Today we are celebrating our guy, Burrito’s, 33rd birthday! And if you are celebrating Burrito that means you are also celebrating food. We serve the chimpanzees three meals a day by hand and/or forage in addition to a smaller forage, occasional snacks and food puzzles which consist of things like fresh vegetables, seeds and nuts. But today we decided to spread the meal service out and serve something every hour, all day long! Needless to say, Burrito has been enjoying his birthday.
Burrito has been so happy and playful today and has been anxiously watching for what comes next. We started the day off with gift boxes full of nuts and primate chow in the greenhouse as a breakfast appetizer. Anna got this photo of the birthday fella looking particularly sweet, watching through the playroom room window as we set them out:
After breakfast was served, Burrito took over Jamie’s usual spot atop the barrel in the front rooms and watched us clean the playroom as he awaited the third course of the day. Let me tell you, this adorable guy made it pretty hard to get any work done.
After the playroom was cleaned, we put out a forage of more nuts in gift boxes and smoothie in tiny cups. Burrito was so excited I had to wait for him to calm down and stop shaking the door leading into the playroom so I could open it. You can see in the photo below how excited he is by his pilo-erect hair (standing on end).
And though this one is blurry, I love that it captures Burrito’s excitement during the forage – pilo-erect hair and flying across the playroom in mid-air. (It also may give you an idea of why we didn’t have much luck getting party photos – this guy was on the move!):
Next up was roasted sweet potatoes warm from the oven. Here is caregiver-in-training, Ally, serving the birthday guy:
After lunch we passed out whole apples which everyone was super excited about and as I type, Burrito is excitedly watching Anna as she prepares one of his very favorites, spaghetti with tomato and pepper sauce, for part of his birthday dinner forage. We still have a couple servings to go and all of the chimps’ seem to have caught on to the theme for the day and have been posted near the kitchen window to see what’s next.
In all the excitement Burrito has been a bit of a wild man, sowing his 33 years of wild oats much of the day and frequently riling up all the girls. But I think it’s safe to say they are all enjoying the day’s celebration of Burrito and food!
Happy Birthday, Burrito!! We love you so much, Bub!!
