Styling Head Dolls

Lately Foxie has found a new passion for styling head dolls. What’s a styling head doll you ask? These dolls are just a large head and shoulders of a character, placed on a flat plastic base. Kids can brush and style the dolls’ hair to their hearts content. Foxie doesn’t care about styling the doll’s…

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Missy’s talents

At Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, Missy has merited the nickname “Dr. Missy.” We call her this because she is a particularly diligent groomer, spending hours attending to her group mates. If someone has sustained an injury, she focuses on that member with all her carefully well-honed skills. For the average day, Dr. Missy is always prepared…

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Unseen 2016 moments

Today is one of those crazy busy days that is just perfect for sharing a couple never before seen pictures taken throughout last year. Enjoy! Jody and sock: Jody relaxing: Jamie looking pretty serious: Annie with a mouthful of water: Hope everyone’s 2017 is off to a great start!

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Chimps are strong!

This afternoon, as I watched Jamie easily climb and brachiate from one Young’s Hill structure to another, I was reminded of the amazing physical strength of a chimpanzee. There is some debate among the scientific community on exactly how much stronger chimps are compared to humans, but there is no doubt that they ARE in…

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Lunch with Missy

Meals at the sanctuary, as you might expect, are pretty exciting events. There is usually a fair amount of jostling, and banging going on (especially by the boisterous Burrito chimpanzee), and of course, boss Jamie is always on hand to make sure caregivers (and sometimes the other chimpanzees) remember their place at the bottom of…

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Grooming the Queen

Chimp to chimp grooming is so much more than just a way to clean up. Sure, there are hygienic reasons to groom, but perhaps more importantly, grooming is a way of strengthening social bonds between group members. As Negra and Jody demonstrate, it takes a fair amount of trust to let someone get so up…

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For the love of a challenge

Jamie is an avid tool user. If something falls on the ground outside her enclosure and she knows that it’s within a tool’s reach, she is on it with a vengeance. Today, a couple slippery tomatoes fell during lunch service and she made it her mission to retrieve them as a bonus snack.

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Blue sky and acres of silver snow!

This morning the chimpanzees woke up to the first major blanket of snow for the season. Lucky for all of us, it was also a beautiful, bluebird sunshiny day. Jamie made sure to stretch her legs and taste some of the fresh powder out on Young’s Hill.

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Breakfast with Jody

At the sanctuary, breakfast is probably the most exciting meal of the day. Like humans, the chimps have a sweet tooth, so that makes the primarily fruit based meal all the more enjoyable. Today the chimps devoured pomegranates: Apples: And they finished their meal off with a couple bags of primate chow: Not pictured: peanuts,…

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Mr. B.

Even a boisterous guy like Burrito can enjoy a few moments of tranquility from time to time.

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