Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary for primates.

Particular palates

by

The chimpanzees each have their own unique food preferences. We’ve talked a lot about how Jody will eat a huge assortment of vegetation she finds on Young’s Hill. Foxie on the other hand, has more of a sweet tooth, so she will opt out of many types of greens, in favor of things like sweet potatoes and fruit. A lot of the chimps will eat produce that we humans would think of being really intensely flavorful, in much greater quantities than most humans would ever dream of eating.

I personally could not imagine eating a whole raw onion, but the chimps eat them without thinking twice.
Missy:

And pine tree is not on most humans’ dinner menus.
Jody:

We’ve tasted the wild prickly lettuce that Negra loves so much, and it is tongue twistingly bitter.

The one funny thing we have noticed is that the chimps don’t seem to like a lot of spices in their meals. We don’t cook things for them all that often (instead they usually eat a lot of raw produce), but when we do get a little adventurous with a cooked meal, the chimps are often skeptical, picking through their meals for anything suspect. They have no use for things like basil, oregano and cinnamon, so we generally leave things pretty simple.

Burrito eating all the parts of a lime this morning:

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Comments

  1. I love to hear about the foods the chimps like. A whole, raw onion? OK, that’s impressive! 🙂

  2. Thanks Anna for bringing up the individual delicacies the chimps enjoy. Eating a whole onion has always blown me away and I have been curious how that doesn’t mess with their digestive systems. And I never thought about the chimps eating the fruit peels, especially knowing how bitter they can be. Hats off to you for tasting Negra’s prickly lettuce!? WOW! Better you than me! If it is the same as the version back here on the east coast, I am surprised you didn’t choke on the prickly, fuzzy leaves alone. Weird knowing it is actually so bitter.

    Thanks again. Always fun to learn new things at CSNW!

  3. Well…Another endearing “story” I’m thoroughly enjoying today… 🙂 I’m curious as to whether these MAGNIFICENT animals would enjoy vegetables like cabbage, turnips, rutabaga, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, etc., etc… Reminds me of when my son was a little guy, I used to “trick” him into eating fish by telling him it was “chicken”…Now as an adult, he LOVES all seafood…HaHa