The beautiful Christmas tree that we bought for the chimpanzees (with the hopes of planting it for them when the weather warms up) has been taking a bit of a beating since the holidays. It’s currently living in the greenhouse, but seems be diminishing in size. We’ve seen Negra and Jody munching on it occasionally, and the other day Debbie captured these photos of Missy trying it out. In my mind it would be a pretty pokey snack, but I guess not in the mind of the chimpanzees.
If you’ve been following the blog awhile you may have seen us mention that Missy is really a “chimp’s chimp.” She usually prefers the company of her chimpanzee friends, particularly her best friend, Annie, to that of humans. It’s always a special treat when she chooses to engage with us in a sudden game of chase or asks us to groom her. But just to make sure we aren’t getting too ahead of ourselves, she often gazes about nonchalantly even when in the middle of a play session, just playing it cool, almost as if to say she’s not “really” engaging with the humans.
Missy’s aloofness also transfers to our attempts at getting photos of her as you can see in these. If we are lucky she sits still long enough to let us get a couple of shots, but she won’t often make eye contact for long. It’s just Missy’s way and we love that it’s always her choice to engage or not. And it makes those rare moments of Missy’s attention that much more of an honor.