For today’s afternoon enrichment, we filled bowls with tea, soy milk, soy yogurt, peanut butter, and ketchup, and placed the bowls on the outside of the chimps’ enclosure. Then we gave them tools to fish for the food.
Its fascinating to watch the different personalities in action. Burrito has no patience, and he’s not a very adept tool user either. Negra will use someone else’s straw once they’ve fished it into the bowl, but she won’t do it herself. Missy, Annie, Jody, and Foxie are all very patient and skillful. But Jamie is by far the best. I didn’t catch this on camera, but Jamie found a clever way to get the last bit out of her bowl. After she had gotten all of the yogurt that she could, she went to the water fountain to get a mouthful of water. She spit the water through the caging and into the bowl, diluting the remaining yogurt. Then she fished her straw through and drank the liquid.
Truly amazing! I sound just like they do at the bottom of my cherry Slurpee, good to the last drop.
Its funny how you can see Burrito to the side, rather anxious about everyone else slurping away. Interesting how the oldest and youngest are least proficient tool users. It will also be interesting to see if they learn and adapt to being better tool users by having Jamie, Foxie, Annie and Missy as examples.
Slurping through the straw makes it taste that much better. Love this video, J.B.!
Jamie…..what a smart girl!!!
Facinating!
Thanks for the video JB. It was fun to hear the slurping! I know I like that last drop, too. Annie was so intent on watching Missy. And I could hear Burrito’s dilemma sounds in the background. Great one to watch.
Thank you so much for doing this – I’ve enjoyed watching all the videos. Do any of them blow into the bowels and create bubbles?