Icicles

While there is still plenty of snow around the sanctuary, we had a break today and finally got to enjoy a morning of sunshine! This seemed to brighten the moods of all of the primates here at CSNW and the chimpanzees spent the morning enjoying the warmth of the greenhouse, grooming, chasing each other and laughing, while we cleaned their home.

With all the snow of late, we’ve had a bumper crop of icicles and the chimpanzees LOVE icicles! We are always challenged with finding new and exciting enrichment ideas for the chimpanzees, particularly as they’ve been experiencing “chimp house fever” lately. So today we decided to add to their morning forage by “spiking” the snow with icicles and throwing in some cherry tomatoes.

There was a lot of excited food grunting going on as Debbie and I were bringing the snow and icicles in. Once the doors were opened, Jamie, being Jamie, had a plan to execute and grabbed her wheelbarrow to load up:

Icicles, snow, and tomatoes are three of Missy’s favorite things so she was pretty happy:

Missy looked as though she couldn’t decide which frozen treat to eat first:

Here’s Jody, so excited her hair is standing on end (pilo-erect) as she surveys the icy smorgasbord:

Despite there being enough for everyone, this didn’t stop Jody from food peering at Missy’s icicle. Food peering is one of my favorite chimpanzee behaviors. It effectively lets the other chimpanzee know that whatever they are eating looks really good and the other person is hoping they share. But Missy had no intention of bending to such pressure today:

And Foxie, just looking cute with a mouthful of something scrumptious:

Jamie, always up for a project, decided to use part of a telephone book to get some tomatoes out of the window caging. She later went out and got some bamboo to use, and yes, she got them all:

Everyone ended up with plenty of treats and Negra fans, not to worry, she made a beeline for the cherry tomatoes and took a handful to enjoy in the comfort of her nest in the sun.