Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

young's hill

Octobrrrrr!

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While the mornings in October are beautiful, they sure are cold! However, its still warm in the sun and the chimps don’t seem to mind the brisk mornings. Look at all of them out on Young’s Hill (even Neggie)!

Negra was very eager to go outside with everyone this morning:

And then promptly came back inside to snooze a little bit more, can you tell that lump of blankets is Negra:

Missy was having a blast rippin and chasing her friends onto Young’s Hill:

Jody, Jamie, Foxie, and Annie all scattered onto the Hill:

Foxie:

Annie:

Burrito:

Burrito eventually decided to go inside:

Later in the morning while we were cleaning I saw Jody basking in the sun:

While Jody was relaxing I found Burrito watching Foxie and Missy out on the Hill:

It warms my heart to see everyone enjoying their day and spending quality time together!

It’s October!!

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It’s October!! And you know what that means…it’s the countdown to Jamie-ween!!!

For those of you who might be new to the blog/sanctuary, Halloween is probably the biggest party of the year at the sanctuary as we go all out to celebrate boss lady, Jamie, and her honorary birthday on the 31st (she turns 41 this year!). One can never plan too early. And it doesn’t hurt that we humans are all pretty crazy about Halloween. At least this human is…

Jamie had other pressing matters to attend to, but Burrito made a “new friend” during a game of chase in the greenhouse with Kelsi today:

“Can I eat this thing?”

It didn’t take him long to realize his “new friend” was a great back scratcher:

The surrounding mountains, hillsides and sanctuary property are turning all the beautiful shades of autumn:

Every season seems to gift the chimpanzees with so much abundance. They are currently enjoying freshly picked pears, apples, and Italian plums from the property orchard, and a new treat of freshly harvested Lemmon’s willow which seems to be a new favorite.

J.B.’s been working hard getting ready for our new bovine family members to arrive and has been making some adjustments to the fencing around the orchard. Our deer neighbor families are thrilled to finally have temporary access to all the pears they can possibly eat:

All the beautiful wild roses that Jamie, in particular, loves to eat during the summer have now turned to a bounty of rosehips:

Kelsi captured these lovely photos of Jody, who seems to have become the self-appointed sentry and guardian, posting herself at the opening to Young’s Hill where she takes in the early morning view of their outdoor habitat, scanning her family’s home for any signs of trouble or danger and watching over them all:

Look at that gorgeous eye healing up!

It really is such a magical, beautiful time of year. This time of harvest, full of so much abundance. Not just the local bounty of food and beauty available for the chimps to enjoy each day, but you. Every day we look around and see the abundance you make possible.

Phase I of the expansion of the chimp house literally grows by leaps and bounds each day. We’re still reeling from the overwhelming generosity and support you provided during our Summer Biddin’ online auction and the recent Giving Day for Apes event! You set up fundraisers on Facebook for the chimps, participate in your employee giving programs, supply us with all the in-kind gifts we could need to care for and provide entertainment and comfort for the chimps through our Amazon Wish List, you share your love for the chimps with others, and you show up, here, in this online space, every day to see what the chimps got up to, learn about them, and honor each of them for the amazing individuals they are.

In so many ways, you stand together with us not only in providing Jamie, Burrito, Jody, Foxie, Annie, Missy and Negra with the abundance of hope, love, and home, but also as we prepare to grow this special family in welcoming others in need of sanctuary. From our hearts, thank you for making the chimps’ lives rich beyond belief. And the lives of so many humans as well.

Warm Sunshine & Lemmon’s Willow

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This morning everyone wanted to eat chow outside! It was a perfectly brisk morning with warm sunshine, no complaints there.

Jody in her usual spot on Young’s Hill:

Jody was breathy panting with excitement for Missy to come join her:

Jody, Missy, and Foxie heading out:

Foxie:

Annie took her chow out to a log and enjoyed some solitude:

Burrito joining the ladies:

After the Green House was cleaned we put in some new foliage called Lemmon’s willow. The chimps had never tried this before and we were interested to see who would like it. We assumed Jody would, but we actually found almost all the chimps wadging on it at one point in the day, particularly Jody, Annie, Burrito, and Missy!

Jody munching on a Lemmon’s willow branch:

Missy snagging a branch:

Missy took a branch bigger than her inside to snack on:

**BONUS**

Today’s daytime enrichment was firehose knots with nuts and seeds inside. As I was walking around and snapping some photos I found Jamie enjoying what looked like 3 or 4 knots and a troll sock tied around her ankle. She had tied it herself and had been casually strutting around with it. However, once she saw that I noticed the anklet she took it off discreetly (it was very hard to get a picture of this).

Jamie with her troll anklet:

 

Sweet September

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This weekend we host our last two summer visits for our supporters for the year. These small visits feature an educational talk from one of our staff members and a chance to view the chimpanzees as they forage for their lunch on Young’s Hill. Today’s lunch forage featured highly prized whole sweet corn (husk and all!).

Burrito spent most of his time picking up primate chow, but managed to get some corn too:

Foxie enjoyed some corn and a good view from one of the towers:

Jamie:

Negra:

Missy:

Jody made several trips outdoors to get her lunch:

There’s no better time to eat corn on the cob than in September -or at least Annie thinks so. She “won” the forage today by collecting the most corn and scaling the Escher structure for that final piece!

Late summer days

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Typically September is our guaranteed best weather of the year. Well, in our opinions. 🙂 The heat dies down along with the winds, mornings and evenings are cool, but the days sunny and warm. The green of summer is becoming flecked with gold, red and orange. It’s that perfect blend of summer and autumn. The fifth season, betwixt and between. But this year, September has been a little more cold and rainy than usual. Yesterday was so unexpectedly cold! Today we’re back to bluebird skies and a warm sun despite a brisk, damp morning. The chimps have been full of joy and shenanigans all day. Especially Foxie. She’s been full of pirouettes, backflips, cartwheels from the top to the bottom of the caging, playing chase, and just being the most joyful being. Even the normally serious boss lady, Jamie, has been extra silly and happy. Here are some of the things the chimps got up to today:

Annie and Missy were first to the top of a structure after breakfast to take in the view:

Negra enjoyed a moment in the sun:

Foxie decided to play Spider-chimp and take the more adventurous way up the newest structure:

Foxie was sneering all the way back to the greenhouse because she was annoyed by the tall grass in her face and even more so, her nemeses…the grasshoppers! Oh, she hates those grasshoppers!

And some bonus photos from a few days ago of Jody luxuriating in the turtle pool, because obviously you had to see these:

Negra’s prize

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This morning when I opened the door to Young’s Hill for the chimps, the group filed out together to check on their 2 acre outdoor enclosure. Negra, who often goes back to bed after breakfast (instead of exploring), headed outside with everyone else. She found a perch on the nearest platform and was clearly watching the construction workers. Things have been a bit noisy lately as they have moved on from the masonry to putting in the ceiling rafters (quite a bit of thumping and bumping sounds are happening on the kitchen roof). There is a lot of activity to be curious about!

Perhaps she had an ulterior motive all along when she went outside, because she happened to snag a leftover sunflower and carried it back to her nest. Nothing signifies the end of summer quite like the lovely sunflower.

Party cleanup committee

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Yesterday we threw a big party on Young’s Hill for Annie’s 44th birthday! The chimps were filled to the brim with all kinds of delicious foods, so much so, that there were still some leftovers deemed worthy by some adventurous foragers this morning.

Annie found what at first glance looked like a leftover banana leaf:

Upon further examination, it turned out to be the outermost skin of a watermelon rind.

Annie was more than happy to clean up after her own party

Jody found several remaining sunflowers to snack on as well:

Again today, Negra reaped some of the benefits of Jody’s hard work. I snapped this photo of her through the playroom window while we were cleaning this morning.