A rainy day like today seemed like a good time to introduce the chimps to a new enrichment food puzzle. Before we fully integrate a puzzle into the chimps’ enrichment schedule, we often do a trial run where we try and gauge the chimps’ level of interest in the puzzle, as well as how difficult it is for them to complete. We ultimately want the puzzle to be really time consuming for them (to keep their minds and bodies busy), but not so much that they give up and stop trying. Today we put out a few bath towel knots that had walnuts tied into them. To really make the puzzle challenging, the towels were dipped in water and frozen prior to the chimps receiving them. All throughout the rest of our cleaning this morning, we heard the thumping sounds of the chimps working on their puzzles in the loft of the playroom. I think we can consider this trial run a success, minus the fact that I didn’t manage to get any photos to document the event. Once we get photos, we will add these Frozen Towel Knots to the Enrichment Database on our website. If you haven’t checked out the new look of the database on our beautifully redone website, I highly recommend it!
Because no blog is complete without photos, here is a selection from the vault:
Burrito:
Jody:
Negra:
