Archive for January, 2010

Negra thanks you

Friday, January 8th, 2010

Below is the photo of Negra taken on the first day she was in sanctuary and a photo taken just an hour ago. Negra continues to change. She’s been very playful and more active this winter than last. She still avoids conflict and likes to have blankets over her head. She has her favorite foods. And she still loves to see humans dance for her.

Negra’s continued signs of contentment are all because of the support that we have had from so many. Without individual donations, the  sanctuary and the quality care that we provide would still be a figment of our imaginations. So much has happened in such a short amount of time, thanks to you all!

Today I wanted to say a special birthday thanks from Negra to a couple of people who are helping to get the stories of the Cle Elum Seven out into the world. Kathy Cochran, whose birthday is today and Margaret Parkinson, who celebrated her birthday on December 31st. These two remarkable ladies collaborated to create the book, Sanctuary: Year One that we have for sale in our online store. Thank you both and happy birthdays!

Negra on her first day at the sanctuary, after living in laboratories for decades

Negra_day_one

Negra tonight, finishing up the seeds from her night bag

web Negra eat seeds close-up room 4_MG_5244

B-day

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

I think it’s safe to say that Burrito has had a pretty terrific birthday. Since the guy is all about food, we decided to make his day all about food, too. At 8:30 I invited the chimps into the front rooms for breakfast. Everyone came in (though Jamie almost decided against it — she was enjoying watching the greenhouse construction outside from a window in the playroom loft), so volunteer Denice served a tasty breakfast while I started the playroom clean-up. After breakfast, Denice joined me in the playroom to finish up cleaning. By about 10:45, the playroom was clean and blankets, birthday presents from Cle Elum Seven friend Robbi, and a forage of fruit, nuts, and Cheerio necklaces were set out.

While the chimps enjoyed the treats in the playroom, we cleaned the front rooms, and then the real fun began. Today we did away with our usual three-meal-a-day schedule in favor of frequent snacks, so that Burrito could enjoy his favorite time of day (mealtime!) all day long. He was pretty pleased with the idea, as you’ll see in this all-Burrito video (thanks so much to supporter and friend Tamela for the awesome new camera!).

Everyone’s excited about Burrito’s birthday

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

MailChimp changed their login page to wish Burrito a Happy Birthday! Check it out here.

We have cool new benefits for Chimpanzee Pal sponsors, so if you’d like to sponsor Burrito, like MailChimp does, learn more: http://chimpsanctuarynw.org/you_can_help/donate/#ChimpPal

We’ll post all about Burrito’s festivities soon. We decided to make his day all about food (of course!), and his friend Robbi brought some presents too.

Nesting, Nesting, Nesting…

Sunday, January 3rd, 2010

Today, Jamie built herself yet another nest using a blanket and a box. This sparked a conversation between Diana and I about the similarities and differences of nesting behavior of captive vs. free-living chimpanzees. We couldn’t find many videos on the internet of free-living chimpanzees nesting, however, Jane Goodall’s Discover Chimpanzees Website has a behavior glossary, complete with video footage of the chimpanzees in Gombe engaging in a variety of behaviors, including this clip of nesting. If you compare the following video clips of Jody, Missy and Jamie (in order of appearance) to the video clip from the Discover Chimpanzees Website, you can see many similarities. Notice how the free-living chimpanzee (named Fifi) pulls the branches into her nest and pushes them down to make her bed more comfortable. It truly is an exact science.

It’s still all about Burrito

Saturday, January 2nd, 2010

I couldn’t resist posting this short video of Burrito enjoying his burrito dinner

Snow Grunts

Friday, January 1st, 2010

The chimps never seem to tire of eating snow. Sitting here in the kitchen, I hear food grunts and squeaks every 5 minutes or so as someone returns from the outdoor area with a giant snowball.

1-1-10 Burrito snow mouth_MG_5232