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.
These pictures are so sweet. Nice to know that the Christmas tree is still bringing joy to all in the Spring!
Great pictures of Missy enjoying her snack.
I know you have said Missy is a chimp’s chimp but she always seems so engaged with everyone — interesting to better understand her “Joe Cool” side. Very interesting and a little surprising too! (Love the way she picked that branch clean!!)
Hi Kathleen,
Missy definitely engages with us all every so often, and increasingly so. Perhaps I should say in comparison to the more human oriented chimps like Jamie, Burrito and Foxie, she just tends to be more reserved with us. She isn’t typically one to run up and greet us, offer a kiss, or initiate a lot of games, for example. I think for Missy the humans just more often serve a means to an end (meals, opening doors, walks around the hill, picking tomatoes from the garden) and once that’s achieved, she’s off to chase Annie or run with abandon on Young’s Hill. Just as it should be. 🙂
The piney taste is probably pretty good despite the needles.