Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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Negra Light and Bonus Play Video!

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*Note – due to feedback on Facebook this post is basically a two-for-one. Photos AND video of Negra on the hill AND a bonus treat -a video of Jamie and Foxie playing. Just a fraction of the great things that happened at the sanctuary today.

Please let me know which was your favorite part of this post in the comments below and on our Facebook page, and share your favorite photo and video on your own Facebook, Twitter, Ello (are you on that?), etc. page or email a link to the blog to your friends. Spread the chimps’ joy!

We’ve had rain for the last few days, which was a nice change. Today, however, was back to sun, but with a definite autumn feel. There’s that bit of crispness in the air and the ambient light seems to have suddenly changed overnight with the sun lower instead of directly overhead. I might just start referring to this light as “Negra light” because it made for some beautiful photos of the Queen this morning.

The change back to sunshine prompted us to set up a breakfast forage on the hill. Negra doesn’t always join foraging on the 2-acres, but I made sure to make a pathway of lettuce to encourage her to come out. To our surprise, Negra not only ventured onto Young’s Hill, but spent quite a bit of time foraging, and was the last one back in. Not only that, but she demanded that Debbie serve her two cups of smoothie, which she often is not interested in – perhaps the workout of foraging on the hill made her a bit more hungry.

In any case, please enjoy the (many) “Negra light” photos and the video below, don’t forget to watch the Foxie and Jamie wrestling video at the end of the post and let me know what your favorite part of today’s post was (one of the videos, a particular photo, the eclectic content…?).

Thanks for reading and learning more about the family at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest! Your support and donations make all the difference!

 

Negra eating lettuce

Negra eating lettuce

Negra eating lettuce

Negra taking in the view

Negra dismounting

Negra walking back

Negra changing her mind

Negra climbing up

Negra climbing on platform

Negra sitting on platform

 

“Negra Light”!

Negra Light

 

And here’s the bonus video, which doesn’t need much explanation. What a happy pair!

Chimpanzees: Always Curious

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It’s important to have priorities in life, and the chimpanzees at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest are good at deciding what is top priority (usually food) and what is a close ranking second, as you’ll see in the video below.

Here’s what the back of the lower mount for the GoPro camera looks like. I caught this photo last week of Annie standing next to it. The steel mount, custom made by J.B., has a hinge and opens up to slip the camera in and then has a padlock to secure it.

Annie looking at GoPro mount

Missy Chimpanzee’s 39th Birthday

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Today was Missy-centered. The theme was tomatoes, slinky toys, tomatoes, socks, tomatoes, cattails, tomatoes, socks, and kongs with peanuts in them – all favs of Missy.

At our HOOT! gala in May, one of the more interesting items we auctioned off during the live auction was a photography session at the sanctuary with professional photographers Dean Rutz and Karen Ducey. There were two lucky winning bidders, and one of the winners cashed in their session this morning – we can’t wait to share a few of their photos with you!

In the meantime, here are some that the staff took today of the birthday girl, a flashback to one of my favorite videos of Missy, and a few photos of the other chimpanzees enjoying Missy’s birthday.

Missy spent the day, as usual, in action and elusive to the camera.

In the photo below, Missy is climbing one of the tallest structures on the hill during the breakfast forage, which included a lot of – you guessed it – tomatoes!

Missy climbing

 

Here she is at the top with a mouthful:

Missy behind post

 

Later, we handed out cattails. Missy decided to take hers inside:

MIssy biting cattail

 

Missy escaping the watchful eye of the camera, climbing to the bridge in the playroom to enjoy her cattail:

Missy climbing stairs

 

Missy in a nest playing with a slinky on the catwalk of the playroom:

Missy with a slinky

 

MIssy removing a kong from a sock:

Missy sit window kong sock

Missy sit window with kong

 

We put the kongs in socks for the nighttime enrichment in homage to Missy’s own invention, and one of my favorite videos of Missy, taken in 2010 (see below):

 

The other chimpanzees also had a great time with all of the birthday festivities today.

Jamie explored some new enrichment in the greenhouse:

Jamie with recorder

 

Jamie cleaning some plastic glasses with a sock:

Jamie with glasses

 

Negra foraged on the hill for breakfast:

Negra forage on the hill

Negra with a strawberry

Negra with chow

 

And Annie, proudly, got the tomato piñata during the playroom forage:

Annie with pinata

 

I posted a little video on Facebook of Missy playing what looks a lot like a thumb war with Negra while they lay next to each other on the catwalk. All in all, it was a pretty great 39th birthday for one of the most athletic, full-of-life chimpanzee people that I’ve ever met. We love you, Missy!

Missy's birthday portrait

Burrito and Negra

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We often talk about Annie and Missy’s friendship, Foxie’s ability to get her friend Jamie to relax, and Burrito’s reliance on Foxie for reassurance when times are tense and their goofy play sessions when times are relaxed.

There are several close relationships among the chimpanzees. One that we haven’t talked about much is that between Burrito, the youngest chimpanzee, and Negra, the oldest.

Negra seems to give Burrito respect as the one male of the troop, perhaps more respect than some of the other ladies show him (ahem, Jamie).

Burrito and Negra often go to each when there’s something exciting going on, like setting up for a party, and they are frequent grooming partners too.

Today, as you can see from the photos below, they spent several minutes grooming one another after Negra was a bit concerned over a noise she heard.

Negra made a “pout face” as a reaction to the noise (which was a bird calling). This looks similar to when chimpanzees trumpet their lips to pant-hoot, but a pout face is used during times of concern, distress, or frustration:

Negra hoot face

 

Then Negra approached Burrito to be groomed, which can be a form of asking for reassurance:

Burrito Negra look at camera

Burrito groom Negra

Burrito groom Negra profile

Burrito groom Negra 2

 

Later, she reciprocated the grooming:

Negra groom Burrito

Burrito and Negra groom each other

Negra groom Burrito 2

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Living in a social group of others who understand their wants and needs is one of the most important aspects of sanctuary life for the chimpanzees, and we understand that they need to turn to one another, not to us humans, for their deepest and most important relationships.

James and the Giant Beet

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Ok – the title of this post was maybe a bit of a stretch to reference James and the Giant Peach.

I do use the nickname James for Jamie, but, as you’ll see in the photos below, it wasn’t really a giant beet, plus one of the photos is of Missy’s hand, but still – pretty great photos of a pretty great chimpanzee REALLY enjoying the beets that volunteer Patti brought.

It is in the high 90s today, so most of the chimpanzees quickly foraged for their lunch on Young’s Hill and brought their haul into the cooler greenhouse to enjoy, though Jamie made multiple trips to make sure she had found all of the beets.

Jamie admiring beet

Jamie looking away eating beet

Jamie eating beet in profile

Jamie getting all she can out of a beet

 

Missy’s hand:

Missy hand holding beet

 

back to Jamie:

Jamie in doorway eating beet

Jamie enjoying beet

Jamie close up eating beet

Missy Chimpanzee on the Move

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It is such an incredible joy to see Missy on Young’s Hill using all of the structures for climbing and leaping and balancing and just sitting up high. She does not waste any opportunity to get the most out of the chance to move and explore.

J.B.’s description of Missy as, “a spring that was coiled up for decades, just waiting to be released” remains perfect. Just see for yourself in the photos that J.B. took this morning during a forage on the hill. Go, Missy, Go!

Missy climbing

Missy climbing post

Missy leaping

Missy balancing on fire hose

Missy balancing on fire hose back turned

MIssy eating lettuce

Missy eating lettuce top of cabin