• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

  • Our Family
    • The Chimpanzees
    • The Cattle
  • Blog
  • About Us
    • Visiting the Sanctuary
    • Philosophy
      • FAQs
      • Mission, Vision & Goals
      • Privacy Policy
    • The Humans
      • Staff
      • Board of Directors
      • Founder
    • Annual Reports
    • The Future of CSNW
    • CSNW In The News
  • You can help
    • Donate
      • Become a Chimpanzee Pal
      • Sponsor A Day
      • Transfer Stock
      • Be A Produce Patron
      • Be a Bovine Buddy
      • Give from your IRA
      • Personalized Stones
      • Bring Them Home Campaign
    • Leave A Legacy
    • Employment Opportunities
    • Volunteer
    • See Our Wish List
    • Events
  • Resources
    • About Chimpanzees
    • Enrichment Database
    • Advocacy
      • Apes in Entertainment
        • Trainers
        • Role of the AHA
        • Greeting Cards
      • Chimpanzees as Pets
      • Roadside Zoos
      • Chimpanzees in Biomedical Research
      • Conservation
        • African Apes
        • Orangutans
  • Shop
    • Merchandise Store
  • Contact
  • DONATE NOW

Troll games

December 2, 2012 by Elizabeth

I took the camera out to the greenhouse this morning and found Foxie chilling out on a tire. After a minute or two she ran over, passed me her troll doll, and ran back to the tire. Pass-the-troll is a favorite game of Foxie’s. She tosses a doll through the caging to a caregiver and watches closely to see what the caregiver will do with it – the more ridiculous, the better. In this photo she’s watching me balance the troll on my head while trying to handle the camera.

Eventually, she’ll let us know she’s ready to have her troll back by holding out her hand for it. Once the troll has been returned to her, she often inspects it closely as if looking for signs of damage. Foxie knows that her dolls aren’t alive, and she often treats them as the inanimate objects they are, but she can also be very nurturing toward them. It seems that the mothering instinct that she didn’t have an opportunity to express toward her own babies in the lab has finally found an outlet.  Sometimes it even appears that Foxie likes to put her dolls in “dangerous” situations — entrusting them to a caregiver, or pushing them off a beam of a climbing structure — so that she can then “save” them.

Share
Tweet
Share
Pin
EnrichmentFoxiePlaySanctuaryTrolls

Share

Share
Tweet
Share
Pin

Subscribe To the Blog and Get Notified of New Posts First!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Amy M says

    December 2, 2012 at 4:13 pm

    Elizabeth — I love how she’s looking at you in the first photo. Looks like she’s thinking, “That’s the best you’ve got??” Lol.

    • Elizabeth says

      December 2, 2012 at 4:18 pm

      Sometimes it takes a lot to impress these chimps. 🙂

  2. Linda (Southern California) says

    December 2, 2012 at 6:17 pm

    Great shots Elizabeth! 3rd one down is priceless!! Love it!! 🙂

  3. Kat Morrell says

    December 4, 2012 at 5:09 pm

    I love her.

  4. Dawn says

    December 5, 2012 at 8:07 am

    Oh this is great! I never saw the earlier one, from March — she sure enough is playing with them, like we all did, make up stories with our dolls (well, I guess in my case, it’s hard to outgrow 🙂 ) but what I am writing about is the rather astonishing imaginative faculty on display with what Foxie does with her trolls & dolls. So let me say Wow, they just never cease to astonish do they? How wonderful that all that they are has a place for unfolding and expressing itself in their sanctuary! Thank you all for the love, care and attention to detail you give them.

  5. Sara Lissabet, Fairfax says

    December 11, 2012 at 1:08 pm

    Sometimes I wish the chimps could film the caregivers entertaining them. 😉

Previous Post
Missy and Annie steal Negra’s spotlight
Next Post
An unobstructed view

Primary Sidebar

Subscribe To the Blog and Get Notified of New Posts First!

Archives

Calendar of Blog Posts

December 2012
S M T W T F S
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031  
« Nov   Jan »

Categories

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER

Footer

PO Box 952
Cle Elum, WA 98922
[email protected]
509-699-0728
501c3 registered charity
EIN: 68-0552915

Official DDAF Grantee

Menu

  • The Chimpanzees
  • Blog
  • About Us
  • You can help
  • Resources
  • Contact
  • Donate

Proud Member of

Connect With Us

Search

Copyright © 2024 Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. All Rights Reserved. Site by Vegan Web Design