Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Just 3 days ago, Debbie mentioned how we haven’t really had that much snow this year. She even said “I don’t want to jinx it”. Well, it’s been snowing almost constantly since Friday, so I think we can consider it jinxed! The humans may not be 100% excited about it, but the chimps are! Even Negra has been spending time on the hill eating snow.
No two souls can cheer me up quite like Annie and Missy. A couple of weeks ago, the BFFs were chasing each other around the hill, taking turns being the chaser and the chasee.
First Annie chased Missy
but she started to gain on her
as Annie passed, Missy playfully bit her shoulder
Then they played a little bit of peak-a-boo through the lexan panels of the cabin
There is no doubt that Missy is the athlete of the Cle Elum Seven. Her strength, agility, and playfulness amaze and amuse us everyday. Young’s Hill is her playground. Whether she’s climbing the tall bamboo, sprinting up and down the hill, or walking “tightrope” on the fire hose, she’s always on the move.
Most of yesterday’s snow has melted, allowing the chimps to venture out onto the hill without having to walk in the cold stuff. There are still plenty of patches to eat, though, so there’s been lots of activity outside today despite the chilly temperatures. Missy has been having a great time.
She did quite a lot of tightrope walking:
She also did some sprints.
Missy is happy to play by herself, but sometimes she comes to a dead stop mid-sprint:
and looks behind her to see if anyone is chasing her.
Today she was on her own, but you can see by her playface below that she was okay with that.
A few weeks ago, we captured some footage of Burrito foraging on Young’s Hill with the GoPro camera. The GoPro is great because it shows us the world from the chimps’ perspective, without the bars or fencing in the way. But the best part is the sound that it captures – make sure to turn up your volume so you can hear Burrito’s low moans and food squeaks. This is the sound of a happy man.
You might notice that Burrito seems a bit more relaxed outside than he did earlier this year. He’s a little less pilo erect (hair standing on end) and he seeks reassurance less often. But you’ll still see him doing both – he’s come a long way, but he’s still pretty cautious when he’s on the hill. You’ll see in this video is that he avoids taking the apple that is sitting right in front of the camera. Whole fruits are Jamie’s favorite thing, so he was probably wise to avoid it with her standing close by.
At the end of the video is a short clip from earlier this week that I filmed with my phone. Jamie and Burrito decided to follow us as we walked around the enclosure. This gives you a good idea of what the view looks like from the top of the hill. If you look carefully, you can see the chimp building at the bottom of the hill. Imagine how scary it must be for Burrito to travel so far from the place he feels most comfortable. He seems to feel better if he can tag along with someone else, even if it’s the girl that bosses him around.
Foxie rarely ventures onto Young’s Hill (or anywhere, for that matter), without a doll or two. The other day she took a troll and a Dora the Explorer doll on a walk around the hill. Having a doll in each hand slowed her down a little, but she didn’t seem to mind.
Foxie has a ritual when she receives a new doll or one she particularly likes. First, she holds it out in front of her and gazes at it adoringly.
Then she brings it in close to her chest.
In this photo you can see the bright green grass that has grown in toward the top of the hill since the Taylor Bridge wildfire burned through the grounds of the sanctuary a few months ago.
Negra still hasn’t taken the plunge and entered her cabin. I’m sure she’ll get there in time, but for now she prefers not to wander too far from the safety of the building. Here she is a few feet outside the greenhouse foraging for chow this morning.
Burrito, on the other hand, spent some quality time in the cabin this morning. It’s hard to believe that this is the guy who used to be too scared to enter the greenhouse – now he’s mastering two acres!
Negra did a little bit more exploring of Young’s Hill this morning. She ventured out very confidently right when I opened the door and walked out to the nearest log structure. She sat down and seemed pretty comfortable to me, especially since I have only seen her in this spot a couple of times- the first only being last week.
After a little bit, she seemed to lose some of her confidence though and was looking for a little bit of reassurance from her friends.
And Jamie was happy to oblige
The reassurance from Jamie seemed to inspire Negra to be a little more adventurous and she went further than I’ve seen her go on the hill. She seemed very proud of herself.
