Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
The theme of the day: a little bit of play and a WHOLE lot of grooming! Since the weather wasn’t very nice out (mostly rain), what better way to spend the day than grooming and playing with your friends? It was fun to see all the different pairings branching off to groom today. This afternoon, I found Cy and Gordo grooming, which is not a common occurrence in comparison to Cy and Willy B, or Cy and Terry.
Bonus photos!
Rayne:
Terry series:
Gordo series:
‘Twas the night before Thanksgiving, when all through the [chimp] house
Not a chimp was stirring, not even a Honey (B);
The chimps were in bed, tucked into nests
in hopes that sweet rolls would soon be at Chimp Sanctuary Northwest.
Today has been rather low-key, whether the chimps realize it or not, they are resting up for the big Thanksgiving celebration. I personally can’t wait to hear Negra food squeak for Hawaiian rolls – it’s something I wait all year for! I thought I would share a collection of photos taken from today.
Negra staring out the window this morning:
Terry playing chase with one of his caregivers:
Missy eating tomatoes at lunch:
Cy <3:
Burrito spying on the neighbors:
Jamie laying on a barrel:
Jamie off-duty:
Honey B during a lunch forage:
Gordo, isn’t he so handsome?:
Sweet little Dora:
Before we begin the blog, let’s play a game!
Can you spot the fierce predator stalking this herd of deer?
Answer will be at the end!
Now onto the blog!
As much as we try and would love to be everywhere to capture the chimpanzees throughout the day, we can’t. It really is unfortunate because outside of what gets published in the blog, there are hundreds of moments during the day that are amazing. Though we can’t be there to get photos or footage, every now and again we are lucky enough to glance over to the security cameras and see what some of their day consists of.
Here are some bonus photos from today!
Rayne seemingly really enjoying her mountain rose apples at breakfast
Negra went out onto Young’s Hill this morning to check out the new climbing structures J.B. and Jake are building
On her way back inside, she ran into a potential snack. Literally!
But alas the young pine was not willing to be uprooted for her
Gambit Gordo
Missy and Annie enjoying the morning on Young’s Hill
Burrito and Jamie returning from a patrol
Terry showing and grooming his own foot
And this guy!
Were you able to find the fierce hunter earlier?
It’s Barn Kitty!
Barn Kitty (aka BK) is such a fierce individual. He doesn’t seem to be intimidated by size. I once watched him hide behind some tall grass and stalk J.B. as he was driving the tractor up hill. If he had the chance, I 100% believe he was weighing his options of pouncing; tractor or no tractor!
Today is my last blog on the identifying the Lucky 6 series, and it’s time to talk about Terry! Terry is quite distinguishable as a fluffy guy with a big freckly face. He looks a fair amount like his half sister Mave. His two front teeth are a little bit in the buck tooth category and his left big toe is also unique and sticks up! After you watch the above video, what features might you use to identify Terry?
It was a brisk fall day today, with periodic and most welcome appearances from the sun. In addition to the patrol that Jamie graciously invited Amanda and I on (after we figured out the proper footwear, of course), we decided to take advantage of that warming orb in the sky and set out a forage in both respective outdoor habitats.
If you aren’t quite sure who Amanda is, she introduced herself in last night’s Comfort & Joy Virtual Gathering presentation, which you can watch here!
Staff member Amanda and volunteer Amanda (we are doubly blessed with Amandas on most Mondays of late) prepared the forage, which consisted of a bunch of scrumptious fall-themed leftovers, including pumpkin, corn, and pomegranates. I suggested to the Amandas that they make a separate bowl for Negra because I doubted that she would venture outside in the windy 46 degrees.
I should know better than to doubt our Queen. Negra was lined up in the Raceway and was the first one on Young’s Hill. Her food grunts could be heard from all of the caregivers watching in delight as she happened upon the pumpkin and corn:
Missy made sure to check the forage hiding spots on high:
On the other side of the sanctuary, Terry was the first out on The Bray, quickly collecting a personal bushel of onions and demonstrating with his posture why J.B. has given him the nickname Meatball:
These days when the sun outcompetes the murmurs of winter-to-come are some of my favorite days at the sanctuary, and I think the chimpanzees feel the same.
Picking and choosing which photos we include in the blog can be a daunting task. I can’t speak for my fellow caregivers, but there’s always some kind of embellishment that makes the photo unusable in my eyes. Whether it be bad lighting, a piece of poop center stage in the photo, a wound, caging getting in the way, a slow shutter speed which makes the photo blurry, etc. There is just always that one tiny thing that makes me call the photo bad, delete it, and move on.
Today is no exception. Between cleaning the enclosures to training new staff members, it has been a busy day here. When I finally got some time to go around and take some photos, I will admit I rushed it a bit. Mostly because though cleaning is over, training still continues into the afternoon as well as other Chimp House chores. I knew right off the bat that most of the photos I took were unusable (in my eyes at least) but I had some confidence there was at least a few decent ones in there some where.
Wrong! The vast majority I wasn’t a fan of. In fact, there wasn’t a single one I’m particularly attached to. There were, however, several that had potential to be great if it wasn’t for one thing or another I saw wrong in them. You might be wondering, “Why don’t you just Photoshop them?” Though Photoshop or any photo editing software is a great tool, we don’t use it in order to maintain our transparency to you all. Other than some basic color correcting, we don’t edit something out or in. Back in a former life as a photojournalist, our rule was simple as it relates to photo editing software. If you can’t do it in a dark room, then you shouldn’t do it in the software. We more or less follow that same basic rule.
That being said, here are some photos from today that had the potential of being great. Enjoy photos that would have been deleted on any other day.
Mave in mid-chew
Honey B during a lunch forage
Gordo during the forage
Gordo again foraging
Gordo again!
Also, I did spend some time trying correct that last one but it didn’t turn out like I had hoped for
Willy B and Honey B during the forage
Honey B munching on some green onions
Burrito during breakfast with his apples
Dora and Lucky head-to-head
Cy perusing through a magazine after lunch
Rayne watching me yesterday as I was cleaning the mezzanine
Terry’s foot hanging off the platform in the one of his greenhouses after lunch
Speaking of Terry, have you seen the Teeny Tiny Terry book in the Comfort & Joy auction? It truly is amazing and one of a kind! The auction is up and running through November 18th! Be sure to register and bid high and bid often!Good luck to everyone!
It always takes me by surprise when there is a dramatic shift in the weather. Just a couple days ago we were sitting comfortably in 70º weather. Even just yesterday we were still in 60º weather. But the forecast today is a high of 45º and the rest of the week’s forecast is a little dimmer with the highs not expected to surpass 37º and the low expected to be around 15º by Friday night with some snow sprinkled here and there. This dramatic shift in weather doesn’t just surprise me, it surprises every one. I type this as J.B. is now running around winterizing the Chimp House to ensure the chimpanzees are warm and cozy.
Gordo watching J.B. putting up the winter panels to the Riverview Greenhouse
With the chimpanzees retreating to the warmest spots indoors, it was almost impossible to get any photos that weren’t worse quality than that one of Gordo. Or, on the flip side of things, trying to take a decent photo of a chimpanzee who is constantly in motion is also almost impossible.
Case in point: One Burrito Chimpanzee
The only decent photos I was able to get today are:
Dora and Lucky grooming
And the Marvelous Miss Mave
So to reminisce of warmer times, here are some photos from the past couple of days!
Terry sitting on a barrel and watching while Lucky grooms the back of my hand
Nutmeg and Betsy chowing down on some supplemental hay in addition to their grazing opportunities in the pastures
Ok. This next one to me is just the epitome of Dora and her relationship with others.
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Dora sitting above Mave and Honey B as they groom
Young’s Hill as I was leaving the sanctuary last night
After looking at that last photo again, in hindsight I should have seen the signs this kind of weather was coming up. We can only hope things get slightly better for Jamieween!
Speaking of Jamieween, there are still a couple of items left on our Amazon Wish List with just enough time to make it here for the party. But today is sort of the deadline for them to make it in time.
And lastly, a quick update! As some of you know, we use Tru Earth laundry strips. The people at Tru Earth were kind enough to gives our own fundraising page where 20% of sales will go toward the care of the chimpanzees and cattle. We just wanted to make people aware the link to our fundraising page has changed. Every purchase made at this link will have 20% of the purchase go towards the sanctuary!
