It took Honey B a few attempts to find the right strategy for this puzzle but she got there. The most clever – but ultimately unsuccessful – strategy was to hand everything through the food chute to a human. “Humans are good at this stuff,” she seemed to be saying. Either that or “You put it in here, you get it out!” But she didn’t need our help after all.
Archives for March 2021
Gearing up!
If you just so happen to be looking for an additional way to support the sanctuary, we recently updated our Amazon Wish List with more gear that we will need to help care for our incoming new residents. There are even a few items on there that will help outfit new staff members (more details on their identities another day -sorry for the tease). Scrubs, non-slip water proof boots, nitrile gloves and a well-fitting mask (many of us use ones that require additional filters) are all part of our pandemic “uniform.”
Today I convinced a few (slightly reluctant) caregivers to model their uniforms in action:
Thank you so much to everyone who continues to support the sanctuary in whatever way they are able to!
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
My goodness today was a busy day! We had two great parties for the chimps and a staff meeting too! The seven celebrate with a Hill forage and the weather couldn’t have been more perfect. On the other side Honey B, Willy B, and Mave celebrated with some pots of gold in the chute as well as a St. Patrick themed meal. What was on the menu you might be asking? Of course, there was lots of cabbage, beets, potatoes, and corn! Since today was so busy I thought maybe I would let the photos speak for themselves.
Here is a photo of the three’s pots of gold(en potatoes). It was a great day to eat in the chute and sit in the warm sunshine.
And another photo of what was for lunch!
Negra was the first one out for the party!
Jody got a few good hauls of cabbage.
Burrito didn’t do too bad either.
Missy zipped around everyone snatching up cabbage and potatoes left and right!
Annie took a more low key approach than Missy.
Foxie took a birds eye view approach.
And Jamie, well Jamie did every well for herself :).
I love this photo of her.
The three didn’t really want their photos taken today, but I managed to get a few.
When Mave saw lunch she got very excited! You can see she is pilo in this photo. Mave was hooting and asking for reassurance.
Willy B enjoying some corn!
And Honey B enjoying her pot of gold(en potatoes).
Happy St. Patrick’s Day to Jamie and friends!
Many thanks to Tami Roy for sponsoring this day of sanctuary in honor of Jamie Chimpanzee and her friends!
“Happy St. Patrick’s Day to Jamie and all her friends. She has captured my heart with all her books and boots!”
We truly appreciate you making this fun day of celebration extra special for the chimpanzees, Tami! Thank you for seeing how truly unique and special Jamie (and each of the chimpanzees) is!
Happy St. Patrick’s Day, everyone! Naturally, preparations for a party are underway so be sure to check back later today to join the chimps’ celebration!
Jamie marching the humans around the perimeter of Young’s Hill while they wear Jamie-approved boots:
Nesting with her beloved books and boots:
A Sense of Things to Come
The sun was bright and warm today, and birds were flying around the sanctuary every which way. There is a sense of Spring in the air, even though Old Man Winter may bring his snowy forecast once more this week before being banished for the next couple of months. Regardless, everybody seems to be enjoying this lovely weather we had today.
Annie was one of the first to go outside today and just enjoy the warm air and gentle breeze.
Annie spent most the morning just sitting outside, seemingly just taking it all in. Though all seven made their way out onto the hill today, to include Negra, Annie seemed to want to soak as much of it up as she could.
Later in the afternoon, she spent time with her friend Missy grooming.
The Greenhouse is nice and warm in the afternoon and is the best place to take lay down and take it easy or take a nap.
Jody enjoying a pine branch she found on Young’s Hill:
Burrito even decided to take it easy:
But that didn’t last long! He need a very long play session with Kelsi.
Honey B, Willy B, and Mave spent most of the day grooming with each other.
Here’s a bonus photo of Mave since she’s in the back and hard to see in the previous photos.
Dinner was just served and Negra is starting to head in for her night time enrichment.
On tonight’s evening enrichment is Ice Eggs! Jamie seemed pretty satisfied with her haul.
And congratulations to the winner and all the people’s choices who won the art contest!
#willyb
If you know Willy B, you know that he is big on his “screen time.” He loves his “stories” (current favorites are: Wild Chimpanzees with Jane Goodall, Orangutan Diaries, Orangutan Eden, Ice Age, and Terminal (while I find this one curious from a human attempting to see things from a chimpanzee’s perspective, I have no explanation for this one, but it doesn’t matter because it’s his choice). He is also a big fan of our iPhones and LOVES to see himself, take “selfies” and look at photos and videos of other animals, particularly chimpanzees, whenever he can. He knows we all carry iPhones and knows which pocket we carry them in and will gesture while looking at my pocket and blow raspberries to request seeing it. And as you’ve probably read a zillion times, it’s such a challenge to get photos of him, Honey B, or Mave because the second Willy B sees the camera, he’s front and center!
While we don’t spend an extended amount of time doing this with him, we do try to oblige him when he requests it. He was clearly was very familiar with phones and cameras when he arrived to the sanctuary and greatly enjoys it, so we treat it as any other form of enrichment, offering it when he asks and including it along with a myriad of other enrichment items and/or activities on offer to the chimpanzees to engage with (or not) as they choose. Anything with a screen is probably Willy B’s equivalent of Jamie’s boots or Foxie’s dolls, or Burrito’s endless games of chase with caregiver, Chad. 😉
Whether you spend all your time on social media or avoid it like the plague, you may (or may not) be familiar with filter options for taking selfies. You’ve probably seen them, the ones that add animation to the screen (and your face) with things like dog ears and whiskers, sparkly crowns, falling glitter, floating hearts, the list is endless really. Well, I thought #WillyB might like to try these out. Needless to say, social media influencer that he is, he did:
A couple of random things seen while cleaning the greenhouse when happening to look up above our heads that made us smile (and to remind you to look up and around yourselves because you never know when something beautiful or magical or just plain silly might lift your spirits):
And a bonus of this beautiful, beloved, woman, Jody, who makes my heart swell with how special she is and how much I love her. Right before I took this she held out her fingers and wiggled them in greeting to me, then let out the biggest sigh of contentment, ensconced as she was in her plush giant wolf blanket nest:
Phoning It In
Coming up with ideas for blogs- and the time to write them- can be difficult.
You may have noticed that we have been sharing simple, abbreviated blogs on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the past few weeks. As Chad and Anna have mentioned, we’ve been attending virtual lectures and discussions aimed at improving our behavioral management of the chimpanzees. These sessions just happen to fall on their “blog days,” leaving minimal time for extravagance and embellishment.
Selfishly, I don’t have to worry about these constraints on Sundays (when I am usually responsible for the blog). Typically, we all finish cleaning chimpanzee enclosures around midday and then Chad and Katelyn expertly take care of the afternoon chores. This routine leaves a block of time, enabling me to get a head-start on dissertation-length blog posts with peculiar themes. (If you have a few hours to spare, the Super Bowl piece was my personal Infinite Jest.)
These wordy compositions- and my evenings spent in the foyer eagerly typing away- don’t go unnoticed. Last week, after reading my science-fiction parody of the day’s chimp drama, J.B. sarcastically told me I’d have to “stop phoning in the blog.”
It’s a fair jab. My verbosity is infamous around here, and I’ve given up trying to deny it. (J.B. and Jessica were both on the committee of unfortunate professors who had to read my graduate thesis. 100-something pages about spider monkey fission-fusion dynamics, anyone?)
For the sake of working on some other projects and shaking things up, I’m phoning in the blog today.
No unique themes. No epic sagas. No facts about bananas.
Short and sweet.
I’m even literally posting it from my phone.
Without further ado, here’s today’s blog post: a few random photos from the past couple of weeks, phoned in for your pleasure.