Cold, wintery days always bring a change for the chimpanzees and while they always have the choice to go outside when they want, if it’s too wet or cold, they often prefer to keep their forays short and return to the warmth of the chimp house for indoor activities. As caregivers we’re always trying to stay a step ahead to meet their anticipated needs for any given day and knowing the chimps will probably be spending more time indoors sets our wheels turning on how to keep their active minds busy and engaged and how to jazz up their days.
We often utilize food puzzles during the day as an added activity and thought today was perfect for two chimp favorites: buckets of snow with a few raisins buried in them and dipper tubes with peanut butter. Dipper tubes are small PVC pipes that we screw into the caging from the outside and the chimps use their fingers or a tool to get the contents out. Kind of like indoor mini termite mounds minus the termites. 🙂
Beautiful Annie was quite enjoying her peanut butter “termites”:
Bonus photo of Jamie napping:
