The site that we now call Young’s Hill was once just an empty horse pasture. Here it is in 2010, before we started construction:
A wide open pasture may be great for horses, but it’s awfully boring for chimps. And growing a forest from scratch takes a long time. Thankfully, we were introduced to Jackie Heinricher of Booshoot Gardens (now Provitro BioSciences) and she found a solution for us: bamboo!
We initially planted two groves on Young’s Hill and just recently planted some in the chimps’ greenhouse. It’s a great source of shade in the summer, and it’s also great for climbing, nesting, and eating.
Yesterday, we planted three new species of bamboo on the hill, including Phyllostachys nigra, which has beautiful black culms. All were generously donated to us by Provitro.
The chimps were really excited, though I admit it may have had a little to do with the corn, leeks, onions, and carrots that we spread around the hill.
We’ve never heard the chimps so vocal on the hill before. As they foraged, everyone was pant-hooting with excitement.
Foxie is always suspicious of new things, so at first she and Dora kept kept their distance from the new bamboo:
And Jamie wasn’t quite sure what to make of it either:
But soon everyone took a turn sitting under the new plants:
Yesterday was a great day for all of us and Negra must have gotten caught up in the excitement because she did something we have never seen her do before: she climbed up onto the shaky bridge!
Negra has lost over 10 pounds since coming to the sanctuary, and probably gained a lot of muscle, but she is still not in good enough shape to keep up with the activities of some of the other chimps. If she keeps this up, though, she may soon be giving Missy a run for her money!
We built a few of the structures on Young’s Hill specifically for Negra – they are close to the building and can be accessed without a lot of climbing. Maybe they’ll come in handy when she’s older because for now, Negra has decided that the whole hill is hers.
Bravo to all the people (chimp and human) there!!
slowly but surely!!! what a good reminder to be patient…. good things will eventually come to pass. Negra is a perfect example of that. 🙂
Yesterday was a pretty special day. I was able to see the 7 two days in a row which is always a good thing. I also had the pleasure of helping plant the new bamboo groves with much needed help of other volunteers and JB. Another set of volunteers and staff were in the chimp house cleaning, doing laundry and washing produce. We were all able to take a break for lunch and watch the chimps check out the new “boo’. The chimpanees had been watching us plant the boo from the green house and were quite excited to get out and see what we had done. As the door to the Hill opened and they all filed out to forage for their lunch the other volunteers and staff talked quitely about how seeing the chimpanzees on the hill just never got old. We would remark about this chimp or that chimp, you know “oh Jody found some corn”, or “look Jamie is checking out the boo”. As we watched we all at the same time noticed that Negra was reaching for a fire hose that hung from the bridge walk. All human communication stopped as we all held our breath and watched Negra climb the fire hose (slowly) to get on top of the bridge. Once she reached the top and sat down with a piece of her lunch we all looked at each other and let out our breath. Then it was “did you see that”, “I have never seen her do that” or “she realy climbed up there, right”. None of us had ever seen Negra climb the fire hose to get to the bridge on the hill. I was another day of firsts not only for Negra but for the humans who had the privilage to watch. We were also witness to the chimpsnzees being very vocal on the hill during their lunch forage. There was much squeeking, loud pant hoots and grunting from the chimps and smiles, grins and giggles from the humans.
Agreed Denice! Special thanks to you and the rest of the the ‘boo crew, J.B., Keri and Seana who worked so hard on Saturday 🙂
You go Negra!! Don’t let the past keep you down girl! You’re in a wonderful place now and the sky’s the limit, well, on top of the shaky bridge anyway. 🙂
Hooray for all the chimps but special pant hoots for Negra!!! That is so great to hear. Every day seems to be a new experience for her!!
Go Negra! So happy for you girl. It makes me so happy to see you expanding your horizons. Proud of you!