It’s a safe bet that anything you give to a captive chimpanzee will go immediately into their mouth, and if it’s possible to swallow it, they will swallow it. Those of you who have expressed an interest in sending gifts to the chimps have probably been directed to our incredibly detailed safety guidelines for enrichment.
Occasionally we put out a few buckets of soapy water for the chimps – they like to play with the bubbles and sometimes they’ll even pitch in with some cleaning. Always keeping in mind that they can’t be trusted not to ingest whatever we give them, we use only a tiny drop of plant-based non-toxic soap. And that’s a good thing given Annie and Missy’s choices this morning:
Annie:
Missy: