Jody sometimes showers her caregivers with a mouthful of water. She has this hobby in common with many other captive chimpanzees, who often find creative ways to express themselves.
Jody fills her mouth up with water at one of the wall-mounted water spigots in the chimps’ enclosure, and holds onto it for awhile, mouth bulging, apparently waiting for the perfect time to let it fly. But sometimes, we caregivers are spared when Jody seems to have second thoughts. Maybe she’s waited so long with the mouthful of water that she can’t remember why exactly she felt such an urgent need to spit it in the first place. Maybe she just decides we’re not worth the effort. In these instances, she dips her head down slightly and lets the water fall gently from her mouth in a perfect stream.
