It’s 6pm. We’ve given the chimps their dinner, spot cleaned the playroom, passed out fresh blankets for nesting, and finished our long closing checklist to make the sure the chimps are safe, comfortable, and secure overnight. Each of the chimps is either finishing their after dinner food puzzle or settling into their nests for the evening. It’s time to call it a day. But we can’t leave until the boss gives us the OK and that can get complicated when your boss is a 37-year-old chimpanzee with a cowboy boot obsession.
Sure, it’s possible to just close the door and leave, but we’d be walking away from one very frustrated and potentially angry chimpanzee. Because when she goes to bed, she needs to take certain boots with her, and it’s our job to figure out which ones she is after.
Tonight, it took three staff members to model all her current favorites. We danced, did the moonwalk, and pirouetted for her. One particular pair grabbed her interest, and as I held them up near the caging, she began to groom them.
The grooming turned into tickling as I did my best attempt at chimp laughter (chimp laughter is akin to hyperventilating and can have similar consequences if humans do it too long or too enthusiastically).
You can tell when Jamie is finally satisfied. She lets our a low moan of approval and echos the nest grunts from her family as they bed down throughout the playroom. She begins to build her own nest by surrounding herself with blankets and weaving them into the caging.
Then, and only then, are we allowed to leave. But not with the boots – those stay with the boss.
