Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Willy B

Lunch with Cy

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The other day Cy decided he didn’t want to have his lunch in the playroom, he wanted to eat in the front rooms. I can’t blame him, the front rooms have the best people watching and Cy likes people! We put all his lunch in the food chute and he enjoyed it at his leisure. Part of lunch with Cy is just sitting with him and from time to time he will put a finger out to touch the back of your hand. After lunch, it was back to reading magazines!

We just started adding Jamieween enrichment onto the wish-list today! If we are out of Jamieween items by the time you get on the wish-list we have lots of other things we need.

As for intros today, here is a photo of Terry, Cy, Mave, and Willy B all grooming on one small bench. And yes they had larger benches and other rooms, but they all wanted to be on this tiny bench together :).

Give Them Smoulder

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I think we can all agree that Willy B is one handsome chimp, Jody might even use the word hunk! This morning we changed up the routine and let Willy B’s group out onto the Courtyard first. Willy B seemed pretty excited because he went straight to door W which leads right out to the Courtyard and waited for me to give him access. Willy B spent the whole morning out there! The sun was so warm, he decided to lay down on the boardwalk and bask in it. While relaxing on the boardwalk I snapped a few photos of Willy B, I mean look at him! He has this almost smouldering or brooding look.

 

Take two: Lucky and Willy B

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Introductions continue at the Chimp House! Lucky and Willy B met each other for the first time on August 21st with nothing but positive interactions and a good old grooming session. With the plan of continuing introductions to better solidify their future relationships, they got to interact one on one today as well. We can’t force outcomes when it comes to introductions, and sometimes one on ones are uneventful. Today, Willy B and Lucky had a short but sweet interaction. Willy B displayed multiple times during the beginning of the introduction while Lucky just stared at him like “dude, are you ok?” from the comfort of the blanket covered platform. When Sir William stopped displaying, Lucky came down, giving Willy B a chance to get closer and initiate some grooming. Willy B groomed Lucky in such an intense way that his loud lip smacking had him drooling for a quick second. Even though Lucky was completely on board to get groomed by Willy B for what seemed like a very long 5min, she went back up to the platform and the two did not engage further. While it might seem like not much happened during this re-intro, every positive interaction gets us closer to uniting the two groups and having them form their own interpersonal relationships within the new group.

Willy B grooming Lucky during their intro today

Bonus 1: The cattle watching me during this mornings perimeter walk

Bonus 2: Annie laying down in the green house

Two Years with the Amazing Three!

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Today is Honey B, Willy B, and Mave’s two year anniversary at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest! It has been an honor to get to know each one of them. I can’t imagine life without Honey B’s spunk, Willy B’s dashing good looks, or life without a laid back Mave would just be disappointing. The day was full of their favorite foods and enrichment. There were mangoes, avocados, eggplant to name a few! We put out a LOT of paper, raffle tickets, and buckets of soapy water!

While it’s their anniversary we were still doing one on one introductions. Today was actually the last day of one on one’s before we take a little break. As Sofia stated yesterday, Honey B with no surprise is a wild card and so is Gordo. Honey B still had to meet Gordo and Cy. We also knew these might be some of our hardest introductions. I just need to state how proud we are of Honey B! She did really well overall! It shows us that Honey B can form relationships with new chimps and gives us hope for the future. But she still makes us hold our breath when we open up that door.

First up was Cy. They did great! Cy was playing with her so rough, we were all really for Honey B to freak out, but she didn’t. She loved playing with Cy! As you will see in the video they are laughing and wrestling. That was them playing gently too, we didn’t capture the true wrestling because we thought it might escalate, but to our pleasant surprise it didn’t! Next up was Gordo. Honey B and Gordo met at the mesh yesterday and seemed pretty playful. However, today they both seemed to have taken a slower approach. Eventually we opened the door and they seemed a bit indifferent. Indifference was totally fine, we just wanted them to get comfortable. They warmed up to each other and started to play. It was really fun to watch, but it was short lived. We think there was a little miscommunication on both ends and we quickly ended up having to separate them. Gordo is fine and has a small wound on his foot. We brought Honey B back so her and Gordo had a chance to make up at the mesh, but Gordo wasn’t too interested in coming down. Honey B did give him some good positive behaviors at the mesh. We are hopeful that they can move past this and with a few more meetings understand each other a little bit better. Miscommunications with chimps happens a lot. Foxie and Annie had a lot in the beginning too and even some times to this day!

As an update we are taking a small break because everyone has met everyone for our one on one introductions. We will be doing one on ones occasionally and we will be working on two on two soon as well. For now, us humans and chimps are going to get a few good nights of sleep! Overall, the intros so far have gone as well as we could have asked. I just want to say this again because I think Honey B deserves this. She exceeded our expectations and to watch Honey B play with Cy, Dora, Rayne, and Lucky is exactly why we are doing this. Honey B was so expressive, so happy, and she is a chimp that deserves to have more socialization with other chimps! This proved that, but that doesn’t mean this road is easy or even guarantees this will work out.

Let us all cheers to one on one introductions being over and two incredible years with Honey B, Willy B, and Mave!

Gordo and Honey B. This was right before Honey B came over to Gordo and tried to give him a reassuring kiss!

Cy and Honey B wrestling!

Mave enjoying her whole mango! Mave was so excited, her food squeaks were unreal!

The Introductions Continue!

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The introductions just keep on coming. Today Cy and Willy B met! I would say it went pretty well. We always let them interact through the mesh before opening any doors between them. Willy B and Cy groomed for awhile at the mesh and had some amazing grooming sounds. They groomed everything from toes to heads to backs to faces. After we opened the door they played a little bit of chase from room to room. They did this on and off and was initiated a lot by Cy’s playful foot stomps. Even though the door was open they still preferred to groom through the mesh at first. Willy B would go over and sit on one side of it and head nod at Cy then Cy would join him in a grooming session. Eventually they felt comfortable enough to groom without mesh between them. They didn’t interact the whole time they were together and during these periods Cy would pull out his magazine to read while Willy tried to see what new potential friends were on the other side of the door.

Click here to see a short video from their grooming session today!

Willy B and Cy grooming.

 

Here are some bonus photos from today.

Lucky wearing a nice scarf.

Missy grooming Annie.

Exhilarating Day

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Today was a pretty exhilarating day. Burrito is doing really well, so well he got to go back with this group! Burrito is truly inspiring, he never gives up and through his struggles he somehow finds a way to be more positive and goofy through it all.

Foxie greeted Burrito by giving him a hug.

Dr. Missy checking Burrito out.

This other amazing thing happened today! Willy B got to hang out with Terry and then later Willy B met Lucky! Terry and Willy B did so well! Willy B was having so much fun he almost didn’t want to leave. There was a moment when they were grooming so intensely I felt a little emotional watching because they seemed so happy and were breathy panting so loudly! Willy B and Lucky had great interactions too! They had a really nice grooming session. I mean who wouldn’t have a good time with Lucky!

Willy B and Terry!

Lucky and Willy B!

Bonus photos!

Negra looking out the window in the portrait studio.

Lucky in her new favorite spot.

Willy B looking at himself through the camera.

I love this picture. Jamie is playing keep away with Foxie’s France Dora. Foxie just peaking out behind Jamie.

New Chimps New Routine

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New chimps also means a new routine. We are definitely trying to work out some kinks. Shifting can be hard when chimps don’t want to leave a room. Sometimes it means the humans clean until later in the day or if the chimps decide not to leave we can’t clean. Eventually, Dora’s group and Mave’s group will get into a new routine of shifting, but that probably won’t be this week ;). Today was no different, but we did get to clean Playroom 3, which feels like a win. So you might hear us say it was a busy day or today was crazy. What it really means is us humans are a little tired, but we got most of their areas clean. Also, have we mentioned how great our sixteen chimps are! I still can’t believe there are sixteen chimpanzees that get to call this place home! I couldn’t get photos of everyone today, but I was fortunate to get a few and have some kind caregivers share some of their photos with me.

Annie this morning looking over at the neighbors. I mean you have to keep an eye on the new guys, right?

This photo I captured last week and just wanted to share because it’s Burrito! How lucky are we to have this guy in our lives.

Little Miss Foxie exploring through the tall grass.

The ever so mischievous Honey B!

Jody also had to go spy on the neighbors this morning.

While cleaning Playroom 3 we found a grooming train! The Green House has so much vertical space, it really is amazing. In this photo you can see Gordo grooming Lucky and Lucky grooming Terry. Dora has a nice little nest on the other platform and if you look below, Rayne foraging for cherry tomatoes.

Look at this Mave!

After Rayne was done foraging in the Green House, she came up to say hi.

I can not get over how handsome Willy B is. No wonder Dora gets excited to see him.