It seems as though the weather has been constant snow for the past couple of days here at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. While this certainly makes for a beautiful landscape and, of course, tasty chimpanzee treats, I do think the chimpanzees might be experiencing a little bit of chimp house fever. It’s not that they physically can’t go out; the door to Young’s Hill has been open daily. But the snow just keeps piling up and, well, what kind of choice is that?! So it falls on us, the caregivers, to come up with ever more enriching entertainment for our chimpanzee friends. Some ideas are a hit and others a miss but I have had moderate success recently.
Yesterday, I put a bucket on my head in an attempt to entertain Foxie & Burrito. Neither of them seemed very impressed but Missy suddenly jumped up from her nest in the loft and ran full speed right over to where I was standing. She vigorously head-nodded to solicit a game of chase from my bucket wearing self. I happily complied!
Today, Jamie was adamantly demanding something from the kitchen. Usually this means she’d like one of her boots, sometimes it leads to a walk around the hill and other times to a grooming session. Today, no matter what boot I held up for her inspection she seemed frustrated. Finally, I grabbed the entire bin of boots, brought it out and set it down next to the caging. Apparently this was satisfactory. I guess some days you just need all the boots for your nest.
