We’ve been taken every opportunity with the not-bad weather to spread food over Young’s Hill so the chimpanzees can forage for their meals. They LOVE forages, and it’s nice to see them doing a little bit of what they would do if they lived in the wild. Of course, free-living chimpanzees rely on the bounty of nature to provide their meals. At the sanctuary, the Cle Elum Seven rely on the humans to provide their food. Their food squeaks and full mouths are an indication that we’re doing an okay job.
This morning we spread out a breakfast forage of strawberries, grapefruit, and chow biscuits.
Here’s Jamie collecting strawberries:
Burrito eating some grapefruit while on the move to find more:
Annie and Jamie checking the shakey bridge for food:
Missy found the stash in the cabin:
Annie put an impossible number of chow biscuits in her mouth, then attempted to also eat strawberries:
Yes, the chimps are so lucky to have such wonderful people to take care of them! I so love seeing all the photos…great photos too! The blip and photo’s of Burrito and Annie gave me a good laugh. Love the share…THANKS!
I’m wondering how you divy out their food, so that one doesn’t get more than someone else and do you weigh their portions in their regular meals?? In other words, how do you know how much to give each individual and do you take into account activity level, etc. ? Are all captive chimpanzees fed pretty much the same things based on research and or advice from zoos, veterinarians??
And could Annie get any more stuffed in her mouth? 🙂 Great photos of the forage!! 🙂
It is so nice to see the “7” outside and engaging in a behavior they would do as free living chimpanzees.
Did Negra venture outside for breakfast? Great seeing the other hairy babies with happy faces. I can never get to many pictures or videos of these angels.
Yes! She did go out briefly for breakfast. I had a few photos, but they were all of her backside as she was gathering food 🙂