Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Sometimes I can hardly believe that this dream of Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest has really come true, and these seven chimpanzees, on June 13th, are going to celebrate six years of a new life of peace that they never could have dreamed was possible. Dreaming is a beautiful thing.
Foxie:
Annie:
Burrito:
Jody:
Negra:
Missy (I had to look really hard to find a photo of Missy sleeping):
Jamie:
We’ve mentioned foraging many times on this blog before. It’s such a fundamental part of being a chimpanzee, that we had one of the seven behavioral booths at our recent Hoot! gala dedicated to this activity and explaining how we find ways to allow the chimpanzees here to express this behavior. Anything involving food is exciting for chimpanzees, but finding it on your own is particularly exciting.
Yesterday, Jody won the award for stuffing the most foraged food in her mouth at one time:
Though Missy certainly gets an honorable mention:
With all apologies to our east coast friends, the weather here is gorgeous! Perfect for a lunch forage on the hill today.
Volunteer Lynn decided to fancy things up by making sweet potato stuffed bell peppers, which she, Patti, and Amanda spread on the hill, along with beets and chow for the chimpanzees to find.
Before I forget – today is the last day to purchase Jody label wine from Northwest Cellars, so you should get on that now.
After making your wine purchase, enjoy the photo series below: portraits with mouths full
Though this is a fairly lighthearted photo series, foraging is serious business for chimpanzees. It’s their main job in the wild, making it pretty hard-wired, so searching for food is mentally stimulating and very enjoyable to chimpanzees in captivity.
There was one recent behavioral research study of chimpanzees in the wild that showed chimpanzees use long-term memory (as opposed to merely visual or olfactory cues) to find trees with the largest amount of fruit across fruiting seasons.
I posted a couple of additional photos from today’s forage on Jody’s and Burrito’s respective Facebook pages that illustrate how the Cle Elum Seven also use their long-term memory to check for the spots on the hill where they have previously found food. We humans are a predictable species and the chimps probably have us completely figured out.
In any case, here are a few photos of some of the chimpanzees enjoying the “fruits” of their foraging labor:
Missy:
Jamie:
Jody:
I bet you can guess who:
The February Share the Chimp Love campaign is almost over – we’re counting down in hours rather than days now!
As of this minute, you have helped raise $11,246 for the chimpanzees! That’s a lot of chimp love!
You may not know that there is a bit of a competition going on between the Interim Co-Directors. I am just a bit ahead of J.B. right now, but it’s anyone’s game at this point because J.B. is trailing by just $110.
Perhaps you’d like to even things out by donating on J.B.’s page, or (better yet) strengthen my lead by making a donation on my page. Either way, your donations will help us care for the real directors of the sanctuary – Jamie, Jody, Negra, Missy, Burrito, Foxie, and Annie.
These last two months have been full of wonderful acts of generosity and support for the sanctuary. Seeing the Share the Chimp Love campaign surpass our $10,000 goal and watching other people – board members, staff, volunteers, and donors – fundraise on behalf of the chimps has been inspiring.
As we say on the campaign page, it takes about $30,000 per month just for the very basics to run the sanctuary. We do not receive any governmental support, so all of the money raised comes from private donations by individuals, foundations, and organizations. We partake in a variety of activities to raise the money needed to care for the chimpanzees including grant-writing, auctions, and special events, and it’s really true that every dollar helps. So, thank you so much for helping!
Speaking of special events, I hope to see all of you local folks at the Grapes for Apes wine tasting on Saturday to celebrate the Share the Chimp Love success. You can share the Grapes for Apes event on Facebook with your friends, even if you’re unable to attend.
And I hope even some non-local folks will consider making a trip out to Seattle to attend the Hoot! gala on May 3rd. Invitations are going in the mail very soon. It’s going to be so much fun!
It’s a winter wonderland at the sanctuary today:
But Foxie is keeping Dora warm inside:
Foxie has not left her new Dora the Explorer doll alone since she got it yesterday as part of the Valentine’s Day celebration. I found her gazing lovingly at it several times today.
Meanwhile, I have been gazing lovingly at our Share the Chimp Love fundraising site! We are 74% to our goal with 12 days to go. Thank you so much to everyone who has donated and shared the site and the Share the Chimp Love video.
I am really looking forward to the Grapes for Apes wine tasting in Kirkland on Saturday, March 1st where we can celebrate reaching the $10,000 goal for the month, some other really loving things that occurred this February (more on those soon), and the kick-off to our Hoot! ticket sales. There certainly are a lot of things to look forward to both inside and outside the chimp house in the coming months!
We just launched our February Share the Chimp Love campaign, and we’re 10% towards our goal of raising $10,000!
Have you seen the Share the Chimp Love video yet? If not – go check it out, read about the campaign, make a donation, and set up your own fundraising page to start sharing the love! We could use your help!
If you’re signed up for our e-newsletter, you got the notice this morning about our Share the Chimp Love campaign, as well as other exciting events and news like the March 1st Grapes for Apes wine tasting and a story about Annie. If you’re not signed up for our e-news, you can sign up at the bottom of the newsletter.
Go here now to Share the Chimp Love: love.chimpsnw.org
It’s no secret that Negra has a big place in my heart. I first wrote about my love for her in this blog post from 2008, before the chimpanzees had made the journey across the U.S. to come to Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. She has many endearing qualities, including her enjoyment in watching her caregivers dance (as shown in the Dancing with Negra video from 2009), the multiple stages of her droopy lip, and her love of the night bags that we give the chimpanzees after dinner each night (there’s a short video of Negra getting her night bag here).
As mentioned in this post, one of my favorite sights is a very content Negra eating her night bag while the shells of the seeds in the night bag drop on her belly. Tonight, I finally got a few good photos of just this. Negra has lost a little weight at the sanctuary, but, despite our attempts at rationing her food, she still has a buddha belly. She actually eats quite a bit less than the other chimpanzees and isn’t as food focused as, say, Burrito, but she’s also the least active of the chimpanzees. I consider Negra’s shape to be a pretty endearing quality in itself.
I hope these photos make you as happy as Negra with seeds are her belly makes me.
