Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

THE STORY OF CHIMPANZEE SANCTUARY NORTHWEST
with a tribute to Negra at the end

George, One Year Later

We shared a video update about George at HOOT! 2026, and we wanted everyone to see it today.

Six Months Became Eighteen Years:
Negra's Life as Queen of the Sanctuary

We hoped to give Negra six months of sanctuary. She had eighteen years.

Negra's Early Years

Negra was captured in Africa as an infant, sometime between 1969 and 1973, and spent decades as a biomedical research subject.

When we met her at Buckshire in 2007, she was one of seven chimpanzees living in a small space with no windows. Unlike the other six, Negra ignored us for most of our visit. When she finally rose, she did so with effort and reluctance. Her body didn't move with the energy and ease that most chimpanzees have.

We thought then that if we could give Negra six months in sanctuary, Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest would have fulfilled its mission.

Negra's Sanctuary Years

Negra arrived with her six groupmates in 2008. Six months came and went, and then years passed. She soaked up the sun with her eyes closed and her head tilted toward the sky. 

Though she chose to spend most of her time indoors, she would emerge in the spring and forage for native plants and pasture grass in her outdoor habitat.

Her respected status in the group, and her ease at making demands of her caregivers, earned her the title of Queen of the sanctuary. 

She was often seen with her signature blanket over her head.

In her later years, as her strength and mobility declined, Negra kept going at her own pace, with plenty of rest along the way. We celebrated her 53rd birthday this June, though she may have been older. She was the oldest chimpanzee in our care.

She lived far longer than we ever dreamed.

The day before her passing, Negra had a perfect, quiet afternoon in the Greenhouse with her chimpanzee family.

Sanctuary looks different for every chimpanzee. For Negra, it was sunshine, a blanket, her after-dinner nightbag, and time to rest. It was being respected and treated as the royalty she was. Donations made every one of those days possible and kept our promise to her.

Your Giving Day for Apes donation directly supports:

• Individual sanctuary experiences, from the blankets and foraging to the sunshine and rest that make life at CSNW each chimpanzee's own
• Daily care for our 15 chimpanzee residents, each with their own history and their own way of being a chimpanzee
• Educational outreach to share why primates don't belong in laboratories