Terry

A Budding Friendship

July 16, 2024 by Grace

We’ve said it many times, but it’s still just as true- watching the group of nine expand on and build new friendships since their integration in 2022 has been one of the most amazing things to witness. While they still have their tense moments, the little happy and peaceful moments we catch throughout the day between individuals who were originally in two separate groups are always exciting.

Last week I came in one morning and before breakfast was served I went over to say good morning to Cy’s side. I walked in and found Terry and Willy B grooming, quite intensely, in the front rooms. I went around to say hello and they were still grooming when I came back up, and they let me capture some of it on video. 🙂 Seeing these two big guys spend some quality time working on their relationship was a really nice way to start the day.

Amiable Annie

June 28, 2024 by Jenna

Annie is the second oldest chimpanzee at the sanctuary. She will turn 50 years old in September! She is low-ranking in her group, as she is very timid. She doesn’t want to upset Jamie, the alpha, by stepping out of line.

Annie’s best friend is Missy, but she also is often near Burrito. Although, Burrito is her shadow when she is swelling so that’s not necessarily her choice to be near him 24/7. Annie is a calm, quiet female chimpanzee but very sensitive. She hates drama and conflicts with her group members, although conflicts are perfectly normal in chimpanzee society.

Annie loves all foods and eats just about anything. She is one of the least-picky eaters we have around here!

One of my favorite things about Annie is how she bipedally walks through the grass. She bends her long-arms so the grass doesn’t touch her and then uses her arms to help move her along. It makes me laugh just about every time.

Annie makes bird-sounds with her mouth and hand when she is resting peacefully.

Annie isn’t super human-oriented, but she is very sweet to her caregivers and will offer them a kiss from time-to-time or a gentle hand touch.

Annie:

Kelsi and Cy:

Raspberries are growing! Jamie’s favorite time of year.

Terry:

Terry and Willy B:

Three Years with the Lucky Six

June 26, 2024 by Kelsi

Today we celebrate three years since the Lucky Six arrived! I truly can not imagine life without them. Each one of these chimps brings so much life to this sanctuary. When I think about the day that they arrived, the day was so full of excitement. We had done it, we had reached our goal of expanding the building to take in more chimps to provide another chance of security and a life of choice. The Lucky Six have grown so much in their 3 years here. We have watched chimps like Gordo grow confidence and comfortably with things that are unfamiliar. We have watched the group of six become a group of nine, which has provided them with more social opportunity. Watching chimps like Dora become a social butterfly and Rayne being able to use one of her best strengths, her social savvyness, to help her group navigate and build friendships! We watched all of J.B.’s hard work paid off to build the Bray, their 2 acre outdoor habitat. To be able to watch Rayne walk outside like she had done this everyday of her life was certainly one of the many highlights of my career! I could go on and on about how amazing they are, but I think that when it comes down to it we are just so lucky to have them and we are all the better for knowing them!

Cy:

Gordo:

Terry:

Dora:

Rayne:

Lucky:

Fool Me Once…

May 21, 2024 by Chad de Bree

After relishing in a decent streak of sublime weather, that streak came to an end today. With the chilly air and dark clouds over head, I don’t think anyone can blame the chimpanzees for staying indoors all day (albeit the first morning patrol). In fact, not a single person is in an area that offers optimal viewpoints to observe them. They are all tucked in for a nap.

Negra seemed to set the mood of the day early in the morning.

Since I wasn’t able to get many photos today, here are some I captured of Burrito during yesterday’s lunch forage.

*RECORD SCRATCH*

Ok. Never mind. As I was writing the above, I glanced at the security monitor and saw someone move through the outdoor chute onto The Bray.

It was Cy! He was on his way to his new spot.

After watching him up on the new structure, with magazine in hand, it hit me as to what he was doing. It was nice and quiet at the top of the Bray, and away from the ruckus down below. He spent roughly ten minutes seemingly just taking in the view and peace. He decided to leave when he noticed part of his group decided to also head outside.

On his way back, he crossed paths with his sister, Lucky.

Lucky also decided to take a moment to take in the scenery and quiet

As did Terry.

At the bottom of the Bray, on the boardwalk, Willy B was watching Missy’s group. (Gordo and Rayne were out and about too, just hard to get photos of.)

Speaking of the neighbors, when they realized over half of Willy B’s group was out, they decided they too needed to be outside. Well, minus one.

Missy was the first out, and since I didn’t stretch this morning, I didn’t attempt to catch up with her.

Annie, who was right behind Missy at first, took a detour to grab some of the ever-so-popular prickly lettuce growing on Young’s Hill.

Foxie on the other hand, decided she too wanted a fortress of solitude in the form of one of her new structures.

And then there is Burrito. The person who made me stop taking pictures to run around Young’s Hill and play with him. He did seem a bit distracted. That is when I realized he was looking at Lucky. He tried really hard to play it cool and to make it seem like he wasn’t paying attention to her at all.

And I will leave you with this additional photo I took of Burrito during yesterday’s lunch forage. My phone camera was acting funny and captured the photo like this:

There’s just something with the lighting and coloring that made me love this one of him.

All Shapes and Sizes

May 7, 2024 by Chad de Bree

First thing is first! If you have been following the news, you may have heard about a zebra that has been on the loose near the cascades for about a week. It has sparked a meme trend across social media of a zebra found in different places and scenarios. This lead to a discussion of where the zebra could be found. In this definitely not doctored photo, I believe we have had a glimpse of the elusive zebra!

(Note: This is in fact a doctored photo)

If you wanted to know the real update about the zebra, it was finally located and captured last Friday.

Enrichment comes in many shapes and forms. From food puzzles to toys to caregivers and to interacting with other chimpanzees, enrichment is a crucial part in caring for chimpanzees. While monitoring physical health, cleaning enclosures, and preparing meals is a big part of it, enrichment holds and equally important piece to the puzzle of caregiving. Enrichment helps to keep their minds stimulated and engaged. In a very loose way to look at it, it’s sort of like the mental health aspect of caring. In the video, those are just some of the was the chimpanzees are enriched.

We also wanted to let you all know today is the first official day of Give Big! This two day campaign is a way for non-profits to encourage donations to come in. We are currently at approximately $20,000 of our $50,000 goal. These donations are a crucial part in being able to care for all the residents at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. It is what allows caregivers to provide top notch medical care, health and fresh meals, new toys, and fun parties. Every little bit helps. Even the tiniest donation. We are not able to do any of this without all the years of support and donations. Thank you so much for choosing to follow us, falling in love with the chimpanzees and cattle, putting smiles on caregivers faces, and making all of this possible! I hope to see some of your names on the donor list! There is currently a matching donation going on, where every dollar becomes two dollars!

Here are some bonus photos from today!

Rayne

I imagine this is Cy’s happy place. Surrounded by magazines and boomer balls!

He found a whole celery stalk place on The Bray during today’s lunch forage!

Willy B

I make the same face too when I see food.

Burrito and Jamie

Fishing for raisins in their Greenhouse.

Honey B

Enjoying her time foraging in the Oakwood Greenhouse.

Terry

Enjoying the goods he collected during the forage.

This, That, and the Other

April 30, 2024 by Chad de Bree

You have probably read before that caregivers usually have mounds of unused photos and video clips. There are multiple reasons why they don’t make it to the blog: they didn’t quite fit that particular blog so they get lost to the wayside. They are too short to include into a full video. The reasons go on. Here are some clips I found on my phone that have yet to be used. Minus the Rayne clip, which I grabbed from the security cameras today.

Earlier today, you may have read it has been one year since we lost our beloved Jody Chimpanzee. I will be honest, it still is extremely hard for me to talk or even think about that day. This entire 365 days has felt like it was just yesterday, yet at the same time 1,000 years ago. There is literally not a single day that passes in which I don’t think about her.

On Jody’s burial spot, we planted some lilac trees, if you may recall. Right after planting the trees, they lost their leaves and seemed to be dead. We hoped that wasn’t the case and that Fall was just doing its thing. As the months passed and no sign of life, we began to lose hope that they survived. Well, I am happy to say, they in fact did not! On the contrary, they are thriving in this early Spring. When I noticed it as I was doing my morning run around Young’s Hill with Burrito, my eyes immediately went from dry to emitting a salty watery discharge.

Jody’s Lilac Tree with a smaller one in the foreground

Since noticing it, my entire day was filled with thoughts and memories of Jody. All the thoughts of our Joji gave me the idea to do something she loved: foraging. But I didn’t want to just do a normal forage as usual and call it a day. No. I decided to spice things up a little bit. I hid several “jackpots” around Young’s Hill. The more difficult to get to, the better the jackpot. Most of the jackpots were whole carrots and potatoes. But there was one jackpot that took a keen eye to spot and some athletic agility! (<– BIG foreshadowing of who got it.)

The prize?

A whole opal apple in one of the trees at the top of the hill! I will spare you the details of how I got it up there and got it to stay.

One person came to mind of who would reach it first. To no surprise, that person knew I was up to something at the top of the hill and it was worth skipping the bigger forage at large and see what was up there.

Initially, she found one of the easier to reach whole carrots. When she looked up though, she dropped everything and raced up the tree. I wasn’t able to get photos of it on account that I am not as fast as Missy and couldn’t make it up the hill in time.

I did, however, follow Missy the rest of the forage. During that time, Missy when to every single structure to see if any more big prizes were to be had. (Unfortunately for her, there wasn’t since some of the places she looked, I wouldn’t have been able to reach.)

Missy climbing down from the very top platform of the Twister structure

She did end up going back to reclaim the carrot she dropped

She found another one of the jackpot carrots on top of Negra’s Cabin

It was well worth climbing to some pretty hard to reach areas to watch Missy seemingly having a forage that was designed for her, unintentionally.

Here are some bonus photos from today!

Burrito

Scooping a pile of chow biscuits into his mouth

During our morning run today with Jody’s lilac tree in the back ground.

Missy

Nothing like pre-breakfast grass to start the day

Gordo

Rayne

Taking in the morning sun in some solitude on the Bray

Jamie

She took a slight detour during today’s morning patrol through the logs

Negra

Hiding behind some logs watching the neighbors

Foxie

That blur in the background is Missy making her way to the top of Young’s Hill

Terry

Love a Chimpanzee Day 2024

April 23, 2024 by Chad de Bree

Earlier today, Diana posted about the history of Love A Chimpanzee Day and how it came to be. With the day marked on the calendars, it was time to start planning. Luckily enough, Monica already had an idea in mind. With the theme chosen, caregiver Ellen began planning an prepping.

Today’s theme was a flashback to the 80s! With that theme in mind, Ellen thought of the idea to have the party influenced by the ever so popular rollerskating rink! And first task was to think of the menu. Today’s menu was based on foods you can find at a roller rink. There were boxes of popcorn and plates of “nachos.” The nacho chips were made from the crumbs of the chimpanzees’ chow biscuits, topped with “nacho cheese sauce” made from roasted bell peppers and tomatoes, with a side of guacamole!

Be sure to watch the video to see how the chimps thought of the festivities!

Also, today is the first day for to be able to support us during the GiveBIG campaign! Though you can begin donating for our nonprofit in GiveBIG, the main event, so to speak, is May 7-8! There are two pages in which you can support us! The first is the sanctuary’s GiveBIG page, which can be found here! You can also support Monica Best’s and Diana’s campaign page for the sanctuary! Monica and Diana created their own campaign to support Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest for their birthdays. So mark you calendars to donate to our campaign page before May 8th! Or you can donate to Monica and Diana’s page in honor of their birthdays! (Just make sure you leave them a birthday message! Monica’s is today and Diana’s is one week from today’s) Help us reach our goal this year to continue to provide the best care that we can to these amazing residents of ours!

And, as always, here are some bonus photos from today’s festivities!

Gordo