Posts Tagged ‘primate’

Vertical Play

Saturday, January 14th, 2012

I found some gems when going through videos today. The rungs in this room (what we call around here Front Room One) normally lead to a bench. The bench was taken out and will be replaced soon, but that doesn’t mean the rungs aren’t still used by acrobatic Foxie.

The treat rock

Wednesday, November 9th, 2011

Today volunteer Laura and I put together a peanut butter/fruit puree and smeared it inside the tubes for the treat rock. The treat rock mimics a termite mound, in that the chimps can use sticks or hoses to fish for treats we place in tubes mounted inside the rock. Thus far, the chimps have been a bit too busy with other things to care about “fishing” for treats in the rock (the hill is a lot to take in!), but today Jody, Jamie, and Missy all spent some time checking it out.

Jody only took a quick peek or two, but was definitely intriqued.

Not all the holes have tubes in them, which Jamie quickly figured out

Missy spent the most time on the rock

and was the most proficient

yum!

Out of the Box!

Wednesday, August 31st, 2011

Tickets are now on sale for Out of the Box 2011, Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest’s gala auction in Seattle. They are going fast, so get yours while they last!

There will also be an online auction for out-of-town supporters. The online auction site is up and we’ve added information about our important Fund-a-Need project. Auction items will be added in the coming weeks, and there will be some incredible items! The online auction is shorter this year: October 7-9th.

I am looking for a few more Individual Sponsors for the event. We have some specific expenses that need covering, including $250 worth of gas for the truck we are renting to get all of the auction stuff from Cle Elum to Seattle and back ($250 is a Play Face Sponsor level), about $500 (Play Laugh Sponsor level) for really cool volunteer auction t-shirts (we’ll sell a few too), and about $500 in printing costs (another Play Laugh Sponsor could cover this).

Individual Sponsorships range from $100 Head Nod / Table Sponsors to $5,000 Pant Hoot Sponsors, with some fun sponsor levels in between. Perhaps blog readers could team up to donate towards a particular level? Learn more about who’s already stepped up to sponsor and how you can do the same on our Auction Sponsors page or just send me an email: diana@ChimpsNW.org.

Out of the Box 2011 is truly our biggest event to date. Volunteers worked really hard to procure awesome things for you to bid on. The Seattle event is going to have a wonderful food and wine, thanks to the chef at Bell Harbor and generous donations from Field Roast Grain Meat and Goose Ridge Vineyard and Winery, plus more wine from Dulces Bistro & Wine, Chandler Reach and Saviah Cellars.

Personally, I can’t wait!

auction 2011 logo

It’s break time

Thursday, July 14th, 2011

Jamie, Foxie, and Missy have been super playful all morning. The three of them played on top of the climbing structure in the outdoor area for at least an hour and have been chasing each other around the playroom and laughing hysterically the whole time. But everyone knows that in between play bouts, one must nap.

Foxie:

Jamie:

Missy:

Porthole

Thursday, June 23rd, 2011

The new ladder (click on link to left for video of Jamie and Foxie’s reaction to the new ladder) has created a new space for Jamie to keep an eye on things:

Jamie looking through "porthole"

 

Young’s Hill getting closer one pole at a time

Saturday, May 7th, 2011

Last week Keith, CSNW’s founder, and volunteer Laura helped J.B. set some poles for the fence around Young’s Hill. We are building a double fence system with a total of 220 poles, so J.B.’s going to need a lot of help in the coming weeks! If you are interested in doing some physical labor volunteering now or in the future, please contact J.B. – he’d love to hear from you.

Here’s a photo of the first set of poles that went up:

first double poles

Today Denice and some terrific volunteers from Seattle University’s Animal Advocates and the Seattle Animal Defense League are setting more poles. As a big bonus to all of us, they brought vegan donuts from Mighty O in Seattle!! Mighty O donated donuts for last year’s Out of the Box auction Dessert Dash and they were recently crowned the Food Network’s Donut Champions, so this is no small treat for us humans.

Anyway, enough about delicious vegan donuts. Back to the hill. Below is a photo of today’s volunteers setting posts.

volunteers setting posts

And here’s a photo of Negra and Annie. Negra was watching the poles going up. With the two greenhouse panels off, the chimps can see all the work being done on the hill.

Negra Annie looking to Young's Hill

It’s not all about poles, either. If you received our recent e-newsletter, you know that all of the topsoil left over from digging the trench for the primary fence was utilized to make some mounds on the hill. To put these mounds in perspective, here’s a photo of J.B. and Jackie on one set (imagine them as chimps!):

JB Jackie on mounds

Wine grape vines for the chimps

Saturday, March 19th, 2011

It’s that time of year again – right around the time of our wine tasting event, the chimpanzees get to enjoy the bounty from Washington State wine growing too. Thanks to Phil Cline at NHV for letting us pick up a truckload of vine trimmings for the chimps! So far they don’t seem to have a favorite varietal, but just give them time.

I searched for a video to provide a comparison of Jody’s nesting behavior to what chimpanzees do in the wild. Here are a couple, in case you are interested: Female chimpanzee making nest from tree leaves at Gombe Stream National Park and bonobo making a treetop nest. They weren’t easy to find becaues if you do a Google video search for “chimpanzee nesting” – most of the results are videos from Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest.

An Unusual Play Trio

Saturday, February 12th, 2011

J.B. and I were cleaning the playroom this morning, when we saw Negra, Foxie and Annie playing together. This is quite the unusual trio of playmates, and I’ve never seen Negra play this long in one stretch! There was more than what is shown in the video, but it was challenging filming conditions – through the glass window with the playroom filling up with steam from cleaning. J.B. caught some choice moments, and I know Negra fans will be thrilled.

x-mas tree forage

Monday, January 17th, 2011

Today volunteer Kim brought over a discarded tree from her friend Michelle. Kim “decorated” the tree with food for lunch. Later, volunteer Pam came and told me about a Swedish holiday called St. Knut’s (or Canute’s). It was on January 13th. It seems the chimps celebrated it well, though a bit late…

christmas tree for forage

Jamie’s intense love of boots

Saturday, January 8th, 2011

As a fitting tribute to Kathy Cochran’s birthday, I used the beautiful telephoto lens she gave us way back when with the new camera that the board of directors recently purchased for us. It’s so great to have high quality equipment to capture moments at the sanctuary and share them. Perhaps one of these photos will be in the book Sanctuary: Year Three.

Jamie’s love of boots…

Jamie boot intense 1

Jamie boot intense 2

Jamie boot intense 3