Posts by Diana
Eye Contact
When I’m about to introduce people to chimpanzees for the first time, I usually include something like, “Though this is not true for all nonhuman primate species, it’s okay to make eye contact with chimpanzees. It’s not seen as a direct threat, particularly with chimpanzees who have been raised in captivity around humans.” And then…
Read MoreA New Day
Burrito was full of energy today! He spent most of his day monitoring the other chimpanzees somewhat wistfully. If I had opened up the door, he would have gladly joined them. He still has a while to go with his recovery, and we need him by himself so that we can closely monitor him and…
Read MoreThe Tale of the Slippers
As J.B. mentioned yesterday, and as I’m sure you would have surmised in any case, we’ve been spending extra time outside of our normal hours at the sanctuary as Burrito recovers. (If you are wondering about Honey B and why we don’t talk about her recovery, well, that’s because her day to day quickly returned…
Read MoreToday is for Linda Goodrich
Today’s day of sanctuary was sponsored by me, Diana, in memory of my aunt Linda Goodrich. Linda was a long-time supporter of the sanctuary, first making a donation as a wedding gift for me and J.B. Linda lived her life with a sense of adventure and independence and followed the Golden Rule by treating people…
Read MoreMan of Mystery
Willy B remains somewhat of a mystery to me and to some of the chimpanzees too, I think. Maybe he’s the big silent type. He definitely can be difficult to read and he rarely makes eye contact when I’m serving him food. That trait, combined with his size, has caused me to affectionately refer to…
Read MoreConnections Made and Lost
Working at a chimpanzee sanctuary, I never anticipated the number of (human) people I would get to know. I like to say, because I believe it is verifiably true, that the chimpanzees have brought the most amazing people into my life. No one has ever called me a social butterfly, but even an introvert like…
Read MoreNew Space
While we are on a bit of break with the introductions, Jamie, Missy, Jody, Annie, and Foxie are spending their time in the new Phase 1 area of the building. Foxie was with Burrito in there for about a week, but Wednesday was the first time the others got to go into that space (and…
Read MoreThe Best Laid Plans
Today we made an attempt to introduce Burrito and Foxie to the calm group of eight that have been doing really well for the last few days, and things did not go as we had hoped. There were some really good moments and everyone seemed to want to get to know each other, but the…
Read MoreTrust Them
I’m not going to lie, these last few weeks have been really challenging for all of the primates here at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, and the challenges are not over. Before you read this lengthy post, or after you read it, consider supporting the staff fundraising page now or on Tuesday, October 15th for Giving Day for…
Read MoreWhat’s in a Name?
One question that we receive pretty frequently is whether the chimpanzees had their names before coming to the sanctuary. The answer, for all of them, is yes. The laboratories or other facilities where they were born or who acquired them, gave them both numbers and names. The numbers were tattooed somewhere on their bodies, often…
Read MoreAn Unlikely Story About Honey B
This is a story I first told at our gala in June. Though now it has a very exciting ending or maybe more of a beginning of an ending. It’s a lot of words… feel free to skim and skip down to the photos of Honey B I took today. PREFACE I don’t myself believe…
Read MoreFour Thousand Sleeps
As I’m writing this, the chimp house is very, very quiet. The most noticeable sound is the hum from the printer on the desk next to me – a sound that is downed out during the day when there is a bustle of activity on the part of the humans and often loud chimpanzee vocalizations…
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