Check out the play face as she climbs the timber bamboo. No one has more fun than Missy.
(In case you were wondering, she held on all the way down and had a safe landing)
Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
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Wow, these are great photos J.B. Missy is quite the climber…I wouldn’t of wanted to be in the way of that bamboo when she let go!! It is so wonderful to be able to see them running, playing and climbing in the great outdoors, that they were deprived of, for so long!
This would make a great flipbook
great sequence. it also appears that winter and snow has not been off-putting for them and they have gotten good use of The Hill. makes me all giggly to think about them and the added freedom and adventure that The Hill gives them …
these pictures are fantastic ! i cant belive how much the bamboo has grown ! what brilliant enrichment 🙂
Wow – Missy is having a BLAST! What GREAT photos!
WOW!! Great pics JB!! Thx for taking so many of them.
I think in the last picture she is secretly trying to figure out how to use the bamboo as a catapult to blast over that fence when Spring gets here!!
I’ll say this, that’s some mighty strong bamboo. Good for Missy for being so adventurous. I’ve been wondering if you all will put up something so they can brachiate around the hill, I know there would be safety issues?
Yes, we will be building more climbing structures in the spring and we hope to incorporate some features that will allow for brachiation.
JB, Thank you for these wonderful photos. Glad she was able to hang on as it bent over. Will be interesting to see if any of the others will try it.
Boy, this makes me wish we could see them in the trees 😀
Wow, this is amazing! So cool to see them out there using nature like it was meant to be used & appreciated.
JB: Is that Annie watching her below?
Jody was directly below her and Annie approached from the right toward the end of the series of photos
That’s amazing. Can you plant a good climbing tree (one that wouldn’t grow more than 15-20 ft) in the middle of the field, far enough away from the fences to avoid any accidents? Her climb looked so “natural”; wouldn’t it be great to see them sitting on a branch in a tree?
Planting a tree in the enclosure would be pretty difficult at this point. Most trees take a long time to grow, and when they are young or newly planted they are vulnerable. Fast growing trees require a lot of water, and we are very limited in the amount of irrigation we can do here since we are located in the zone between the mountains and the desert. The best scenario would be to build an enclosure around an existing stand of trees, but we didn’t have that option here.
I can’t deny that seeing Missy climb the bamboo makes me wish she had access to a whole forest of trees, but we try to focus on the functional aspects of enrichment. What Missy really wants to do is climb, so we will continue to build structures on the hill that allow her to do just that.