Jody was quite busy this morning harvesting plants from a mound on Young’s Hill. This particular mound has been producing more and more edible vegetation each year.
We call Jody “Farmer Jo” mostly because she collects the fruit and vegetable forages that we spread all over the hill and brings her collections in to the greenhouse in large armfuls, but today she was harvesting the natural plants and eating them as she harvested. And she looked quite beautiful while she was doing it.
Jody looks so beautiful doing what comes naturally to her. And we should all stop and say, isn’t it wonderful she has the opportunity to do what comes naturally to her?! Yes it is. Only in sanctuary!
These are great pics, Diana.
So this brings up a question: cattle are known for sometimes eating things that aren’t good for them. Do you have to worry about/weed out plants that the chimps shouldn’t eat? Or do they figure that out for themselves?
When we first saw the chimps eating the wild plants, it gave us some anxiety, and we did a lot of googling of plant species, but we’ve found that they seem to pick the plants that are actually good for them. Maybe they try others and don’t feel well, or maybe they have some sort of instinct about it.
Thanks, as always! I’ve recently been wondering myself….we used to play in the open field across the street from the house, when it was too cold to be in the lake…and I remember being told to stay away from the sumac bushes, because they were poisonous…imagine my surprise now, as I come across Mediterranean recipes that call for sumac, which you can find in the spice aisle……..crazy.
I have wondered that, too. However, from the looks of the bottom photograph, Farmer Jo the Agrarian Ape looks as if she is checking the expiration date on the leaf of lettuce before savoring its taste.
haha, or she’s thinking “Hmmm…prickly lettuce…….better eat this here, because if I take it back, Neggie’s gonna beg it off me.”
Just like all wild-living animals are farmers of their habitat, like elephants of the African Savannah, clearly chimps