Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Today is not only Halloween and Jamie’s honorary birthday, but it is also caregiver Debbie’s birthday. And in just three days it will be caregiver Elizabeth’s birthday. Send a donation “treat” for Jamie or her caregivers and your name will be on the blog later today – so get your donation in soon!
Halloween parties are so much fun at the sanctuary – just ask Jamie.
Today the day started out kinda rainy and so the chimps stayed in the front rooms while we cleaned the playroom. I caught an unusual duo wrestling—Negra and Annie! Annie does not always play with folks other than her best friend Missy, and Negra doesn’t play as often as the other chimps. So it was really awesome to see the two of them engaging in so much fun. I wasn’t able to get a lot of good video of it, but I did catch a brief snippet.
Later in the day the sun was out and Young’s Hill was the place to be. Everyone but Negra came out at one point, and even after Burrito went back inside the other girls hung out for a bit longer. It was great to see five chimps out on the hill all at once. In the last piece of this video, you’ll be able to see all five in the same shot.
Tomorrow we’re celebrating Jamie’s birthday on Halloween. It’s not too late to donate to make her party really great!
Do not adjust your screens, these are photos of Foxie all over the hill today!
Here she is on top of a climbing structure on the hill – a first for Foxie! It’s the climbing structure closest to the raceway. She went up there to retrieve a troll doll initially but went back several times during the day.
Foxie carefully bringing her trolls back down from the structure:
The crew that put the concrete on the treat rock had a bit leftover, so they made a replica of Mt St. Helens. Foxie’s touring by the site here:
Missy (left) was pretty excited to have Foxie on the hill.
Foxie put one of her troll dolls on her back as she walked around a bit:
Chimpanzees definitely don’t make good pets, but troll dolls do!
Like Foxie, Burrito hasn’t spent much time out on the hill since the first few days out. Although we don’t want to push anyone out there and want the chimps to go out in their own time and on their own terms, I found myself on a mission the last few days to encourage him out there… and what did the trick? Lettuce? no. Peanuts? nope. Dried Apples? nope, try again. It was chow (biscuits that are often given to captive primates to ensure proper nutrients. It’s a lot like dog food, but for whatever reason, the chimps really like it). Mr. B is pretty predictable sometimes.
Today is Pam Lehnert’s birthday and her friend Jill honored Pam with a Sponsor-a-Day as a birthday gift. Since Pam bought this chair for Jamie (and the other chimps, of course), I’m bring back the first photo we got of Jamie sitting in her hand chair.
I really don’t know what I would do without Pam’s help with our event fundraisers, so I try to celebrate Pam Lehnert everyday, particularly leading up to the auction.
Happy day to you Pam! And thank you Jill for sponsoring this day!
Chimpanzees give each other really sweet greetings after they’ve been separated for some amount of time. Jody spent all afternoon on the hill yesterday by herself, and when she started heading back Annie was getting pretty excited. I didn’t catch a very long video, but I did get a quick snippet of Annie’s sweet greeting with Jody. I wanted to include some explanations of Annie’s greeting behaviors, so you may have to watch the video twice!
Typically less-dominant individuals greet more-dominant members of a group. Although Jody isn’t the leader, she is more dominant than Annie (although Annie is definitely asserting herself and has much more confidence these days than she did when they first arrived). In the video, you’ll see Annie bipedally (up on her feet) swagger with her hair standing on end (pilo erect). These behaviors are indicative of a high arousal state, basically meaning she’s excited. Then you’ll see her crouch down and run toward Jody. The crouching down is a sign of submission, and it shows Annie’s respect for Jody. When she contacts Jody she gives her a hug and simultaneously offers an open mouth kiss (it’s hard to see, but that is what she’s doing!) And finally as they head back into the greenhouse together, Annie dabs Jody’s back.
Even though this all occurred in just 15 seconds or so, there’s a lot of communication going on! Chimpanzees are really amazing and complex beings.
