. A bent wrist is a submissive gesture and often an effective way to gain reassurance from a more dominant individual. He has a large fear grimace in this photo.

Later, seeing that Burrito was still nervous, Missy approached him, breathy panted and gave him an open mouth kiss, again letting him know that all was okay.

He eventually settled down and got busy doing what he does (and loves) best- foraging for chow.

Link to King 5 story from today

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Here is the link to the King 5 story that just aired: http://bit.ly/PyfMes

and here’s a photo of that sad relic from the fire:

burned troll doll

We are so grateful to the firefighters for all they did making sure everyone was safe and for all of our volunteers and supporters who have gotten us through the last few weeks in so many ways. I think the burned but still smiling troll doll will be a reminder of the fire for years to come.

Chimps back on Young’s Hill

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We opened the door to let the chimps back onto Young’s Hill for the first time since the Taylor Bridge Fire hit the sanctuary property on August 13th. Gary Chittim and Ken Jones from King 5 were here to do a story today. You can see footage of the chimps’ excitement and steps out on the hill on King 5 News at 6:30pm in Seattle and online after the story airs (we’ll be sure to share the link once it’s on the web).

The chimpanzees  haven’t been asking to go out much since the fire, which is a surprise, since they generally “remind us” in the mornings to open the door by standing by it and getting our attention or luring us over and sticking their fingers through the caging where the door opens.

J.B. and volunteers Brian and John have worked to clean up the hill by removing burned logs, reinforcing a damaged fence post, and dragging (tilling, in effect) the charred ground that covered half of the enclosure. J.B. found a sad relic on the hill that Gary Chittim will show on the King 5 broadcast tonight.

All of the staff joined in a final check of the hill yesterday afternoon so we were ready and anxious to give the chimps access after setting up a breakfast forage.

The chimps mostly stuck to the unburned areas.

Below is a photo of Jamie bringing a wrench out with her on to the hill. Maybe J.B. forgot to fix something?

Jamie with wrench

 

And here she is with the burned ground in the background:

jamie yh burned ground background

 

Annie did inspect the burned grass a bit:

annie exploring burned grass

 

And Missy ventured into the starkness of the top of the hill that was charred in the fire. You can see a ring of green grass coming up – that’s where the underground irrigation lines run to water the bamboo. We lost about half of the smaller bamboo in the fire:

missy on burned ground

 

Negra and Jody play

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Negra and Jody are two out of our seven residents that are more relaxers and not as much rough-and-tumble players, like Foxie or Missy. So, it’s a nice treat getting to see them playing with anyone—and even more so with each other!