I cannot emphasize enough how intelligent Jamie is, and how interested she is in human activities. Yesterday near the end of the day, I heard an unusual tapping sound coming from the playroom. It’s always important to investigate any different noises one might hear from the chimpanzee’s area because you never know what kind of mischief they might be getting into. As it turned out, I found a tube we give to the chimps for enrichment sticking through the playroom door into the basket of cleaning tools we keep nearby.
Exhibit A:
Jamie was sitting at the door casually. I left the room to get the camera to take a picture and try and catch her in the act of attempted tool nabbing. From the other room I heard the tapping start up again, but when I went back with camera in hand, she was again sitting nearby with a nonchalant look on her face.
The boss is an impressive forward thinker and I’m sure she will get back to her project another day.
Such a clever girl – keeping you on your toes! Love it!
Can’t wait to hear when you discover her plan!
Jamie is amazing. But I will say, that bin with all those cool looking brushes and dust pans looks really close and tempting, who wouldn’t want to try to sneak something out of it?! I think she went outside to get a stronger snitching tool, like a bamboo reed that she can whittle down for her specific needs. Keep us posted on her progress!
Really good story. Reminds me of my son as a little kid??????
I think it would so amazingly fascinating — were it something that could be done safely for both parties, and ethically — to put a chimpanzee, especially a smart one like Jamie, together with a, what?, five year old? child, and leave them to play with a bunch of toys. I think it would be incredibly revealing and teach a valuable lesson to anyone that thinks our cousins are not intelligent. Alas, that’s something that can never be done and perhaps, ethically, it’s wrong to even imagine it. But on reading your blog entry today, I could not help but picture a child doing the same thing… or maybe he or she couldn’t even figure it out!? While Jamie could? How fitting that would be!
Great story today, thank you!
mmmmm…..mmmm…. nothing going on here…. just move along…….