Today we celebrate Beautiful Annie’s birthday. For the breakfast party in the greenhouse, we chose to have a bird theme because of the bird noises that she, uniquely, makes when she is relaxing.
The theme turned tropical with coconut, watermelon (that’s tropical, right?), pineapple, and fruit smoothie. Plus some primate chow, which Annie is fond of:
Also included were headbands (on the decorative slinky below) because of Annie’s sense of fashion.
Her friend Francoise even sent a book from Canada for us to interact with Annie (I did, later in the day, but didn’t get any photos – we’ll continue to have fun with this book, I can tell – Foxie and Jamie were very interested in it too!)
Later in the day, for the lunch forage, we had some of Annie’s favorite foods: green onions, leeks, cattails, and romaine lettuce. And we included some roses from the garden, mini-peppers, and more primate chow.
Let’s get down to the chimp pics. You decide if Annie enjoyed our efforts:
Of course the other chimpanzees appreciated Annie’s celebration too.
Burrito on a mission to find more food:
The coconut was a special treat:
Foxie:
Missy:
Negra:
Jody:
But there were plenty of other treats to enjoy throughout the day:
Negra foraging:
Jody with leeks:
Missy with a mouthful of chow:
Jamie’s hand getting the plate of food from under the tub:
Jamie with a leek and cattail:
The day ended with more treats – baked sweet potatoes and beets:
Annie thanks everyone for making her 42nd birthday a day of celebrating her favorite things and honoring how much we love her!
Happy birthday to the lovely Annie!
I chose to celebrate with a hand band party with my friends tonight in honor of Annie! Seriously I did! I don’t think they understood but I didn’t care! And I am pretty darn teary eyed after seeing what a wonderful birthday Annie had with her family at CSNW! Happy Birthday Dear Annie, I love love you!
That’s so fun that you had a party in Annie’s honor, Kathleen. J.B. and I were trying to figure out what a hand band party is. I thought maybe all music created with just your hands, but then realized maybe it was a headband party?
Ha! Wondered that myself, then arrived at the same conclusion. Maybe she was still hammered and hung over from all the fruit smoothies. 😛
Is that Burrito with the missing pinkie finger?? What happened and when? My poor boo…. 🙁
I’d say any event with food is definitely a hit. I love two photos in particular:
1. The last photo, of Annie looking so innocent and cute as she munches on her food. Just something about her eyes in that one.
2. The second one of Jamie with the cattails. She is my favourite colour: SHINY! I couldn’t believe how glossy her coat looks!
Which brings me to a question. In some gorilla and chimp videos, I’ve seen their caretakers putting some kind of oil on their coats (I think they might do this with orangs, too, but for them it might be to their skin and not the coat for whatever reason) that makes the coats just glisten like they’ve been to a hairdresser. What is it and is it used out of necessity for some health reason, or merely aesthetics?
Thanks!
That’s Missy’s hand with the abbreviated pinky finger – you can see it in the photo of her further down in the post. We’re not sure how it happened – it was before she came to the sanctuary.
I have never seen oil being applied to gorillas and chimps!
I’ve got some videos of that happening bookmarked, and will gladly share the URLs if you think others may be interested, or I can simply send them to you in e-mail. Let me know.
And thanks for that clarification. Maybe it happened in a power tool accident. 😀
Sure. I’m curious.
This one is about Gust, a lowland gorilla that died rather recently (within the last few years) that lived with this keeper they show, Aloïs Samson, at the Antwert Zoo his entire life. Here, he couldn’t be more than a year or two old. There are three parts to this, taken in 1954, so be sure and watch all of them–they’re quite adorable. Plus, it’s fascinating to me how differently we view all the great apes now that we don’t live in the ’50s anymore.
The oil scene begins right at 2’29”, but I’m unable to tell what chemical is on the bottle. And I’ll have to find the other one. It came from Monkey World, I think, and the keepers were explaining why they put oil on the Orangutans.
https://youtu.be/rPIP9XGNZfY
Really interesting, but I have no idea about the oil.
I hope Chimps see IN COLOR The photos of the decorations and food displays are colorful Had to laugh at the coconut shell hat you put on one of Foxie’s troll doll. That was one heck of a party and from the looks of it, they all had a great time
They do! Their senses are about the same as ours, and some chimps show a preference to certain colors over others. Thanks for following along, everyone!
Clearly Annie knows it’s her special day!
I am always impressed with the thought and care that go into the parties for the chimps at the sanctuary. Clearly they enjoy the food and party favors so much. I would love to be on the guest list:). Happy Birthday Sweet Annie
I know the chimps all have their favorite foods, the way they like them prepared (I think Jamie likes her carrots peeled)….. Are they picky when it comes to foods that have wilted or dried out in the sun?, ie do things like lettuce have to be crisp or does it depend on the individual. Or does it all depend on flavor? Thanks —
It somewhat depends on the individual and the food. Sometimes I find old food out on the hill that was clearly left because it had been outside too long, but the chimps are pretty good about finding the food while it’s still pretty freshly scattered on the hill.
It looks like it was one heck of a party! Food is something that should be enjoyed and that gives us pleasure. You folks obviously gave each and every chimp a true feast and they obviously enjoyed it all — and boy do they eat more healthy food that I get near in a month! It looks like the food was an all-day affair, and coconut is clearly a favorite for all of them. Do they like coconut milk, too, or water?
I am so pleased that the chimps seem to be enjoying the bird book. I will admit to wanting to use it over and over again, but the folks in the office would get a bit annoyed. I hope it offers them pleasure for some to come.
They do like coconut milk and the fresh water from the coconut. The bird book is really cool! Such great recordings. I used it over and over again myself :).