As Elizabeth wrote in her blog post the other day, as much as we truly love sharing what the chimps get up to each day with you, there are a variety of factors throughout any given day which can play into our time and occasionally we’re left scrambling to come up with something with which to produce a worthy post. And today was another one of those days. After our staff meeting this afternoon our window to find blog material was a bit shorter, coupled with the fact that the chimpanzees (rightly so) had zero interest in helping to solve this particular human’s challenge.
So I cannot tell a lie. Though the chimps all seemed to have had a great day enjoying the cooler weather as we head toward autumn, I fell short of catching even one of them in a photo. However! I have been hanging onto these gems that I captured during an evening walk with Jamie and her right hand gal, Missy, the other night as they scaled the Twister:
I have to ask WHY are you apologizing?! Your blogs are always outstanding but todays blog is off the charts! These photos are outstanding. (I can read the wording on the firehose!) Missy looks so small I had to heave a heavy sigh at the sight of her. Photos 9, 10, and 11 are so endearing. Oh my! I have to ask, did Missy not go all the way to the top out of “respect” to Jamie holding the highest position? Or does Missy not sit on the loops where Jamie likes to perch?
This is an awesome post Katelyn with the most amazing photos I have seen of the Twister. How did you ever zoom in so tight and hold that focus?! Well done!!
I agree with Kathleen! This was a fantastic blog and pics.
Thank you, Vicki! 🙂
Well, thanks, Kathleen, glad you enjoyed it! Jamie is the only one I’ve seen perch in the firehose “swing” as she does, though I have seen Missy up top. Typically if any of the chimps (or humans!) are accompanying Jamie on one of her walks, they won’t often pass ahead of her. Before arriving at the Twister, Jamie and Missy had been investigating the structures closer to the chimp house where Jamie found some previously undiscovered cattails from an earlier forage. Missy really wanted Jamie to share with her, but Jamie wasn’t about to give any up. Missy is excellent at the politics of being a chimp, especially in regard to boss lady, Jamie, and was grooming Jamie a lot on the twister which could have been a carry over. But I think she would have climbed to the crow’s nest if she had wanted to. This was one of the evenings when I was sitting it out on the sidelines until Jamie decided to keep moving so I had a great spot from which to sit and play with the zoom. 🙂
Fabulous photos…love the one with James sitting in the swing. Doesn’t make one bit of difference that the photos weren’t taken today…they were photos NOT TO BE MISSED.
great photos
Thanks, those photos were fabulous!!!!You make the chimps come alive with your camera!
Great photos of the lovely Jamie and Missy!
Katelyn, we couldn’t have gotten any closer in person! Thank you so much for these AWESOME photos! They are such beautiful ladies; feminine and athletic. Missy is so petite!