The video above shows a few things that some of the chimpanzees were up to during random moments of the day.
The willow and the cattails that the chimpanzees were enjoying grow wild on the sanctuary property. The cattle love to browse the willow too – creating some funny-shaped willow trees.
I didn’t get a photo of it, but, to my surprise, Mave really liked the cattails. She ate the brown flower first and then stripped and wadged the stem like Jamie was demonstrating in the video.
I hope everyone reading this had a good Saturday, even if it didn’t include wadging cattails.
Kerri Matlock says
Does Jamie not get bothered by the paparazzi anymore?
Diana says
She was in an exceptionally good mood yesterday, but I would say overall she’s only bothered by our photo taking once in a while 🙂
Bill says
ALL the food you prepare and they just eat the local greens. How unappreciative eh ? A beautiful thing that this is available to them.
Kathleen says
Around the corner from me is a beautiful Nature Conservancy preserve and along the water on both sides of the road are hundreds of cattails. I pass them almost every day and I always think of the chimps. Wishing I could grab armfuls and bundle them up to send to the gang.
Thanks for todays video. What did Jody have in her mouth? Such fun seeing everyone doing their own thing.
Linda C says
the willow branches! Obviously “planted” there by staff!
Diana says
There was a fruit/breakfast forage in addition to the willow. I think Jody has a piece of orange in her mouth.
Kathleen says
Thanks Diana! Cracked be up and I assumed it must be fruit but with master forager Jody you never know!
Debi says
I’m cracking myself up, as although I didn’t eat any willow or cattails, but instead, ate a giant bowl of my favorite cabbage salad….but oh NO…Now it looks like my own “pelvic girdle” is wadged with it’s own “greens”… : )
I sure do love everything about each of these dear, “human-chimp-girls”….Bless everyone this weekend……
Linda C says
Oh, the lovely Jo’s sense of forage triumph is so great, that a smile isn’t enough! I detect a couple of grunts as she goes back into the raceway!
Nice of her to share (I’m assuming, perhaps wrongly, that Neggie did not collect her own forage).
Diana says
You are correct about Negra. In fact, after reviewing this video for evidence, I noticed you can see Negra in the background on the structure taking one of Jody’s collected branches. I hadn’t noticed it before!
Kathleen says
Thanks for pointing out Fast-Hands-Negra in the background. I watched this two times but I was focused on watching Missy (so adorable as usual) that I too totally missed the big caper going on behind her. It’s good to be Queen.
And Willy had Me laughing. He reminded me of how I feel when I enter a room, stand there, drum my fingers, look around, and think “what am I doing here?!”
Linda C says
I also see that Annie has decided that waistband season has ended.
Willy B–well, a display isn’t as much fun when your groupies aren’t there to see it! Can they see him from the greenhouse when he’s out?
Diana says
They have the best view of the courtyard from the playroom windows, but there’s a slit they can look through by the raceway in the greenhouse and they can see blurry forms through the greenhouse panels. Generally they have access to the playroom when the Courtyard is available to Willy B, Mave, and Honey B, so if they are wanting to watch, it’s not difficult. I found it so funny that he was trying to work up into a display and it just didn’t quite “take.”
Linda C says
maybe too hot for the “CSNW hotty”! 😀
Carla René says
Diana wrote: “I found it so funny that he was trying to work up into a display and it just didn’t quite ‘take.'”
HAAAA!!!
Sandie Allaway says
Just love these kids! They bring me joy. XOXOXO
Carla René says
Hey, D,
I LOVED this! And as usual, a bunch of random questions come to mind as I viewed it:
a) What did each group of chimps do the first time they were introduced to air-conditioning? Or did they already have it?
b) Have they ever been given sugar cane? What did they think of it?
c) I know all of them are now full-grown adults, but do you guys notice if they still “learn” from one another? I get images of infant chimps in my head, staring at the hands of an adult as they learn to do whatever the adult is teaching them, so I’m just wondering if that continues through adulthood? And since you have two distinct groups now, maybe that’s a better percentage of it happening or not happening since you have a larger sample of data. (Oh, and in case you didn’t get them, I sent two different e-mails yesterday. Just letting you know in case they ended up in your spam filter.)
Cheers!
Diana says
Hi Carla.
The building doesn’t have air conditioning. Neither does our residence on site. Fortunately the temperature dips at night and if the windows are open overnight, both building hold on to the cooler air.
We haven’t given them sugar cane. We don’t give them sugar unless we are desperate to administer medication.
Though we haven’t really looked at this scientifically, I do think they learn from observing each other and the humans too. Some more so than others. There are some food puzzles that some of the chimps picked up right away and others did not, but now they are competent at them, and I think that could at least in part be due to observational learning.. I’ve definitely demonstrated something to Jamie and she’s then repeated whatever it was I demonstrated.
I saw your emails. Thanks!